aiesec brand exercise description

GUIDELINES FOR FOCUS GROUPS

AIESEC VISUAL ELEMENTS GLOBAL BRAND REFRESH

Objective

The AIESEC Brand Refresh program has developed a concept for additional visual elements to give

all AIESEC members and programs maximum flexibility and adaptability.

Context

The concept focuses on facilitating and supporting members to adapt the Brand, the Visual Elements

and the Brand Experience to their own global, national or local context. It also challenges the

members to explore and play with the brand, in order to understand its DNA. A challenge all

existing and new members, when joining AIESEC, are asked to engage in. This process will become

part of the AIESEC learning experience.

Ownership

We invite all AIESEC members to take ownership and responsibility for the Brand. To play with the

visual elements, change and adapt them. This way all aspects of the AIESEC brand will truly be

built and will create a strong feeling of ownership. It reinforces AIESEC as a platform, facilitating

and supporting all members. And it translates the AIESEC vision into a living and evolving brand,

befitting a modern global and human centred network organization.



Brand Revitalisation

AIESEC has entered into a process of redesigning the way the AIESEC brand is playing a role in

the service delivery towards the customers and other stakeholders. It is recognised that the AIESEC

brand plays a key role in the global AIESEC organisation that consists of independent operating

‘chapters’. For the visual brand elements to support the individual chapters delivering their services

in local environments it is essential that there is sufficient flexibility in the use of the new visual

elements.

Objective

The focus groups are meant to prototype the way the visual brand elements can be used in practice

when developing a service and the respective sub brand.

Setup of Focus Group

The focus groups are workshop sessions where participants do a number of ‘exercises’ developing a

AIESEC service and relating branding elements.



Exercise 1 – Individual mind mapping of Values

The first exercise begins with mapping out personal and AIESEC values. What values are important

to you? In your personal but also in the AIESEC way of life? Every individual writes one keyword

representing a value on a post-it. Create 5 post-its and put them on a white sheet of paper.

To provide the participants with more directions you can use the following questions: Why do you

think of a specific company as a cool brand (e.g. Apple, Virgin, …)? Why do you think of a specific

person/friend as a cool person? What is important to you in case you make use of a service?



Exercise 2 – Group mapping of Values

Split up all participants in groups with an equal number of participants (it’s ok if it’s not the exact

equal number). In the group everybody explains their values. Then the group should group all the

values into maximum 5 common categories and find a key- header for each category.

Context information - How to use the values together with the visual brand elements

The values are the starting point for developing a our services. They represent the core experience

you want to give your customer and other stakeholders. The categories and key- headers that come

up should be transmitted to your stakeholders through all visual materials and stakeholder

interactions. The keywords can be used separately or as part of sentences together with the visual

brand elements. You can create ‘taglines’ with the words.



Exercise 3 – Customer Journey

This exercise means to provide insights in the context in which the service is delivered, the feelings

and needs of the customer and how the AIESEC values play a role in the delivery of the service.

Deep understanding of the service and the context of the service delivery are necessary elements for

choosing how to visualize the sub brand for communication to the market.

Choose an AIESEC program and use the provided template, filling in the following aspects:

1. Touchpoints: What is the sequence of interaction when the customer engages with a

product/program of AIESEC

2. Customer feelings & thoughts: what does the customer feel and think before, during and after

each touchpoint

3. Communication: how can we transmit our shared values (that you defined in exercise 1) to the

customer at each touchpoint



Exercise 4 - Creating marketing communication material for sub brands

Now the fun part starts! The values and insights of the customer journcey, its end-users and the

context provide you with a good understanding to start building marketing communication material

for the sub brands, using the new visual brand elements.

Your group should decide for one or two (not more!) touchpoints of the customer experience.

Use the materials and visual brand elements provided to you in a creative exercise to develop

marketing communication (postres, flyers, …) for the selected touchpoints. There are only 4 design

rules you have to meet: 1. Always use two or more different shapes 2. The shapes must be

recognisable 3. Use transparant or full color shapes 4. The shapes are not meant to be used to spell

out AIESEC.

Tools & materials for Focus Groups

In the accompanying PDF-file you will find all necessary visual elements for creating marketing

communication for the sub brands (shapes, colors, font guidelines, design rules, examples for

inspiration, pictures and use of AIESEC logo). You only need a color printer, a pair of scissors,

white paper size A3 & A4, glue, post-its and markers.



Exercise 5 - Evaluation of the prototyping of the new visual brand elements

The evaluation of the experience of the participants of the focus groups is important to learn how to

improve the process for using the new visual brand elements.

How to use the Evaluation sheets

In this presentation you will find 5 Evaluation sheets, each containing a different topic. Print the

evaluation sheets and stick them on the wall. Ask the participants to answer each question using a

post-it. Stick these post-its on the evaluation sheets, take a picture and email the results to AIESEC

INTERNATIONAL, using the name of your country in the filename. In addition to the evaluation

sheets, please also email us the marketing communication you created for the sub brands.

On behalf of AIESEC INTERNATIONAL we thank you for your cooperation. Your feedback will be

processed and we will keep you updated of the progress.

EVALUATION VISUAL ELEMENTS GLOBAL BRAND REFRESH

1. RULES

Did you experience the rules to be useful and why?

Did the rules limit you and why?

Do you have any suggestions towards the rules or would you like to change some?


2. SHAPES, COLORS, USE OF PICTURES, USE OF AIESEC LOGO

Did you experience the shapes, colors, pictures and AIESEC logo sufficiently

inspirational?

Did they limit you in any way and why?

Do you have any suggestions or what items would you like to change?


3. USE OF PERSONAL AND AIESEC VALUES – CREATING TAGLINES

Did you experience the words, creating taglines to be inspirational and useful?

Did the words limit you and why?

Do you have any suggestions towards using personal and AIESEC values in another way?


4. REVITALIZING THE SUB BRANDS AND SERVICES

How did the toolkit of visual elements help to revitalize the (sub) brands and services?

How did the toolkit limit you and why?

What are your suggestions to further improve the toolkit?


5. CUSTOMERS AND STAKEHOLDERS EXPERIENCE OF OUTCOMES

How do you think the customers and stakeholders will experience the brand refresh?

How did the toolkit limit you and why?

What are your suggestions to further improve the toolkit?

aiesec brand exercise description

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