I’ve been involved in countless branding and rebranding projects with various corporations, but most have involved high-priced agencies setting guidelines while those of us on the ground try to finesse them in real-world applications. But it’s rare to have the opportunity to be involved in a branding and messaging project from the ground floor. That’s why I jumped at the opportunity to join a Taproot Foundation team to provide new branding and messaging for Junior Achievement of Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay.
JASVMB offers a great service, teaching consumer math, workforce readiness and entrepreneurial skills to students in grades K-12, rounding out kids’ educations in a time when budget cuts are forcing school programs down to the bare bones. But like all nonprofits, Junior Achievement struggles to compete with other often unrelated organizations, not only for donor funding, but also for volunteer time.
Using a combination of stakeholder interviews, a comprehensive market audit and discussions with board members and staff, the three-member Taproot project team created a consistent and meaningful series of tools — from a 10 second elevator pitch to a 250-word summary to use in grant submissions — to help JASVMB better communicate its value proposition to its target audiences.
The finished product is being presented to the full board as this post goes live. I’m looking forward to seeing our new messages reflected in their website and marketing collateral in the coming months. Many thanks to team members Annie Ly and Frances McClellan for their commitment and hard work, and to Taproot for providing such a foolproof framework for the project and presentation.