FCM Blog

Adapting the Organizational EcoSystem: Formula for High Performing Boards & Organizations

Government agencies and nonprofits have to think about their organizations as a small business. How do you get lean, maximize and leverage funding, and position the organization in a manner that attracts the right funders, partners and customers to achieve the mission and a next level of performance among staff, board members, partners and volunteers?

There are five private sector processes to achieve the next level of performance in the world of the public sector and nonprofits. These five components are part of an “organizational ecosystem” meaning they are all interrelated, and support the overall success of the organization. You can’t be high performing by having just one or two components integrated into the organization; it takes all five.

1. Strategic Direction–leadership establishes the strategic direction of the organization by defining its vision, values, culture, mission and strategic objectives for its core business focus (product & service pillars) and target audiences;
2. Positioning – engaging the right customers, partners and funders with a nonprofit mission is driven by objective market research that leads to the brand strategy with consistent marketing and communications strategies that position the organization in the marketplace for maximum market penetration;
3. People – both human capital development and customer relationship management plans ensure that internal talent can meet the external expectations of customers, partners and funders;
4. Continuous Improvement Processes – through continuous improvement (quality tools, problem solving, Lean Six Sigma and change management) customer and internal work processes are designed that minimize staff time and meet customer expectations; and
5. Organizational Dashboards – provide metrics and monitoring tools to hit performance goals and achieve market position (brand awareness, comprehension, value and usage).

FCM is supporting the National Association of Workforce Boards in applying this organizational ecosystem through the Workforce Leadership Council. Currently the first cohort of the Council is closed, but you can sign up for the second cohort and get additional information at www.nawb.org/WLC, or contact FCM for an initial consultation at info@FullCapacityMarketing.com

Web Site Optimization – Get The Basics

If you're like most non-profit, government or community-based organizations, you've probably been through at least one major "overhaul" of your organization's Web site  in recent memory.  But, in addition to the look-and-feel of your Web site, has your team considered a Web optimization strategy to increase the ranking of your site in the search engines? With over 14 billion searches performed monthly, it's important that you arrive at the top of the results list.

Your Web site performance and search engine relevancy requires a multi-faceted approach, but many of the basic steps can be tackled in-house, starting with these strategies. 

1. Submit your Web site to search engines.  If you've changed your site’s URL, or have never submitted your information in the first place, make sure that you're listed on major search engines.  Top search engines are noted at
   http://www.seoconsultants.com/search-engines/
   
   
2. Focus efforts on the home page.  Content is king, and one of the best tools to improve your search engine ranking. The homepage is a great place to emphasize keywords, encourage linking to your site, and boost traffic. Offer quality content that is of value to your target audiences, and update your Web site frequently.
   
   
3. Use relevant keywords. Compile a detailed list of phrases and words that are associated with what you do.  To generate additional phrases and keywords that you may not have considered, use Google's Keyword Generator.  Edit the list to make sure the words fit what you offer.
   
   
4. Revise your title tag and keep it under 40 characters.  The title tag is used to define the text in the top line of a Web browser, and also used by many search engines as the title of search listings.  On your site's back-end you'll see <title></title>.  This spot is the most important element of your page, when it comes to page ranking. Keep your organization’s name short and put the most important phrases here.
   
   
5. Write a descriptive meta tag.  Meta tags are lines of code that are placed between the <HEAD> and the </HEAD> tags in your site's HTML code. They are designed to give search engines instructions on what your page is about and how they should treat it. When your page comes up in the search results, the contents of your META description tag are displayed right below the title of your page.

Advanced Manufacturing: Tackling the Dual Market of Youth & Business

The Finger Lakes Workforce Investment Board (FLWIB) spearheads a sector-based initiative called the Finger Lakes Advanced Manufacturing Enterprise (FAME), which is a partnership of manufacturers supported by regional workforce and economic development agencies and educators.  FAME targets a dual audience (youth and advanced manufacturing businesses) with the goals of advancing the sector within the region, and attracting and mentoring youth.  

The team undertook an extensive brand strategy process to better position the initiative among both business and youth.  The process included 1) uncovering customer perceptions using market research; 2) identifying the products and services of FAME for both audiences; 3) examining “competitor” organizations that engage in advanced manufacturing; 4) refining its mission and vision; and 5) finding its unique selling proposition (USP).

The USP is a statement of the organization’s most compelling offer and benefit in a way that the potential customer can automatically answer the ‘what's in if for me’ question.  It leads to the organization’s tagline which symbolizes its key value proposition. When addressing a dual market such as FAME, the statement has to have meaning for both advanced manufacturers and youth.  FAME’s process led them to the following USP and tagline.

FAME’S USP is all about investments in human capital.

The niche is workforce development through a team of experts that specialize in it.

The end result in this investment is a bright, motivated, informed, skilled mind that contributes to the advancement of the sector.

FAME builds bright minds that make it:
from a manufacturing perspective these minds are making innovations in the field;
from a professional perspective, these minds “make it” successfully in the career ladders that the sector affords them; and
these bright minds contribute to the success and growth of the sector.

From the USP, FAME’s tagline became – “building minds that make it”.

You can see their brand strategy in full action at www.MindsThatMakeIt.org including two You-Tube videos on the homepage -- a membership video designed for advanced manufacturing companies, and a video for youth, entitled "Advanced Manufacturing: It’s Not Your Dad’s Job".

Recession Strategies: Optimizing Brand Platforms

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the economy has been in a steady decline since December 2007. With 41 states facing budget deficits, some experts are speculating that the recession could be worse than the one experienced in the mid 1980’s.

Government, non-profits and community based organizations are feeling the sting of the economy, expecting hits in their funding and donation. These organizations ask not only for funding to support their services, but they often require a commitment of precious time and energy.

This is the time to examine brand platforms, and how the organization communicates the relevancy, urgency and value propositions of its mission. The importance in consistently delivering on a brand's promise and advancing its mission is essential to building the kind of long-term brand loyalty necessary for sustainability.

Branding goes well beyond just the organization’s logo. Organizations within this economy need to check the status of their existing brand platform with three key questions.

1. Does your tagline reflect the value you bring to your community, not just your customers?
2. Do your mission and vision statements contain a dual market focus [i.e. client and community/funder?]
3. Communication Points – Does your copy [Web site and collateral materials] highlight the relevancy/urgency of your mission; contain a specific call to action that is both client and community focused; and include value propositions for engagement.

Check out the InStepp, Inc. case study below to examine how this non-profit is repositioning these elements to maximize community engagement.

InStepp, Inc.: Repositioning for Maximum Community Engagement

Founded in 2004, InStepp is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for adult and adolescent at-risk females residing in the Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill areas of North Carolina. This lean organization is heavily focused on engaging volunteers and partners to support their mission in helping women who have significant barriers to employment and self sufficiency.

The organization uses gender-responsive treatment approaches to address this target population’s specific needs and issues.  These include training, education and prevention programs and therapeutic life-skills workshops that teach good parenting and other life skills, along with basic employment services, including job readiness training and job placement assistance. Mentorship is a component of the program.

Recently, FCM assisted InStepp with a re-branding strategy to better engage the community as a partner, volunteer and funder. Until recently, InStepp has focused heavily on the social service component of its mission, with limited communication platforms designed for target audiences that can give their time, money and energy to its cause.

Like so many non-profits that are committed and passionate about the social service component of their mission, InStepp needed to broaden its communication approach to demonstrate how the organization improves not only the lives of their clients, but the community, businesses and volunteers that engage with them.

Here are the shifts in the tagline, mission and vision that the team at InStepp made to better articulate the social service and the demand components of the organization.

Former Tagline: Focused solely on clients benefits

Building resources to keep women in step with tomorrow

Revised Tagline: Demonstrates the return to the community and the client

Creating vibrant communities through empowered women

Current Mission Statement: Client Focused
To improve the quality of life of at-risk women and adolescent girls through the delivery of innovative gender-responsive training, educational and prevention programs.

Revised Mission: Demonstrates the return to the community and the client
Creating a vibrant community by empowering at-risk women and adolescent girls to rise above the odds and succeed personally and professionally, through innovative gender-responsive training, education and prevention services.

Current Vision Statement: Client Focused
To become a community and state-wide leader in improving the quality of life of at-risk females.

Revised Vision – Client and Community Focused
InStepp aspires to be a leader in empowering at-risk women to rise above the odds, succeed in all of their life’s goals, and contribute to making their respective communities thrive on all levels as caring, giving workers, citizens and family members.

If you want to engage the community as volunteers and funders, your brand platform needs to demonstrate how your organization is making a difference in the lives of those around them.

Mystery Shopping: Investing in Your Image

Having a positive public image and a relevant brand requires more than an ad campaign, brochure or Web site.  While all of these are important communication tactics, they are only one aspect of how a citizen or customer interacts with an organization. The most effective brand touch point is the organization’s employees, volunteers and staff, and their ability to interface with citizens and customers in a way that aligns with the organization’s values and objectives. These principles apply across the board in both public and private sectors.

Investing in improving your public image and customer service is a key factor in the long-term success of non-profit, community-based and government organizations, especially when funding cuts are occurring.  Layoffs can be demoralizing and affect the customer service capabilities of those left behind. 

Unfortunately, customers are oblivious to funding cuts and their expectations may not be sensitive to any internal challenges that may affect service delivery.  There are two aspects to maintaining a positive relationship and image with the public during times when funding is lean.  The first is to objectively understand the culture and attitudes of staff in serving customers. The second aspect is to use the information as a catalyst to align the culture to the strategic direction and priorities of the organization.

Mystery shopping provides a comprehensive evaluation so that organizational leaders and staff can work together from a collaborative and objective understanding of how to best implement strategic directions and priorities.

Mystery shopping began in the 1940s as a mechanism to measure employee integrity.  While mystery shopping has been used extensively by the retail and hospitality sectors, more and more public service agencies, community-based organizations, and non-profits are beginning to utilize this valuable tool.  The end results include a better strategy for employee/customer communications and service, positive public opinion about the organization, and the foundation to enhance funding streams and community consensus around key issues.

There are four steps to a comprehensive mystery shopping program that ultimately lead to a broad institutional change within the organization, permeating department operations, services and programs.  These include:

1) Process Identification – development of a process map to set desired outcomes and establish implementation of shopping program

2) Internal Customer Perceptions –  an internal survey to discover what the “internal customers” [staff and volunteers] think about the customer service/interactions within their department and other departments with whom they work

3) External Customer Realities – mystery shopping to determine the gaps between the internal and external customers

4) Recommendations – presentation to the entire staff for buy-in and consensus on why brand building is an important component and how it affects funding and public perception

Non-profit, community-based and government organizations need to create a culture that is market responsive and customer focused. This culture cannot be created without objective analysis of its “brand ambassadors” - - those staff and volunteers that are in direct contact, and on the front-line with the public

For more information on cost-effective mystery shopping programs, contact Full Capacity Marketing, Inc. at info@fullcapacitymarketing.com or call (858) 793-6694.

Communication Platforms

Budget cuts continue to plague non-profit, government and community-based agencies making the increasing demand for their services a major challenge. In a recent survey called Non-profit Perspective on Funding, 81 percent of the non-profits surveyed indicated that lack of asset growth and income were the issues of greatest concern, with the impact of economic issues on funding sources a close second (79%). Over 65 percent experienced an increase in requests for services in the past year, with 20 percent indicating a decreased ability to meet that demand.

Organizations are faced with the realization that strategic communication is a critical component to positioning the relevancy of their missions to funders, to their customers, and to the community at large.  Developing communication platforms is a great strategy for organizations that are serious about building a valued brand.

A communication platform is a series of sound bites and snippets to help various customer groups and targeted constituencies understand the following:

• Why does the target need your organization and/or why should they care about it? [Urgency/Problem Statements]
• What do you want them to do to contribute to the mission of your organization? [Call to Action]
• How will this action improve their situation/problem? [Value Proposition]

Once these messages are developed, there is a multitude of ways in which they can be used to educate, influence and inform.

News Stories
Use the communication platforms as a starting point to pitch the urgency of your organization’s mission. Develop human interest stories around the issues and solutions needed and pitch to local news media outlets.

Community Presentations and Forums
Develop PowerPoint presentations for each target audience with a specific call to action. Then, organize a team to present at various opportunities throughout the community.

Legislative Briefings
For those organizations that need to educate the legislature on important issues, use the communication platforms to develop a one-page fact sheet that provides key insights, issues and changes needed.

Grant Proposals
Create a statement of need from the communication platforms to seek out funding.

Create a Campaign Web Site
Use the communication platforms to create an interactive campaign Web site to connect target audiences in conversations via blogs, surveys and online team rooms. Update the site frequently with new statistics and information.

One-to-One Conversations
The way to create a buzz around any topic is to talk about it with powerful information and statistics. Take the opportunity to craft mini elevator speeches to tell people what you do and why you are involved with your organization. Let them know how they can get involved and where to access ongoing information about your organization.

e-Newsletter/Emails
Use the communication platforms to develop an ongoing e-blast about the issues your organization is solving in the community.

Brand Experiences – Creating Touch points that Matter to Businesses

The place where your customers connect with your brand is called a touchpoint, and they create a well defined experience about the organization. These can include human touchpoints [face-to-face interactions]; automated touchpoints [kiosks, voice response units]; virtual touchpoints [Web site]. All of these interactions affect a customer's understanding and evaluation of your brand. This concept is particularly critical to the potential business customer when considering whether or not to engage with the public workforce investment system [as a customer; as a partner; for a specific initiative].

A proactive objective examination of all customer brand touchpoints will ultimately provide solutions and answers to creating a positive impression of your organization. Here are a few major pitfalls to avoid when attempting to create consistent touchpoints within your organization.

1. Don’t ask the customer to repeatedly provide the same information. This only reinforces the fact that internal systems are not aligned, and wastes the time of the customer [a commodity that businesses value].
2. Survey the customer on how they feel about the "end-to-end" process, from one interaction with staff to the next. This will provide insight into how to better align systems and communication with the customer.
3. Train all customer contact teams on how to answer frequently asked questions, and how to handle incoming calls from customers.
4. Sync response times among staff returning voicemail messages [i.e. same business day; within four hours].
5. Maintain virtual touchpoints via your Web site. For example, make sure that emails and inquiries submitted to "contact us" are being monitored.

Managing customers' brand experiences is an essential ingredient for building customer loyalty. This is a proactive process in which systems are developed based on customer needs and monitored frequently, just as any other programmatic objectives. Every brand touchpoint is an opportunity to not only provide communication with customers, but to consistently demonstrate your organizational value. This is the way to engage businesses with the public workforce investment system as a customer and a partner in our important mission.

Celina Shands Gradijan
President and CEO - Full Capacity Marketing, Inc.
As a former American Marketing Association's Marketer of the Year and a two-time Women Who Mean Business Finalist, Celina uses brand strategies as a catalyst to help agencies position the importance and urgency of their missions, build collaborative partnerships, and improve public opinion. The end results are increased funding and a more prominent profile in the community. She is a strong advocate for workforce and economic development establishing state, regional and local models that have sustained the test of time, in spite of continued funding cuts. For more information on keynote availability, Board retreats, technical assistance and seminars, or to sign up for her National Marketing Workgroup, go to www.fullcapacitymarketing.com, [online learning at www.imagishift.com], or call (858) 793-6694.

If the world is flat…. - What’s in your state brand?

By Celina Shands Gradijan

Thomas L. Friedman's The World Is Flat puts us in touch with the dynamic changes taking place in our time, as advances in technology and communications put people all over the globe in touch as never before, and levels the economic playing field.  In today’s globalized, networked world, every place has to compete for its share of the world’s consumers. The asset of human capital plays a prominent role in gaining a competitive advantage.

Last month, we addressed the topic of regionalism, in which neighboring cities and counties collaborate to build a unique brand identity for their region. Economic developers, chambers of commerce, city and county governments, and business leaders know that to attract new businesses, they must have a viable and thriving regional brand that offers a solid business climate, and supports business development.

To take it a step further, states are recognizing that the sum of its regions can create a powerful identity that has the ability to compete for its share of the world’s consumers, tourists, businesses, investment, capital, respect and attention. Human capital is one of the strongest assets that can support a state in positioning its brand, especially if the sum of its regions is working strategically to build and leverage this asset into innovation.

State workforce boards need to consider building a state identity in collaboration with economic development agendas, by evaluating its various regional assets and positioning their state as a competitive force in human capital and innovation. Building a state brand is no different in process than building a regional identity.  It requires an analysis of all of a state’s regions to determine its overarching competitive advantage with those factors that create a strong business climate [i.e. workforce talent; quality of living; cost of living, etc].

If you’d like more information on building a regional and/or state brand, contact us at info@fullcapacitymarketing.com, or catch our presentation at:

Regional Economic and Workforce Development Summit 2007
Muskogee, Oklahoma – March 8-9, 2007

The Eastern Workforce Investment Board (EWIB) convenes key community leaders in business, economic development, education and workforce development to create a regional strategic workforce and economic development plan. Celina Shands Gradijan, Full Capacity Marketing, Inc., will conduct general sessions on the impact of workforce challenges in the region, and effective regional collaboration. For more information, contact Debi Busch at dbusch@easternwib.com.

Youth Entrepreneurship: An Advantage In Regional Branding

The Kauffman Foundation sponsored “Entrepreneurship Week USA” from February 24 to March 3, 2007, a collection of events hosted by various organizations in each state, to spark awareness and interest among young people of the possibilities of entrepreneurship.  When grooming a pipeline of talent, teaching the basics of entrepreneurship is a strategy that should not be overlooked.

Kauffman found that 7 out of 10 high school students say that they want to start a business some day, yet 80 to 85 percent of those same students say that they learn nothing about entrepreneurship in school.  As a solution to overcoming these trends, the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education has developed national content standards for entrepreneurship education.  These standards are designed to reflect what successful entrepreneurs say is important to know about creating and managing your own company.  Fifteen major standards are divided into 1) entrepreneurial skills; 2) ready skills; and 3) business functions.

Part of a thriving regional brand strategy around workforce and economic development is the creation of an available talent pool.  The Council on Competitiveness highlights five key factors to successful regional innovation and collaboration, with building and retaining talent one of the key factors to success.  When businesses seek to relocate, they are looking at all of the attributes of the region’s workforce, including the availability of a future workforce. 

There are regions that are positioning how they are grooming their workforce talent, and their future entrepreneurs, to support economic growth. Check out how these regions are promoting youth entrepreneurship, as one of their primary brand attributes.

Marketplace for Kids is a showcase for the ideas of North Dakota’s youth, and designed to encourage innovative thinking at all ages. The program shows that kids have a special role in improving the economic future of their state. For more information, go to http://www.marketplaceforkids.org/information/about.asp.

Youth Entrepreneurs of Kansas teaches high school students to "think like an owner," whether they start their own Fortune 500 company, or work to create value in whatever career they choose. In the cornerstone classroom component, and through unique alumni programs, YEK creates avenues of opportunity for youth to help them realize their dreams. For more information, go to http://www.yeks.org.

Since regional branding is all about promoting the attributes within a region that produce a superior business climate, workforce and economic development leaders should consider focusing on youth entrepreneurship as a primary regional strategy to attract, retain and grow businesses.