A brand? What exactly is it? Since when have we had one of those, or have we ever had one?
The AYY brand working group seeks answers to these questions and many others. The process has started with full throttle, and the progress of the brand work can be followed from here on out in the regularly updated blog, found right here!
Our first piece will shed light on what is happening with the brand work and what is afoot in the project. In addition, our brand work group member Milla will present some of the work done at the Chairperson Seminar.
A Short Explanation of Brand Work
AYY has not undergone systematic brand work before. So why start now? Is it not just pointless façade polishing?
In short: No. In more words and lots of marketing jargon: No; brand work is an analytical and strategic process, where the core values of a brand are identified from a large collection of data. Based on these, a vision, identity and strategy are created, from which concrete action plans are derived. Finally, the brand is implemented into action. After the whole process, the relevance of the brand along with its success are measured, and encountered faults are corrected. In this stage the idea is to create a full understanding of AYY’s situation.
Sounds hard to grasp?
In practice, it means that instead of pondering on nice visuals, planning hoodie prints and coming up with snazzy slogans, it is about a lot more in-depth work. Branding does not mean merely a visual and communicational ‘sprucing up’, but pondering on the whole existence of AYY and considering the role of AYY in the student community, society and actually pretty much everything, in addition to communications and the visual outlook. This covers living, services, organization, visual outlook, identity, activities, culture, communications and pretty much every situation where AYY meets different parties or people.
Tähän mennessä olemme kartoittaneet käsitystä siitä, miltä AYY näyttää omien ja ulkopuolisten toimijoiden silmin. Tähän mennessä kysymyksiä on esitetty yhdistyksille, muille ylioppilaskunnille ja AYY:n kunniavaltuustolle. Maaliskuun aikana tavoitteena on kerätä vielä enemmän vastauksia eri tahoilta saadaksemme mahdollisimman laajan kuvan nykytilasta ja toiveista.
-Noora
So far, we have been mapping how AYY shows itself in the eyes of its own members and outside parties. Thus far, we have posed questions to associations, other student unions and the Honorary Delegation of AYY. During March, the aim is to gather even more answers from different parties to get a comprehensive picture of our current state and wishes.
– Noora
The Voice of Associations was Heard in the Chairperson Seminar
The first Chairperson Seminar of the Aalto student organizations and associations was held on Tuesday, March 14th, which brought together chairpersons from different organizations and associations. One of the main topics in the seminar was brand work, its presentation and stages. The brand section was opened by our brand coordinator Henrik Lähdesniemi, who presented what brand work is in practice – and most of all what brand work is not. You may read the presentation on the brand process from the latest issue of Aino: https://ainolehti.fi/aino/markkinointi-kylteri-neuvoo-nain-luot-brandin/
After the official presentation, there was a workshop session, where the chairpersons had the chance to discuss the brand with a member of the board or a brand work group member moderating the discussion. Because one of the central aims of the brand work has been to include as many internal stakeholder groups of AYY as possible in the work itself, each participant organization or association received a series of questions before the seminar, which was also presented to the AYY board beforehand. All the questions were not straightforward; some were high-flown ponderings on, for example, what the AYY brand currently is.
These kinds of questions were mused on by the chairpersons and their respective boards before the seminar. Thus, the discussion could be undertaken based on the answers of the boards, and the chairpersons brought forth their viewpoints regarding the current state and aims of the AYY brand.
I myself led a workshop for four student organization chairpersons. We discussed especially about what the AYY brand is now – or do we even have one. In addition, we discussed how much AYY should be tied to Aalto’s brand. We agreed on many issues, but some topics sparked lots of serious discussion.
After an hour of discussion, the conclusion was that we really have a genuine need for brand work, and that we have a lot of work set in front of us. On the other hand, it was awesome to see how active the associations and organizations had already been in tackling the subject. Most groups had discussed the questions with their boards, and the ongoing brand work was considered important indeed!
-Milla