ALO in ASHA . My branding initiative during DOCC

As part of DOCC,  I was posted in a remote village in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal. The project was regarding improving the effectiveness of the Integrated Child Development Program. The project referred to internally as the ICDP project has been running for more than a decade and has achieved significant awareness amongst the villagers in reinforcing the need for going to school and the staff of the NGO serving in the area has been able to gain trust of most of the villagers and yet there hasn’t been any definitive brand awareness created around it. Although this does not pose a significant hurdle at present this can be considerable a big gap area for consideration. A few names that were associated since the time ASHA had started this initiative both internally and externally are as follows

·         Integrated Child Development Program (ICDP)

·         Ananda Pathshala

·         Name associated with the person running the classes. (For example. Anuradha didir school (Anuradha’s school, Sheila didir school(Sheila’s school).

A small study and analysis was carried out regarding the usage and relevance of it under the present context. The following the findings pertaining to each terminology.

ICDP : When the term Integrated Child Development Program (ICDP) was used while speaking to villagers and other officials, people started thinking that it is the same as the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS). At this juncture a small study was carried out with an objective of garnering the perception of people regarding the ICDS scheme and whether people were confusing it with the ICDP project. More than 50 people surveyed on their familiarity and opinion regarding Integrated Child Development Scheme run by the government, 100% of the people sees the ICDS program in poor light. They carry a very negative perception regarding its effectiveness since most students coming out of this program can neither read nor write Bengali or English, also the perception regarding teacher’s commitments is suspect. Also most people associated the ICDP with ICDS. In the light of such a situation it is felt that it is highly undesirable to use a term that sounds very close to another government scheme which is held in negative perception.

Ananda Pathshala: In the initial days, the objective of the education centres was to create interest in learning and prepare the children for induction into formal school’s curriculum. The learning centres were termed Ananda pathshalas to create a image around the concept that learning is a joyful activity. Activities carried out in the centres were also of the same nature. Activities like drawing, storytelling, Pictionary created an atmosphere of joyful learning and the name Ananda Pathshala fit well with it. However, after it was found that the learning achievements from school were dismal, the program assumed the role of augmenting the learning at school by carrying out a pedagogy which is proxy to private tuition. The current theme of learning is a far departure from the theme of joyful learning surrounding the term Ananda Pathshalas. There seems to a pressing need to rebrand this as something else. On the subject of changing the brand name an analysis of brand legacy was carried out. A survey was carried out relating to the same. It was found that less than 5% of the people attending the centres had heard about the term Ananda Pathshala.

Name associated with the person running the classes: Throughout the extensive interactions with students and parents carried out across the three centres it found that the students at each centres felt a kind of strong attachment with teachers (didis), so much so that they used refer to the centres with the name of the teachers. Anuradha didir School for the school at Ajagarpara, Sheila Didi. On close inquiry it was also found that there was no other name that they could have possibly referred to as. Firstly, one important point to note is that an institution cannot be referred to after a person, since this makes the survival of the institute and its image contingent upon the duration of service of the teacher running that institute.Since there hasn’t been any brand legacy associated with the project the suggestion is to come with a new brand name keeping in mind the positioning statement and leveraging the goodwill created by the ASHA organisation and keeping the central nature of control in mind.

Keeping in mind the issues and problems identified on the branding front the following had been developed.

Brand Ladder

After holding series of discussions with all the stakeholders especially the students, a list of phrases and words were made that most stakeholders could positively relate to and these were incorporated into the brand ladder.

Value: Materialising Aspirations.(Turning dreams into reality).

Emotional Benefit: Effective Development of Child.

Functional Benefits: Improvement in Knowledge, Attitude, Skills.

Attributes: Highly competent and motivated teachers, structured curriculum and pedagogy, ensuring effectiveness through careful monitoring of KPIs.

Brand positioning Statement

Since this project is being branded for the first time, mix of emotional and functional benefit level positioning is used with attribute level positioning for POP/POD competitive positioning has been used.

“For marginalised and aspiring citizens of the future ALO run by ASHA delivers holistic disciplined learning is through its structured curriculum and well trained motivated staffs that ensure effectiveness.

 Competitive Positioning with respect to schools.

POP: Common place of learning academic curriculum.

POD: Monitoring learning and growth through strong KPIs,Life skills training, Health Training, Vocational Training(computer skills, tailoring, mechanical repair through selection process).

Competitive Positioning with respect to Private Tuitions.

POP: Competent teachers providing effective  learning with sufficient time.

POD: Monitoring learning and growth through strong KPIs,Life skills training, Health Training, Vocational Training(computer skills, tailoring, mechanical repair through selection process).

Competitive Positioning with respect to potential offering from other NGOs.

POD: High brand equity and goodwill created through years of service in the area across various social and health sectors.

POP: Effective structured curriculum targeted towards marginalised children ensuring holistic development. 

Brand Slogan

Keeping the positioning statement, brand mantra, functional and emotional benefits and the long term sustenance objectives in mind, a brand slogan has been crafted.

English: See, Learn, Teach

Bengali: Dekho, Sekho, Sekhao

See: ALO (Academy of Learning and Orientation) which means light in the local language bengali is the name used to brand the various centres of learning. These centers would open the eyes of the students from marginalised families stuck in the vicious cycle of poverty to see the light of education and learning and find an aspiration for themselves.

Learn: The structured pedagogy and the curriculum and continuous monitoring and review ensure effective learning achievement.

Inspire: The long term vision of the project is to create a self sustaining model of inducting the successful graduates of the course as teachers and paying them out of the funds gathered from the students.

Colour Selection for Brand Logo: The colour selection was adopted from the Elisabeth Sullivan, “Color Me Profitable”,Marketing News. The three colours selected are Blue and several shades of orange. While blue represents efficiency, productivity and clarity of mind which is in line with the strategic vision for the program and it also blends in well with ASHA’s font colour of blue, orange carries young and vibrant associations which represents the theme of holistic development of the youth. Also the shades have been designed to bring out the image of sun providing ALO(or light) which is the short hand for Academy of Learning & Orientation.

Naming Convention: For the branch naming convention a few alternative were considered:

Ø   ALO Ajagarpara centre; ALO Harwa centre etc.

Following discussion pertains to the first style of branding which is ALOH, Ajagarpara. Against this let while considering the case of well known reputed institutions like IIM, Bangalore IIM, Calcutta and IIT, Bombay and IIT, Kanpur. These are institutions which are autonomous in nature from the management perspective . Each have its own mission, vision, strategy , management structure, policies and decision making .This autonomous nature of the institute has been crystallised in the naming convention, where IIT, Bombay is seen to be a different entity from IIT, Kanpur and IIM, Bangalore a separate entity from IIM, Calcutta. In the present case of education centres run by ASHA, a centre is basically a distribution channel for achieving the objectives of the project which is centrally planned, managed and structured. Thus it has very little autonomy of pedagogy or curriculum and thus should not been seen as a separate entity but only as one of the branches of delivery of the objectives of the project. Therefore this naming style should not be adopted. Next, while the case of coaching institutes like TIME, Career Launcher and Vista Mind. While looking at these institutes it is worthwhile to understand how they been named like TIME, Andheri; TIME, Powai, Career Launcher, Andheri; Career Launcher, Powai. For these centres the pedagogy, the curriculum, the management process and decision making is centrally managed from the institute head office and they do not have a separate existence of their own rather they are just a delivery channel to fulfil the objectives of the institute. This nature has rightly been replicated in the naming convention where Institute name is the main focus followed by the geographical branch location. Similarly, the different branches of ALO are not separate entities but just a delivery channel for fulfilling the objectives of ALO. Thus the naming convention should be ALO Ajagarpara branch.

            Also, it was felt that while the name ALO could carve a niche for itself it should leverage upon the brand and trust that the ASHA organisation had made in the area, making it a virtuous member of the ASHA family. Therefore the name contains ‘an ASHA institution’.