AAGAAS Federation

Submitted to: Prof. Shailender Singh Bisht Submitted by: Sayan Goswami Swagata Sinha Joyeeta Mukherjee Rahul Kumar Radhika Mishra

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Brand a very powerful word in the world of business. Important question is why the brand is so important or why business powerhouses or any company is keen to build a brand? Why consumers also look so much for a brand? What extra things brands provide for both the manager and the consumer? According to the American Marketing Association (AMA), a brand is a name, term, sign, symbol or design or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods and service of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of their competition. Companies go for branding mainly not to get the target market over competition but obviously to position themselves as the unique problem solver of any specific kind of problem. Brand provides credibility. Moreover from the company and managers point of view brand is important because it is source of a promise to its customer as well as a way of communication with the consumer. From customer point of view brand is important to minimize the risk or variability on quality aspect and also they place themselves in a mentally safe area or in a comfort zone.

ROLE of BRAND in Non Profit Organization Nowadays many small non profit organizations promote their brand name along with large non profit organizations. Non profit organizations usually promote their brand name for various purposes. They use their brand name for raising funds as well as various kinds of development and increase themselves beyond their reach.

AAGAAS Federation AAGAAS Federation a non profit organization was established in the year 2000 for various ecofriendly works in Pipalkoti, Uttarkhand same year when Uttarkhand separated from UttarPradesh and formed a new state. Till date AAGAAS Federation has been working on various projects which are related to the lives of local residents and the local biodiversity. They are working on various aspects like tree plantation, live stocks, natural fibre (specially nettle), bamboo handicrafts, fodder plants and ecotourism. Presently AAGAAS Federation is only working on Dasholi and Joshimath block of Chamoli district. Today almost 700 families from 16 villages are getting benefited with AAGAAS Federations work and the income level of these families has increased by almost 40%. People have become more knowledgeable about their products and familiar with various facilities available from the government or other organizations. Brands bring Cohesion and Capacity Brands play an important role in the non-profit sector to create organizational cohesion and build capacity. The strategy that shapes the image and identity of organizations is the most important responsibility of the people in the organization. The image helps the organisation to differentiate itself and the identity enables the organization to integrate within. When image and identity are in agreement the organization as a whole is externally adaptive and internally cohesive. The most powerful element of the brand thus in the nonprofit sector is the brand positioning and the increased cohesion. The upsurge in cohesion results when the organizational internal identity and external image are aligned with its mission and vision. This builds sense of trust, clear identity, more focus and sharing of values. 2 |Page

AAGAAS has taken number of activities to help the rural people in the mountains of Uttaranchal. They have been working continuously for the improvement of the Rudia community which has changed the fate of 1200 artisans with the revival of Ringal crafts and promotion of Ecotourism. The mission and vision of the company has been sustained through the number of projects it has undertaken. The number of projects taken has been clearly portrayed, thus building a sense of trust among the people that it will enhance their lives. This can be clearly seen as the federation initially started with only 3 groups that gradually increased to 38 groups in 2002. Now in 2012 it has more than 50 groups. AAGAAS has tried to achieve an objective of a healthy ecological life for the community with the Projects of Shri Badrinath Prasad Tokary and Eco-Tourism. The banning of plastics bags in the Shri Badrinanth temple has encouraged tourists to use small Ringal bamboo baskets for carrying flowers and increase their sales. This has helped in building a strong image for the company which will attract more tourists and help the people. The linkage between image and identity can also be maintained by strengthening the integration, communication, coordination and monitoring activities across the different areas by the organization. This coordination has been well maintained by the project heads of AAGAAS with SHG (self help group) members. The SHG are allocated responsibility by the project heads based on the special handling and understanding of the task by the community. The work given to the community gives them a sense of association with the work they do as they are skilled in it. Any development in the region is thus basically communicated throughout this community. One of the members of AAGAAS, Guddi Rawat who is the project head of Natural fibre development has been coordinating with Bhutia community to work on this project. Hence a strong relation has been developed over time between the communities and organization. Shaping and sustaining the image of the company is a greater challenge for the organization but AAGAAS has been able to achieve this with its continuous development in the projects. Their projects have given them a clear identity and trust among the people.

IDEA framework for AAGAAS Federation:The mission statement for AAGAAS Federation is To contribute to the economic development of the people of Uttarakhand, through various employment generation initiatives which optimize the available natural resources and skills, keeping in mind the environment sustainability of the Central Himalayan region The vision statement is To be a leading NGO, spearheading activities for the all round development of the rural communities of Uttarakhand, by promoting the rich heritage of the Himalayas, while at the same time protecting the fragile ecosystem. Brand Identity So from both mission and vision statement we can say that the internal identity of the AAGAAS Federation is more about an NGO which is dedicated towards various activities which will create job opportunities in Uttarakhand by using various skills keeping the environmental harmony in mind. Presently they are working with projects like ecotourism, bamboo handicrafts, natural fibre and integrated fodder and livestock development program. Obviously they are in line with their mission statement and external activity or image. Each and every member of AAGAAS Federation is from the local area only so that they can understand the importance of those projects and can be in line with the 3 |Page

activities. AAGAAS Federation is also associated with tree plantation activities which is part of their ecotourism project and is also in line with their biodiversity mission. These tree plantation activities generally happen with the financial help of various corporate bodies. Corporate bodies fund them because they find that AAGAAS Federation is working keeping their mission and vision statement in mind and there is synchronization among those statements and their works. This also improves their public image and they are using that improvement for better funding from various bodies. Brand Democracy: Brand democracy tells about how well all members are integrated with the idea of brands core identity. This also gives the authorization to work and the members themselves become identity of the brand. In case of AAGAAS Federation we can see that one or two employee individually heading one project. More authorities are provided to the staffs. The trust factor or authority comes from their background, where they come from, knowledge and interest. One another important factor is use of social media like facebook for AAGAAS Federation. In facebook there are various AAGAAS Federation community pages and many people are associated through those community pages. Staff posts the project activities and pictures on those pages and volunteers are able to spread awareness about their activities. Moreover winning a national based case study competition on premium B school XLRI Jamshedpur gives a very good exposure. Brand Ethics: AAGAAS Federation uses smiling faces of local people, beautiful pictures of Himalayan herbs and shrubs and scenic beauty of Himalayan ranges. They put pictures of beautiful handicrafts made by the local artisans on their brochure and website. They also show the new innovative products made by local artisans. They also mention about the beautiful tree plantation garden. All those activities actually show the alignment of internal identity and external images. Moreover events like anti liquor movement to stop making and consumption of illegal liquor shows the ethical value of the organization. They are not only working for better earning options but also for the better life and society of the region. Brand Affinity: AAGAAS Federation prove themselves as very good team player as they are working in complete synergy with other brands like Mumbai based Ecoserve, local powerhouses like THDCL, national giant NTPC, international non profit organizations like UNDP, SGP, GEF, Satoyama and local nonprofit organizations like Himmotthan Society. AAGAAS Federation is working on profit or revenue or benefit sharing with all those above mentioned brands or other brands who are working inline with them. While working with those brands, they actually are achieving the bigger goal of finding balance between the economical growths by maintaining local biodiversity without exploiting each other. As a result those brands also consider AAGAAS Federation as an important partner and they are actually promoting themselves through AAGAAS Federation.

AREA of IMPROVEMENT for AAGAAS FEDERATION: Obviously the organization is lacking on various areas like decision making process, pride factors among the staff, volunteers and associates, ability to understand the complexity of the project and whether they are inline with their core operational area or not, communication gap with other larger 4 |Page

associates and umbrella organizations. The organization has some failure story also. Conflict with Himmotthan Society regarding the process affecting the external image and harmony of AAGAAS Federation. So for AAGAAS Federation it is not important to take each and every project from any organization but rather understand their strength and take projects according to it. In case of brand democracy also they need to improve a lot. The major problem with AAGAAS Federation is lower number of staff and lesser quality staff. These staff are not educated enough and they are not also trained enough to do their work with the alignment of mission statement. Lack of computer training and other kinds of organizational training also becomes obstacle for working with the alignment of mission statement. AAGAAS Federation needs more educated staff or volunteers with more authority so that they can come up with more projects which are in alignment of their internal identity and keeping the limitations in mind. In case of brand ethics they need to keep communication problem and other conflicts in mind. These kinds of communication problem creates problem for brand ethics as external image gets disturbed. In case of such situation AAGAAS needs to find out some associates who can play the role of ice breaker between two organizations and improve the external image. AAGAAS federation also need a team of people who can take decision on various aspects from managerial to all other aspects.

FURTHER IMPLICATION:AAGAAS Federation has a good reputation in Uttarakhand especially in Chamoli and Dasholi district and till date they are not very high profile non-profit brand. AAGAAS Federation is more an emerging non-profit brand than an established one. AAGAAS Federation does not have proper classification in board members, managers etc. Its mainly Mr.J.P.Maithani the chairman of this federation who is playing all the above mentioned roles. He is heading a small number of employees who are handling all those projects. So basically Mr. J.P. Maithani is lone responsible for understanding which project will be inline with their mission, vission, internal identity and external trust. Till date they are working on a very limited area of Uttaranchal so they face little risk and get diverted from their mission statement sometimes. But as they are growing and becoming an important player in that area they need to look after all small details. They are coming up with projects in association with UNDP, SGP, GEF and Satomaya and once they are implemented it will lead to an economic development of that area without disturbing biodiversity. Thus, they have to give stress on IDEA area and need to come up with more innovation in those activities without diverting from their core identity.

CONCLUSION We observe that AAGAAS needs to work on aspects of the brand framework IDEA. It needs to encourage employment so that their projects are implemented properly. Improve their working processes to get better results from their projects. 5 |Page

 Expand their working area to other villages in need for such upliftment. Apt Communication and Decision making processes will ensure smooth working of AAGAAS and thus lifting its brand and its social impact.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_role_of_brand_in_the_nonprofit_sector http://www.aagaas.org/

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