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Brand Attributes

What is it? Your charity’s brand is one of its most important assets. The way you are viewed by the

general public affects your fundraising, your campaigning, and your service provision. Put simply, the way people perceive your brand affects every contact your organisation has with the outside world.

Brand Attributes is a way for you to find out exactly how people perceive your charity and the work that you do.

How does it work?

Twice a year (in April and October), we survey a nationally representative sample of 2,000 adult members of the British general public through an online panel.

Charities can buy into the research by joining the syndicate. Practically speaking this means that you get to view the results of all the syndicate members, with the advantage of having something to compare your own results to. It also means that the research is

much better value for money than if you were to buy individual questions through an omnibus, as the cost is shared between so many organisations.

What are the benefits of subscribing to Brand Attributes?

Find out the first words the public associate with your brand

Benchmark the words that people are most likely to select to describe your

brand compared to their ideal charity and other brands

Understand what the public think are the ideal attributes of a charity

working in your sector and how your charity measures up to these compared to others

Find out about the level of trust the public have in your charity brand and compare this with other charities

See who already supports you, who would consider it, and how this relates back to the perception that people have of your organisation

What topics does it cover? The core of the survey is a list of attributes (the same for all participants) from which

respondents have to choose the ten that best describe their ‘ideal charity’, both in general and in relation to specific sectors (e.g. health, child welfare). For example, attributes include words such as ‘trustworthy’, ‘supportive’, ‘caring/compassionate’.

From the same list, respondents are then asked to choose ten attributes which best reflect how they perceive specific charity brands.

This lets you see exactly how the public view your brand, and gives a blueprint against which you can rate yourself. For example you might see your brand as reputable, visionary and campaigning, while the public might see you as caring, and old-fashioned.

Once you know how you’re viewed, you can adapt the messages you’re sending out as an organisation.

As part of the survey we ask the public which words or phrases spontaneously come to mind when they think about your organisation. There is also space for each participating charity to add in their own set of statements which reflect their brand. We also ask the

public how much they trust your organisation. Each organisation can suggest up to two names of other organisations it wishes to

compare itself with to be added to the questionnaire. Finally, all results can be broken down by key demographics.

How much does it cost?

We offer a discount to clients who wish to buy both waves of research. Clients who already subscribe to the Charity Awareness Monitor also receive a discount on every option listed below.

Basic price*

CAM clients*

One wave (general public, 18+) £3,750 £3,250

Two waves (general public, 18+) £6,500 £5,500 *Prices are exclusive of VAT

Your subscription package includes:

Detailed PowerPoint report after

each wave of research A written summary of the results Interrogation/segmentation of data

on request Access to all your research via the

client area of our website

Invitations to our client seminars

known as Insight events

Annual networking opportunities to

meet charities working in the same area as your organisation

Who currently subscribes to the research? Charities that subscribe to Brand Attributes include:

Sample results

One of the slides that clients find interesting and useful in Brand Attributes is when we

ask the public what word springs to mind when they think of a particular charity. We

create a graphic where the size of each word reflects how many members of the public

selected it. Below is the relevant slide for an international development charity.

What are three words that spring to mind when you think of charity?

Source: Brand Attributes, nfpSynergyBase: All those aware of Oxfam (1,421) among 2,037 adults 16+, Britain, May 2009

This is just one slide from the monitor – the full report consists of nearly 200 slides, plus

any extra analysis or bespoke questions.

How to find out more If you would like more information about the Brand Attributes Monitor or a sample of

the results please contact Caterina Violi at caterina.violi@nfpsynergy.net or 020 7426 8868.

Our expertise in tracking public opinion and brand awareness We’ve written reports on vision, mission, values and branding for a range of charities.

Our publications include:

Mission Impossible

We bring together over 80 vision statements from a range of organisations in

the charity and not for profit sector. We don't claim it's exhaustive or

representative, just useful (even so the full version is over 100 pages long). We added

analysis to the beginning of the collection to give you our thoughts on examples of good

practice. This publication is a must for any organisation that is determined to be driven

by a clear and powerful vision, mission and values.

Polishing the Diamond

A charity's image is crucial to the success of every part of the organisation. Unlike

companies who have products and services to sell, charities are often selling an idea or

a cause. As such, the image of the charity is crucial to its financial success. People often

buy from companies whose products they like even if they are indifferent to the

company as a whole. How many people give to a charity that they are indifferent to?

‘Polishing the Diamond’ contains invaluable rationale for charities to make more

substantial investment of resources in their brand and provides some

practical examples of organisations that have set positive examples in this

area.

Branding: the jeweller's story

Case studies from the voluntary sector plus a branding toolkit

Here we have pulled together a series of branding case studies from across the sector

and have incorporated some of the simple branding tools that we had either developed

or come across in the last two years, that we felt would help organisations develop their

own approach to branding.

About nfpSynergy nfpSynergy is a research consultancy dedicated to the not for profit sector. Our aim is to provide ideas, insights and information that helps not for profit organisations thrive. Our clients include charities, housing associations and public bodies who use our research to inform their strategies and planning. From our origins in syndicated tracking research on public attitudes for non-profit clients, nfpSynergy has now grown its portfolio of bespoke research to become one of the leaders in non-profit sector market research.

Our size and our story nfpSynergy was created in 2002 as a division of the Future Foundation. Two years later the founder Joe Saxton led a management buy-out. In 2009 we had an annual turnover of £1.6 million and around 20 staff members including a variable number of interns. We own our own premises in Spitalfields.

Tracking research We run several tracking surveys that monitor the attitudes and opinions of key stakeholder groups relating to the not for profit sector. The research is done for a syndicate of participating charities who share costs and data. The aim of our tracking studies is to provide lower cost, more frequent and more detailed research than any organisation could achieve by acting on its own. The tracking research includes:

Charity Awareness Monitor (CAM) - the general public Charity Parliamentary Monitor (CPM) - MPs and Lords Youth Engagement Monitor (YEM) – young people

In addition, we have developed syndicated tracking studies on journalists, local authorities, health professionals, the general public in Scotland and the Republic of Ireland.

Projects and consultancy Each year we carry out around 50 projects for non-profit clients that include surveying over 100,000 people from the general public, supporters and staff. We also carry out over 50 focus groups a year on average and interview over 100 people in more depth either face to face or over the phone. We are a full member of the Market Research Society, on the COI list of approved qualitative and desk research agencies and on the British Council’s fundraising agency

roster. Our projects and consultancy work covers a vast range: from helping the British Council to develop an income-generation strategy to investigating apprenticeships in the NHS through to researching the barriers and opportunities for young people in seeking help. In particular we specialise in stakeholder audits and in supporters and client/user satisfaction studies. We also have a particularly strong record of work in the health and young people sectors.

Our clients include There are over 75 organisations we have worked with in the last two years alone. These include: the Audit Commission, The Big Lottery Fund, Ofsted, the Scout Association, Cancer Research UK, Macmillan Cancer Support, NSPCC, Save the Children, Oxfam, Moorfields Eye Hospital, Skills for Health, the British Council, Drinkaware, National Housing Federation, UNICEF-UK and WWF-UK.

Our research standards and data protection: As full members of the Market Research Society, we comply with their code of conduct at all times, ensuring that research is carried out in a professional and ethical manner.