CareerVillage Case Study
Developing the Branding Strategy for CareerVillage’s AI Product Launch
Partner Context
Venture 2 Impact teamed up with Salesforce to involve employees in global skills-based volunteer opportunities. Here, employees utilize their professional skill sets to assist nonprofit organizations. The aim of this skills-based volunteering initiative is to aid nonprofit organizations aligned with Salesforce’s mission while enhancing their capacity and impact.
ABOUT CAREERVILLAGE
CareerVillage is a non-profit organization whose mission is to democratize access to career information and advice for underrepresented people. They do so by crowdsourcing the answers to every question from every student about every career. CareerVillage is building massive open-access reference databases and tools available to all learners.
You can learn more here
THE CHALLENGE: How might we support CareerVillage in developing a branding strategy for their new AI based program launch?
CHALLENGE Context
CareerVillage is currently in the development and beta testing phase of a new product aimed to launch by the end of 2024. The product is an AI based platform designed to be a career coach for both young students and adults across career levels and industries. While CareerVillage’s core products are geared towards young people, this new product is not only targeting the usual demographic but also a different and older audience of potential users. Due to limited resources and capacity, the organization does not have designated staff to focus solely on the branding strategy for the new product launch.
The Innovation
Volunteers conducted an initial assessment of the development stage, branding, and design of CareerVillage’s new AI-based platform. This aimed to establish the vision and scope of the product’s branding strategy, while also gaining insights into the organization’s needs and preferences.
Throughout the Discovery phase, the volunteer team and CareerVillage staff held regular meetings to ensure alignment on brand guidelines.
Building on the findings from the discovery phase, the volunteers collaborated to create a competitive branding analysis and style guide. These recommendations would guide CareerVillage in their strategic branding approach for the product launch.
After several months of constructive collaboration, the volunteer team presented their final deliverables and recommendations to CareerVillage staff. During the presentation, CareerVillage staff had the opportunity to ask questions for further clarification or inquire more into how to implement the recommendations. The final presentation gave both the volunteer team and staff the opportunity to ensure the recommendations were to be utilized in a way that would maximize the strategy of the branding style guide for CareerVillage’s new AI product.
Anticipated Outcomes
Immediate outcomes (1-2 weeks post-project)
- Increased confidence of CareerVillage staff to launch their new AI based career coaching platform
- Increased knowledge of CareerVillage staff of best practices for developing a successful branding strategy
- Increased capacity of CareerVillage staff to launch their new AI based career coaching platform
Intermediate outcomes (6 months post-project)
- Increased visibility and awareness of CareerVillage’s new AI based career coaching platform
VOLUNTEER FEEDBACK
“It was a nice way to step away from my normal projects for a bit and learn about a new space that I can contribute to with my professional skills. Opportunities like these help me feel a greater sense of purpose when I come back to my day-to-day work.”
“Creating connections with colleagues at Salesforce who I normally wouldn't get to work with and applying my design skills in a different way than I usually do by focusing on the branding design element of the project.”
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PARTNER FEEDBACK
“It was a pleasure working with the V2I team to support this pro-bono project. We really appreciated their organization and project management”
By the numbers...
- 100% of volunteers gained a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by nonprofits
- 100% of volunteers built new relationships with colleagues as a result of the project
- 100% of volunteers found it fulfilling to use their skills in a new or different context
- 100% of CareerVillage staff reported a high level of confidence to take next steps in utilizing the recommendations developed by volunteers
- On average, CareerVillage received $10,000 USD of pro bono services
- CareerVillage estimates that the Salesforce volunteer project saved them 40 hours of staff time over 4 months
