Stronger Foundations
IN A NUTSHELL
Stronger Foundations is on a mission to end global malnutrition but they were struggling to tell a tight, compelling story. The answer was hiding in plain sight. Once we saw it, ‘A Stronger World’ was born.
FULLER STORY
Stronger Foundations needed to tighten their brand story and what they stood for. They had tried in the past, but it had lacked a satisfying conclusion and wasn’t giving the organisation what it needed.
Nutrition isn’t on the radar of most philanthropists. So we needed to come up with a proposition that would not only establish a distinctive story, but also inspire more people to divert money and energy to this space.
The leadership team were passionate about the idea of unlocking human potential. Tackling nutritional inequality can help address other inequalities holding people back, benefitting all of society.
However, “unlocking potential” felt quite cold and was biased towards the long-term. They needed a bridge that spanned their full spectrum of work, from ongoing systemic challenges to more urgent needs.
THE AH-HA MOMENT
It wasn’t a killer insight buried in research. It was just sitting quietly in the organisation’s name all along: the word ‘Stronger’. And the minute we realised it, the story began to write itself.
‘Stronger’ gave us an emotive lens through which to view human potential. With so much of humanity malnourished, our world is weakened - at individual, community and societal levels. Collective strength is what SF is fighting for. We had our bridge.
A STRONGER WORLD
This phrase became Stronger Foundation’s new north star. It was a vision everyone could get behind, reframing nutrition from an idea many perceive as a nice-to-have, to something fundamental.
This elevated their narrative from a seemingly small conversation about nutrition to a far bigger and further-reaching story. It now speaks to any philanthropist motivated to support profound change.
BRAND MANIFESTO
I wrote the following manifesto to bring this simple proposition to life both inside and outside the organisation. It needed to feel urgent but also hopeful. And it would be used to inspire other communications.
The ‘Stronger World’ narrative filtered quickly through to a lot of social content SF were making. I wasn’t involved in this but it’s always nice to see your thinking coming through in other people’s work:
““Andy was such a pleasure to work with. He took in a ton of information in a very short period of time and helped turn our complex brief into a powerful and actionable new brand strategy. I’d absolutely work with him again and would recommend him to anybody!””
BRAND VALUES
Next we created three organisational values to guide efforts and act as a litmus test for comms and events. We refined these as a group until it felt like we had Stronger Foundation’s DNA in our hands.
A NEW LOOK
From here, Creative Director Lou Desborough developed a new visual identity and website, using the new Brand thinking to steer things. Thanks to her for getting me involved in the first place. Looks good Lou!
FINAL THOUGHT
Some projects are satisfying because of the effort it takes to extract the answer. On this occasion, the opposite was true. The answer was sitting there all along and it was our job to notice it.
“Stronger” is a word that carries real power. I persuaded the client to remove the F from their “SF” logo to hero the S. I suggested they also simplify their name to just ‘Stronger’ too. Maybe one day…
