Name: Skandesha Saligrama

Roll No: eMEP-09-032

UNICEF: Case Study

UNICEF was established in December 1946 to help children after World War II in Europe
but later by 1950, its task was expanded with a motivation to help the children in all undee
developed countries. In October 1953, it became permanent member of the United Nations
system. UNCEF focused on children’s right to education, health care, and nutrition. UNICEF
was also the recipient of Nobel Peace prize in 1965 for its emphasizing programs in
developing community-level services to promote the health and well-being of children.

Problem Statement:

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), whose mission is to augment the lives of
children, had as its main source of revenue, donations by various public and private
organisations, governments and public. Out of this, Regular resources which were the
discretionary funds of UNICEF that were used for financing the programs, management, and
administration of the organization was shrinking. The reduction in unrestricted funds will
disrupt the advocacy kind of work imparted, running the field offices and also running the
long term projects. The organization had to improve its brand image from a general
perception about it being distant, inefficient, cold and rigid organization to an organization
whose values in serving the needy with tenacious engagement and focus had to be brought
back. The Key challenges that organization faced was in terms of positioning the organization
to highlight the impact and improve regular resources for unrestricted funding of its core
activities.

Analysis:

For the first time the organization had undertaken an exercise in branding now, with the
exception of minor refinements it had undertaken in the mid-1980s.

This time around, UNICEF's motivation was based on a realization that the organization,
according to director of communications Newman Williams, needed to build a stronger
relationship with its donors – donors, of course, being the lifeline for a non profit
organization to fulfil its mission. UNICEF’s donor contribution for 2001 is given in Fig 1.
UNICEF wants to present a consistent, relevant mission to both these entities of Private
donations and Governments of developed and developing countries.
Though UNICEF has always had a consistent focussed mission, focus group research has
revealed that, while the name "UNICEF" has strong top-of-mind awareness, the public was
not really clear on the mission – even to the extent of its relation to children and the kind of
interface with United Nations.

Essentially there were analysis done on the Logo emblem, conveying of the brand essence
and an effective strapline, in a way to rejig the branding tool kit. Determining the fact that
whatever UNICEF does isn’t mystifying and pretty straightforward, the explicit definition
through their tool kit needs to be done by breakthrough business tool kit modifications in
achieving the brand new identity.

UNICEF needed to be much more than a logistics and delivery system (e.g., bringing goods
to children) to a multilateral agency that works in national and global scopes. Their core
competence was in rigorous approach and integrity in their activity they performed and
extensive network of field units that advocated the mission. Their work in active involvement
in advocating for the protection of children's rights, successful and effective running of
regional ground forces the key to their implementation channel would suffer if this focus is
lost.

A brand audit of the organization also reveals too many logos and straplines customized
across different parts in accordance was leading to dilution of the brand, it didn’t convey the
objectives though at a higher level their mission was understood, lack of awareness lead to
the organization being understood as a vague, uncontrollable and essentially an United
Nations controlled cash cow without regional control. The efficacy was the erosion of the
brand value and in essence reduction in the donor contribution. The communication materials
were found to be ponderous with no taglines conveying the mission, inability to attach to the
direct public and the image lacking the essential pro activeness and the purpose of addressing
the children’s rights.

The redefining of the strapline and coming up with appropriate vision statements highlighting
the Rational and emotional values was the trend that needs to be set.

Unicef was already multi cultural organization with its steering committee well represented
by people with different backgrounds and domiciles. However, the flow down of values and
addressing it to the different regional centres, their adoptability hasn’t been very clear.

Another important factor will be that of the beginning of the new tool kit roll out probably
presenting the greatest resistance. Multifaceted Nonprofits organizations like UNICEF will
often face tremendous opposition both internally and externally to what is seen as either a
waste of time and resources, or a gratuitous promotion of the wrong priorities. The
organization should gear up to convey the necessary change and highlight the essence of the
Brand tool kit to convey the intent.

Recommendation:

The Rebranding is an essential activity considering the challenges that were faced in
conveying the right message to the supporters of the organization and reaching out to the
public, however the UNICEF needs to bring out the new brand concepts Organically unlike
private corporation which dump the previous ones. This is essential considering the
multifaceted framework, rate of adaptability in different parts of the world, the way
organization is being run for decades and the necessary time related to sink in the new brand
image.

It’s correct in going with a single image and strapline as this would avoid diluting the brand,
maintain uniformity and will be more effective identity element which defines their
functional purpose and their aspirational goal. The first half of the strapline, "For every child
Health, Education, Equality, Protection" describes the mission of UNICEF, while the second
half, "ADVANCE HUMANITY," lays out the vision. However separating four elements
from the logo was not a good initiative as both of them had a Symbiotic relationship.
Particularly the implicit conveying of a Child by an ‘i’ in chunkier font wasn’t rational.
Secondly it posed a big problem where the logo was more ubiquitous and especially in places
where people don’t understand the letters. The name and the symbol of mother and child
should go hand in hand to convey the right message. The Advance Humanity will convey
what the organization is to the large donor’s base. The new colour scheme was not adding
more youthful value and not giving a strong fresh look to new material, hence a bolder colour
conveying the identity is required(Preferably the legacy dark blue).

To avoid the resistance internally across the organization for the new tool kit, there should be
an “effective game plan” as national committees that haven't done anything like this and
earlier successes of previous plan might cause reluctance in implementation. This is game
plan have asking the people associated and umbrella branches to ponder on the advantages of
the new plan, why it’s being undertaken and also positive results of the undergoing change.
They should have an effective promotion and workshops to address the resistance.

The organization should work towards becoming lean. Currently there is a lot of disconnect
and it’s being perceived as a three distinct groups. The HQ staff outlining the ideology and
concepts, the national committees the key fundraisers, and the key sub division of field
offices which implemented the field programs needed to have common messages, target
audiences in accordance and ready for adapting to changes. They should establish a coherent
and full duplex communication flow down and should function more as laterals rather than
hierarchical ones.

The organization also should work on reaching out to more corporate, private institutions and
other popular means of promotion like sponsorship and fundraising. This focus will give
unique reach and access in every country in the world, address the rights violations
effectively, make an effect on the policies and actions of governments and increase social
awareness.(By 2009, the Unicef had followed this by going with this measure with
Barcelona FC,NASCAR, Canadian National Tent pegging team)

Closing notes:

Looking at the positive results, Newman-Williams should go ahead with the new Brand tool
kit, the logo should have a signature of UNICEF in a simplified font and the mother and child
drawn out to the edge of the ring surrounding them to maintain the sensitivity, convey the
intent and maintain the ready recognition.