Business Disability Forum

Business Disability Forum (BDF) is a not-for-profit membership organisation which has over 500 members, mostly businesses, but also some charities and statutory sector organisations.

BDF haven’t run a membership survey in 4 years but were developing their next 5-year plan and wanted robust membership input. The results of the survey would also help them to improve their marketing to recruit new members.

The Questionnaire had been written and Matter were asked to:

• Input to improve the questionnaire, increase response rates, get the data needed most effectively – flow, length, suggested edits to questions or question formats used, user experience
• Script, test and host the survey
• Provide data analysis (including data tables) and a summary report including open ended question analysis

BDF was also keen to ensure that the survey was as accessible as possible. To this end we produce both a ‘standard’ and plain text version of the survey, both accessed via the same email invite, with the ability to navigate between both versions.

The plain text version complied with the WCAG 2.1 guidelines. Checkboxes were arranged in a single column and code labels are placed to the right of the checkbox which helps screen readers correctly associate labels with code boxes. Grid questions were also expanded to single columns to make it easier for assistive technologies to navigate and routing was simplified to further aid navigation.

In addition colour was removed to again make the survey easier to read, fonts size was kept to a minimum of 12pt, and verbal rather than visual rating scales were used.

BDF also offered the option to complete the survey verbally and made hard copy and hard copy large print versions available on request.

In total over 20% of members responded to the survey. Excel data tables and a PowerPoint summary were created and presented back to the BDF leadership team.

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.

Modern Milkman

We were invited by The Modern Milkman to pitch for an insight and brand development project they were undertaking. The ethos behind the company, founded in 2018, was to encourage the reduction of single use plastic by delivering milk direct to the doorstep in reusable and plastic free packaging.

Modern Milkman were in the process of rebranding and had developed a new brand positioning and a number of possible brand identities and associated messaging. They needed to understand which of these routes their customers would most engage with and ultimately enable them to achieve their 5-year business strategy. They also wished to use the opportunity to gain a deeper insight into who their key customers were, how they and potential customers felt about the brand and what were the key drivers and barriers to a doorstep delivery service.

We recommended a two-stage process, firstly a qualitative phase to explore reactions to the band and creative concepts followed a quantitative stage to deliver robust data on which key business decisions could be based. The qualitative exploration was undertaken via online, one to one depth interviews with both customers and potential customers. The insight from this stage was used to both refine the creative concepts and develop the content of the quantitative surveys. Two online surveys were then undertaken, one with existing customers and one with potential customers, via an online panel. We also boosted the panel survey with those who currently take doorstep deliveries from competitors. Mosaic codes were then appended to both surveys in order for geo-demographic analysis of the findings to be undertaken. In total we engaged with over 4000 individuals across the project with the customer survey delivering a double-digit response rate.

The key market insights gained from the research were delivered back to core personnel within the company via a number of tailored repots and online presentations to underpin the brand strategy and inform the acquisition strategy.  The communications feedback was shared directly with the creative team during a series of working sessions and a new brand identity and messaging hierarchy was launched.

We have continued to work with Modern Milkman on a number of projects including both brand tracking and new product development.

Citizens Advice – Case Study

Citizens Advice invited us to pitch for a brand strategy development project they were undertaking. The charity which provides confidential advice online, over the phone and in person for free helped over 2 million people one-to-one during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic and saw 62.8 million page views of their advice content during the same time.

Citizens Advice underwent a full visual rebrand in 2015, and in late 2018 undertook work to refresh their organisational narrative. They were now looking to develop a brand communication strategy to align with the organisation’s wider strategic ambitions. Before doing so they needed to gain a clear understanding of current perceptions of the brand, its strengths and weaknesses and how this has changed over time.

The first stage of the project was a large scale consultation exercise which we undertook to assess current brand awareness and perceptions. We benchmarked these findings against existing research to gauge the potential shift, identify direction of travel and map out the journey still to be taken. The research was undertaken with a representative sample of the UK population, current clients, volunteers, local and national staff, major funders including Government departments and corporate partners. We also undertook additional research with BAME respondents and those living with disabilities to ensure a truly representative view and inform aspects of the charity’s work around improving equity, diversity and inclusion. Given the lockdown restrictions and MRS guidelines all research was conducted via the telephone or online surveys. In total over 3,000 individuals were engaged.

We took the insights gained from the research and disseminated them throughout the organisation, including the Executive Leadership Team, via a series of tailored reports and presentations. The key communication insights were then fed directly into a series of online interactive workshops, alongside a SWOT and PEST analyses, to facilitate the development of the brand and marketing strategy.

We are now finalising a set of key messages which will be used across the organisation to educate key audiences and change perceptions of who Citizens Advice are and what they do.