National Council of Women

The National Council of Women (NCW) of Great Britain was founded in 1895 as a response to the unsatisfactory working conditions faced by many women at the time. Known as the National Union of Women Workers, the organisation quickly developed into a nationwide network of small groups, and within two years had become affiliated to the International Council of Women (ICW). It has since worked in the UK and internationally on issues of concern to women.

NCW recently revisited their vision, purpose, and values. As a result of this the decision was taken to refresh both its brand and website, in line with this new articulation of the vision, purpose and values, in order to:

• Recruit new members
• Create a modern, professional, and easily recognisable brand
• Deliver consistent key messages and tone of voice to speak to the key audiences

As a precursor to this refresh, research was undertaken to gain a clear understanding of current perceptions of the brand with existing members and target audience. Exploring and defining how they feel about the organisation and its strengths and weaknesses. An online survey and offline surveys were mailed to existing members, while the existing website and social media channels were used to distribute an online survey to the potential target audience.

The surveys were also used to invite both existing and potential members to take part in a series on mini online focus groups. This allowed us to investigate current motivations to join NCW in more depth, to explore the most appropriate tone of voice and the authenticity and credibility of potential language in more detail and to identify any potential gaps between current perception and desired vision and value.

Key research findings and recommendations were fed into the brand brief, website restructure and development of an appropriate tone of voice.

The new branding maintains their key brand colour and introduces a set of four bold, feminine and arresting secondary colours. The logo retains their recognisable round shape, but rather than using the flowers from the three countries of the UK our design focuses on the coming together of people to represent the strength of the NCWGB. This is accompanied by a new strapline ‘For a fair and inclusive society’, taken from their vision.