Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai

PROJECT REPORT On

BRAND STRATEGY & MARKETING For

Submitted To: Dr. Madhumita Puri Submitted By: Aayush Suri MBA Core (A057) NMIMS

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Acknowledgement I have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible without the kind support and help of many individuals and organizations. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of them. I am highly indebted to Society for Child Development (SFCD) for their guidance and constant supervision as well as for providing necessary information regarding the project & also for their support in completing the project. I would like to express my gratitude towards Dr. Madhumita Puri and Major General (Retd.) Vinod Anand for their kind co-operation and encouragement which helped me in completion of this project. I would like to express my special gratitude and thanks to the employees of SFCD – Ms. Rozina, Ms. Sunanda, Ms. Rita, Mr. Nilesh and Mr. Nan Babu for giving me such attention and time. My thanks and appreciations also go to my colleague in developing the project and people who have willingly helped me out with their abilities.

Sign: Date:

Aayush Suri

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Table of Contents Problem Identification & Project objective ----------------------------------------------------------4 Methodology -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4 Learning from the Project -------------------------------------------------------------------------------5 What is Branding? -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6 Why is Branding important for an NGO? -------------------------------------------------------------7 What is Marketing? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------8 What is Marketing important for NGO? --------------------------------------------------------------9 Findings & Recommendations? -------------------------------------------------------------------------10 Weekly Log for NGO – SFCD ----------------------------------------------------------------------------14 Annexures ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------15 A. NGO and its targets---------------------------------------------------------------------------15 B. T-Shirt Designs --------------------------------------------------------------------------------16 C. Questionnaire----------------------------------------------------------------------------------17 D. Volunteer poster ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18 E. Photographs ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19

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Chapter 1- Introduction & Project Methodology

Problem Identification & Project objective The main problem faced by SFCD is of branding. Not many people know about its existence and the kind of work it does, mainly because of low awareness and publicity. Also the only source of revenue or income is the sale of indigenous products. Hence revenue generation makes it imperative for SFCD to market their goods well and increase sales so that it not only covers the production costs but also leaves sufficient funds for paying wages, bills, further production etc. Presence on social media is another predicament faced by the NGO because it requires skill to maintain, track and update information on the social sites .

The project required me toa) Research, define and build the brand. b) Encompass strategy and procedures for marketing, sales, advertising public relations & social media. c) Utilize social media to put brand strategy into effect. MethodologyBefore formulating our own marketing strategy, it was important for us to know about the current methods and the actual ground reality. So I talked to the various employees of the NGO specially the Marketing Manager Ms.Rozina about what is the current marketing procedure that is being followed. She has to search for seminars and conferences that are scheduled to be conducted in due course of time and then contact the related people through a mail. The purpose of this mail is to inform them about the stationary products like folders, pen stands, CD Covers etc. that have been made by the disabled people working in the NGO and which might be needed by them. She requests them to give the order of these things to their NGO which will provide employment to the disabled and help them to live their life at par with others. The next step is to contact them over telephone and ask about their requirements. A quotation is then sent and if it gets approved then the production starts. This is a way to let people know about their NGO and a way to increase the sales. Thus in the current procedure we contact people for any orders and try to sell our services to them through our products by creating more visibility and awareness about the NGO. 4

Our aim was to formulate ways which will help them get orders from others on their own and which will develop SFCD as a brand. The marketing for SFCD basically consists of two things1. Marketing for the products made by the disabled. 2. Marketing for the services provided by the NGO thus developing it as a strong brand

Each of the above strategies involve a different target audience. Thus the strategy was devised and thought of by keeping this in mind. I also consulted the Executive Director, Dr. Madhumita Puri about her expectations and requirements from the project. She told me that the Disability Cell has been very effective in reaching out to masses and the concerned families of the disabled than advertisements and pamphlets in the newspapers. She wanted me to work on ways which wouldn‘t require much of her expertise and time as she was already burdened with a lot of work. Thus I had to work on strategies which would not require much expenditure and which would not require a continuous effort.

Learning from the Project The most important take away from this project was the inexplicable feeling of working with an NGO. It taught me ―How to work within constraints‖. NGO‘s don‘t have a very educated and well trained staff with them. So the entire work pressure is on the top management. The strategies that required minimum top management involvement had to be formulated. Also only the ones with minimum expenditure were found to be feasible because of lack of funds. The project also gave me an exposure to field work in which I interacted with the students of various colleges and made an attempt to spread awareness about SFCD.

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Chapter 2- What is Branding and Why is it important for an NGO ? A precise definition -"name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers. ‘It is basically an identity’. Therefore it makes sense to understand that branding is not about getting your target market to choose you over the competition, but it is about getting your prospects to see you as the only one that provides a solution to their problem.     

Delivers the message clearly Confirms your credibility Connects your target prospects emotionally Motivates the buyer Concretes User Loyalty

To succeed in branding you must understand the needs and wants of your customers and prospects. You do this by integrating your brand strategies through your company at every point of public contact. Your brand resides within the hearts and minds of customers, clients, and prospects. It is the sum total of their experiences and perceptions, some of which you can influence, and some that you cannot. A strong brand is invaluable as the battle for customers intensifies day by day. It's important to spend time investing in researching, defining, and building your brand. After all your brand is the source of a promise to your consumer. It's a foundational piece in your marketing communication and one you do not want to be without. Now just like in the corporate world there are a plethora of companies competing against one other, similarly there are a huge number of NGOs working. So it becomes imperative for a Non-profit NGO to brand itself and convey its message to the community. Few important reasons could be: To make people aware about its existence NGOs should make sure that people are apprised of its area of working. Atleast people in surrounding areas should have the knowledge the NGO. They should recognize the symbol or the name of the NGO. Just like a company can‘t survive if people are oblivious about its existence, similar is the case for an NGO.

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 To apprise them of its Objectives & Vision The Vision & Mission needs to be displayed along with its name. And the NGO needs to convey the message that all its actions and events are in coherence with its objectives.  To connect to the govt. and public to establish a bond and develop trust This gives recognition to the NGO and the work it does for the community. An NGO needs to highlight its success stories of people it has helped and how they have carved their own niche in the society.  It helps in raising funds both by govt. and public, attracting volunteers , raising resources etc. All this will ultimately help the NGO in future. Donations would pour in from different sources, people would be willing to offer their services which will help the NGO in setting different systems in place and other resources like transport , space etc. would be easy to procure.

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Chapter 3- What is marketing & why is it important for an NGO? Often when we think of ―marketing,‖ we think of promotion and advertising products for sale. But marketing is much more than that. Whenever you are trying to connect with a group of people outside your organization, it can be considered marketing. Marketing ranges from making client service more responsive, to street theater, to posting banners and applying logos. It is everything that contributes to your organization‘s public image, which, when developed effectively—and reinforced by the good work of your staff—helps earn the trust and confidence of beneficiaries, local leaders and donors. Effective marketing can improve your organization‘s ability to attract funding, serve more beneficiaries and advance your mission. It can help enhance your NGO's sustainability.

NGOs rely on the goodwill and generosity of others to cover the costs of their activities through grants and donations. Today, unfortunately, NGOs find that such traditional funding sources are often insufficient to meet growing needs and rising costs. In addition, restrictions imposed on many grants and donations, along with the uncertainty of these funds over time, make it difficult for NGOs to do long-term planning, improve their services or reach their full potential. Marketing is a medium which helps them in doing so by creating more visibility and developing trust among the people about their work.

Some pointers that show the paramount importance of marketing – Marketing Promotes Product Awareness to the Public Getting the product or service recognized by the market is the primary goal of marketing. No business possibly ever thought of just letting the people find out about the business themselves, unless you have already established a reputation in the industry. Various types of marketing approaches can be utilized by an NGO. All forms of marketing promote product awareness to the market at large. Offline and online marketing make it possible for the people to be educated with the various products and services that they can take advantage of. An NGO must invest in marketing so as not to miss the opportunity of being discovered. If expense is to be considered, there are cost-effective marketing techniques a company can embark on such as pay-per-click ads and blogging.

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Marketing Helps Boost Product Sales Apart from public awareness about a company‘s products and services, marketing helps boost sales and revenue growth. Whatever be the business or product, it will generate sales once the public learns about your product through TV advertisements, radio commercials, newspaper ads, online ads, and other forms of marketing. The more people hear and see more of your advertisements, the more they will be interested to buy.

Marketing Builds A Reputation In order to conquer the general market, marketers aim to create a brand name recognition or product recall. This is a technique for the consumers to easily associate the brand name with the images, logo, or caption that they hear and see in the advertisements. For example, McDonalds is known for its arch design which attracts people and identifies the image as McDonalds. For some companies, building a reputation to the public may take time but there are those who easily attract the people. With an established name in the industry, a business continues to grow and expand because more and more customers will purchase the products or take advantage of the services from a reputable company. Annexure A explains it through a diagram.

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Findings and Recommendations

1. Get T-shirts, calendars and mugs printed with your logoThis will be a crucial step in developing SFCD as a brand. The volunteers at Dilli Haat and other conferences should be given T-shirts printed with the logo of SFCD. This will apprise people about the existence of SFCD and spread awareness about its work. Big NGO‘s like CRY and Red Cross have their own T shirts and mugs that are given to the volunteers and other related people. This will also strengthen the logo of SFCD as people will be able to recognize SFCD by its logo only. As Dr Madhumita Puri said, she wants the disabled people associated with her NGO to manage conferences to which their products like folders, laptop bags etc. are supplied. Their work at such conferences would be distributing folders, getting registrations done, managing logistics etc. By making them wear printed T shirts, it will create more visibility about the organization as people will be able to see the work of the disabled and thus will be able to develop credibility about its work. Please look at Annexure B for suggested designs

2. Get your vehicles painted with the logo of SFCD The vehicles owned by SFCD painted with the logo of SFCD. Also mention the phone number and address of the school (Prabhat) on it. This will be an almost free medium of advertising and reaching out to masses. Wherever the vehicle will go it will let people know about its existence. People with disabled children will be able to know about your school and might get them admitted here. Also disabled people will come to know of an employment opportunity for them. Thus the very purpose of SFCD will certainly get some strength & will help them to fulfil their mission to create a better world for children and young adults with intellectual disability. 3. Maintaining the Visitor’s Book at Dilli HaatPeople visiting the stall at Dilli Haat and buying the products should be asked to fill their phone number, email id‘s, and their comments about your products. Now it is very important to follow up these people on a regular basis. Mail them greetings on Holi, Diwali & New Year. Also mail them about your new products and date & venue of your stall. Make sure not to overwhelm them with too many mails and smses as this will only lead to your mails getting filtered and completely ignored. People who had shown interest in giving donations should be most importantly followed. First a mail should be sent to them regarding the same along with a link given for online donation. Incase online donation facility is not available,

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tell them how and where can they make the donation. Incase you don‘t receive a reply, give them a call and ask them whether they are still interested in donating for the noble cause. It should be the work of people present at Dilli Haat stall to make sure that people fill in the details at the stall. Annexure C gives a basic questionnaire that can filled by customers visiting Dilli Haat.

4. Organizing Nukkad Nataks (Street Play)Close proximity to the North Campus can be an advantage in this regard. Engage volunteers from DU and ask them to conduct street plays in slums, malls & housing societies. The target audience and objective of these plays would depend on the location of the play. In slums the aim would be able to get more and more disabled children who can‘t afford education to get admitted to the school and also apprise them about the employment opportunities SFCD provides to the disabled. In malls the aim would be able to attract donations from the upper strata of the society. In housing societies and colleges the main aim would be to get more volunteers to work for the organization. For this SFCD will have to contact the various social cells and Dramatics Society of various colleges and ask them to conduct such plays on their behalf. As an incentive certificates could be provided to the participants.

5. Organizing Radio Shows and advertising on RadioVarious FM channels conduct full one hour shows regarding spreading awareness about various social causes by calling an expert in the respective field to give his suggestions and precautions that need to be taken. A channel could be approached to conduct a show on the similar lines. Dr Madhumita Puri could possibly be the guest on such a show. This will help SFCD in reaching out to masses at not a very high cost. Also 30-40 second advertisements could be aired on FM specifically on weekends apprising people about your work and also about your Dilli Haat stall and your products.

6. Social MediaIn today‘s world social media is the cheapest source of advertising and reaching out to masses. To reach out to youth and to involve them, it is very important to go on social media. Facebook could be the main social site to concentrate upon. A facebook page could be created which would mention the mission of SFCD and also a brief about what it does. It should also contain a link to the site of SFCD and link for people to donate online. 11

Success stories and videos of children should be posted on the page which would make people know about the work SFCD does thereby creating more awareness among the youth. Also regular posts about the new products made by the disabled, date and venue of the stalls and various other related activities should be done. We need to make sure that the site is updated regularly and something or the other posted to make the page active and vibrant. As most of the employees are not very computer adept and the top management is pre occupied with a lot of work, the working of building and maintaining the page could be given to the various volunteers.

7. Highlighting the USP of the products made by SFCDThe main USP of the products sold at Dilli Haat is the people who make them. So we need to highlight this point to the people visiting our stall. A banner could be put up at the rickshaw at the stall saying “WE DON’T BEG…BUT WE EARN…!!!” .This might sound a bit harsh but then that‘s the truth that we want people to know. Such people might have begged by gaining sympathy but they chose to work hard and fight with their disability. This will attract customers from a long distance also at the Dilli Stall. Also one major point is that using trash in a useful manner promotes a cleaner and ‗green‘ environment. This can be highlighted as such this reduces the Carbon Footprints and is an efficient method of production.

8. Tying up with other schools for disabled childrenThere are many schools which provide education to the disabled children. But after the schooling gets completed such children have no source of their livelihood. So we can contact such schools and ask them to provide the interested students with an option to work at our production centre. This will thus provide a source of income to the disabled and also increase our workforce.

9. Advertising in multiplexes and local cablesA short 60 second clip could be shown in multiplexes and in local cables which will both help the NGO in spreading awareness about its various programmes and also aid in getting donations. Success stories if children, their day-to-day working, their talent can be displayed through this medium.

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10. Marketing for VolunteersIn order to get volunteers for various works, SFCD could tie up with various social cells, NSS etc. By distributing pamphlets in nearby housing societies, housewives could be asked to help in various works. Also for activities which require the zeal and energy of the youth, notices could be put up in various colleges inviting volunteers. I designed a poster which could be put up in various colleges regarding the need for volunteers. The poster has been given in Annexure D. Children are urged to perform ―SSR- Self-Social Responsibility” Also most organizations do some social work as a part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). So tying with some company will help in getting help from the educated working class which would help in various management related issues of the NGO..

11. Bachchon Ki Mandi Now this is something that might require a bit of effort. A person has to manage the proceedings and guide all the volunteers involved. In this event children from neighbouring colleges participate at their own will. The voluneers would be divided in teams of 2-3 members. They would then go different parts of the city to sell the oroducts of NGO. Mainly targeting posh colonies, malls etc. where the crowd would be willing to buy the goods and even pay more than the price quoted brcause the money is for a noble cause. The best performing teams would get certificates and a letter of recognition for community service. This would be a good way to incentivise teams to sell more.

This activity would directly have 2 major impacts:1. Increase in awareness and publicity. 2. Increase in sales.

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Weekly Log for NGO - SFCD Weekly Log for 3 weeks under the Faculty Co-ordinator Prof.Preeti Khanna ::: Name: Aayush Suri Division: A Roll No. : 057 Name of the NGO: Society for Child Development Title of the Project: Brand Strategy Name of the NGO Mentor: Major General(Retd.) Vinod Anand Email Id of the NGO Mentor: [email protected] Number of hours spent per week: 36 hours Week

2nd Jan to 7th Jan

9th Jan to th 14 Jan

16th Jan to th 20 Jan

Tasks Completed During the Week A complete introduction to the NGO and understanding of its working procedures. Interviewing the staff on their roles in the NGO so as to understand the ground reality. Research on methods and ways to improve the branding and marketing strategies to help the NGO build a well-known brand.. Prepared a poster to be displayed in DU colleges for calling volunteers to work for the organization. Added suggestions to spread brand awareness. Spoke to the sales staff and understood the nitty-gritty of the business.

Prepared questionnaire for customers and worked on report.

Outcome of the Task

Got a fair amount of idea as to where the NGO stands and how awareness can be increased. Strategies formulated will help in increasing sale of products produced by the NGO and increase revenue and funds generation.

Tasks to be done next week

Signature

Present a small presentation to the executive director and give some suggestions. Also try to ask for some clarifications to further add some options of marketing avenues with minimum expenditure..

Understood the problems faced by sales staff and came up with some suggestions to help them. Used the inputs given by the Executive director to further change the presentation.

Give presentation to the mentor. Visit different colleges to talk and paste the poster. Also giving final presentation to the employees to make sure they understand what needs to be done.

Finalized survey form and report.

None

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Annexure A.

A marketing strategy always has a target audience. For an NGO its target audience could be its donors, volunteers, people who buy their products etc.

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B.

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C. SOCIETY FOR CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Date: Name: Phone No : Email id: Product/s Bought: 1. How satisfied are you with the following characteristics of our product/service?

Characteristic

Very Satisfied

Somewhat Satisfied

Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

Somewhat Dissatisfied

Very dissatisfied

Quality Price Purchase Experience

2. Have your purchased our products before?(Tick appropriate answer) a. No b.Yes If yes, were you satisfied with our product/s? a. No b.Yes 3. Would you recommend our products to your friends/relatives ? a.Yes b.No 4. How did you get to know about the stall at Dilli Haat?

5. Your Recommendations-

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D.

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E.

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