My Role
User Research
Brand diagnostic workshop facilitation
Co-creation workshop facilitation
Framework
Human Centered Research
UX Strategy
Branding strategy
Tools
Duration
Figma
Miro
Adobe Indesign
09 Weeks
Consilience Group, LLC
Overview
Consilience Group LLC is a women-owned, mission-driven consultancy organization based in Memphis, Tennessee, that specializes in organizational transformation and provides equitable people-centered services to clients across sectors, systems, and organizations. They primarily deliver their services in public, non-profit, and philanthropic organizations across social sectors at local, state, and national levels. The firm aims to expand its reach and drive revenue growth by acquiring larger long-term contracts.
Our objective as consultants for the company for three months was to develop strategies that drive revenue growth by enhancing their branding and marketing strategies, revamping their social media approach, and exploring the development of a membership-oriented platform/toolkit.
Client reach
Consilience group engages their stakeholders through human-centered design methods. They ground all their services in a Socio-Ecological Framework: Their system designs are shaped by the system of Care values and principles that create reliable ways for people to get individualized, person-driven services by working together across multiple providers and systems to use data-driven, culturally-sensitive service collaborations.
Brand Presence
After conducting a search of Consilience Group's presence on multiple platforms, we found that their offerings were only listed on a few websites. It appears that the messaging regarding their offerings, past clients, and overall influence lacks specificity and clarity. The below mentioned are some of the websites we found about their presence.
The Big Question?
How do we envision growing the Consilience Group by expanding its brand, marketing, social media presence, and a (yet-to-be) designed platform/toolkit while adhering to the core principles of its ethos?
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Brand Diagnostic Workshop
With key stakeholders who have been asked to participate, the brand diagnostics workshop addresses specific problems, difficulties, or possibilities and offers short-, medium-, and long-term solutions.
A more diverse group of stakeholders aids in greater representation of all brand business areas, and all views are heard and work together in the workshop.The major goal is to have "all-in," feel more connected, and activate the strategic action plan rather than just giving approval or buying into a proposal that has already been created by another department or an outside organization.
The workshop was divided into 3 parts of analyzing the pains, gains and nightmares of the clients, brand DNA and creating a strategic action plan
1. Pains Gains and Nightmares
Finding out what we know, what we think we know— and what we don’t is the heart of the brand diagnostics workshop. Gains, Pains, Questions & Ideas is a simple feedback grid adapted from the IBM Design Thinking Field Guide that allows teams to gauge the status of any particular subject or project in progress.
2. Brand DNA
In the brand DNA exercise, participants were prompted to generate a list of descriptive terms that best encapsulate their brand, followed by a group discussion to determine a consensus on the top three terms.
This activity aimed to foster an understanding and visualization of diverse perspectives and perceptions that individuals hold towards the brand.
3. Strategic Action Plan
During the final activity, participants were given the responsibility of identifying their target audience, primary and secondary objectives, and working collaboratively to create specific action plans for each department or function to achieve their desired outcomes. Additionally, the groups were encouraged to identify potential challenges and success factors, in order to anticipate obstacles and develop strategies to overcome them, thereby ensuring smooth plan execution. The ultimate goal was to preemptively identify and address roadblocks to ensure successful implementation.
Insights
After extracting the summary of all activities and classifying the focused activities based on the repetition rate, we came up with three directions and opportunities for CG for future development, and conceived an implementable approach
Elucidated needs and direction
Opportunities
Leveraging LinkedIn
Equitable training course
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Video Presentation
Presentation Determination
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Analyze the followship
Analyze the Competitor
1
Consilience requires a cohesive branding strategy that can rejuvenate its brand image and create a consistent message across all its associations.
2
Envision a platform that utilizes existing resources to facilitate engagement with clients.
3
Develop a comprehensive social media strategy that extends Consilience's brand recognition and facilitates knowledge sharing.
Opportunity area
The findings from the Brand diagnostic and Co-creation Workshop revealed the two key opportunity areas: Impact creation (Social Media, Branding) and Revenue generation (Marketing, Platform/toolkit).
Branding: Enhance brand identity with consistent language
Marketing: Devise collaboration strategies to position as the organization as a SME
Social Media: Develop an action plan for social media through a content calendar and sample posts highlighting milestones and successes.
Value Pillars
The Solution: Brand Strategy
A social media toolkit is a 'how to' guide for the social media strategy that provides clients with the basic knowledge and resources needed to ace CG social media campaigns. It would help with B2B networking
Designers must learn everything from creation to profitability for success. A design toolkit can aid designers or a team with an all-inclusive list of vetted industry design tricks and more.
Brand Guidelines
After our research and study, it became evident that there was a significant amount of inconsistency in the use of the existing brand language. In order to tackle this issue, we compiled the brand language into a consolidated document and made minor alterations to enhance its visual appeal. Consolidating the brand language and offering guidelines will establish a distinct brand identity that connects with the target market, leading to improved brand recognition, customer loyalty, and overall business success.
Brand Strategy For LinkedIn & Instagram
Social media allows for capturing the attention of users and increasing brand awareness through well-curated posts visually and intellectually. Recognizing LinkedIn and Instagram's B2B engagement, our strategy was tailored to help Consilience Group to establish a consistent and recognizable visual identity, create engaging content that resonates with their audience, and ultimately drive business growth.
Marketing Strategy
We analyzed McKinsey & Company, a consulting firm that has effectively leveraged collaborations and partnerships to enhance its marketing strategy and increase its impact and revenue model.
We then identified five primary channels to prioritize on enhanced collaboration and partnership opportunities. The strategy aims to facilitate collaboration and partnerships to aid the company in broadening its offerings, accessing new markets, and establishing a reputation as a socially responsible enterprise.
Strategic Partnerships within the Industry
This approach involves teaming up with Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to incorporate specific domain expertise, knowledge, and specialized skills. Through partnering with SMEs, we can utilize their distinct capabilities to broaden our service offerings to clients.
Funding Partnerships
Collaborating with government agencies and other funding organizations can provide us with access to funding opportunities and increase our chances of securing large and complex projects.
Partnerships for Social Impact
NGOs and social impact organizations offer us the opportunity to access new markets and clients, while also contributing to our reputation as a socially responsible enterprise.
Co-Sell Partnerships
Partnering with product and service providers can enable us to bundle our offerings and generate additional value for clients. This approach can contribute to revenue growth and the expansion of our client base.
Partnerships for Research and Innovation
Collaborating with universities and research institutions can offer us access to state-of-the-art research and emerging technologies. This approach can help us stay ahead of the competition and deliver innovative solutions to our clients.
Key Takeaways
Insightful Collaboration: The co-creation & brand diagnostic workshop fostered insightful collaboration with clients, allowing for a deeper understanding of their brand and goals.
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Limited Stakeholders: In certain instances, the workshop lacked representation from all relevant stakeholders, impacting the comprehensiveness of insights gathered
Extended Duration: Considering an extended duration for the workshop or breaking it down into manageable sessions can alleviate time constraints and allow for more in-depth discussions
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Enhanced Communication: Implementing more robust communication protocols, including regular check-ins and clarification sessions, can minimize misunderstandings and ensure alignment with the client.