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[August 2007]
Brand Experience Toolkit [August 2007]
Table of Contents
The global AIESEC brand as we know it today was launched by AIESEC International in 2004. The first Brand Toolkit included
explanations on what is a brand, why we need one and the steps in order to achieve that, including our Brand Promise, visual
guidelines and marketing campaign.
In AIESEC, our global brand is represented through our living The AIESEC Way. Our “Brand Experience” is the experience we
want our stakeholders (members, supporters and enablers) to live when they interact with AIESEC. The closer we can make this
experience to the entirety of our Brand Experience the more we are strengthening our global brand every day.
Now a few years later, we see the need to evolve this further in order for it to be used in practice, including how it should be used in
relation to product development and messaging—a crucial step on the path to creating a strong global brand for AIESEC. As a
result, with the help of consultants from Unilever, we now have what we call the Brand Experience. This methodology will serve as
a tool that can be used to filter everything we do quickly and easily to understand its alignment to our brand, which in the end
supports in its strengthening.
Unlike the brand promise which was internally focused, the Brand Experience first considers the outside environment and looks
inward, reflecting how our stakeholders actually experience our brand when they interact with AIESEC, and how we do things
differently than our competitors. By being conscious of this we can ensure that we are strengthening our global brand in all actions
we take, meeting the needs of our stakeholders and putting us ahead of our competitors at the same time.
The Brand Experience has several elements that will be discussed in more detail in this toolkit. They include:
The next few pages of this toolkit will explain each section of the Brand Experience in more detail.
Our Competitors
Our competitors are other organizations that offer
similar experiences to our target audiences as we do.
Although there may be a few common competitors for AIESEC across this globe (ie) IAESTE for internships or JCI for volunteer
opportunities, your direct competitors will differ from country to country, and perhaps even from city to city. It is important that you
are aware of such similar organizations and the work they are doing so that you are able to identify how AIESEC differs from their
activities and what we offer to our target audiences vs. what our competitors offer to them.
• Members
The kinds of characteristics we would be looking for in potential members, enablers and supporters include:
• TN takers
o Companies expanding to other countries
o Companies that needs and employees with specific characteristics
o Companies with strong CSR or a willingness to start
o Issues focused; market leaders
• Learning/content partners
o Organizations working with issues relevant in society
o Global organizations (with global reach)
o Research-based organizations
o Individuals with specific skills/knowledge/experience in a particular field
• Mentors
o HR companies/specialists
o University professors
o Alumni
o Industry specialists
Physical manifestations
This layer includes all the external touch points (or
interaction points) our target audiences have with
AIESEC. Thus, their first interaction point with AIESEC
will affect how they experience our brand.
Benefits
These are the benefits that our target audiences experience when they interact with AIESEC.
• Societal impact
• International experience
• Global network
Although they are benefits for different reasons, the above four are benefits for all of our stakeholders, or target audiences. The
chart below explains this in more detail.
Societal impact
Benefit for members Benefit for supporters Benefit for enablers
Self development (leadership Supporting development of others Access to top talent; having top
development, self-discovery, Feeling of supporting to make an talent in their organization
skill building) impact on society Feeling of supporting to make an
impact on others
Global network
Benefit for members Benefit for supporters Benefit for enablers
Peers, alumni, businesses all Connect to youth around the world, Alumni, youth around the world,
over the world other organizations other organizations
International experience
Benefit for members Benefit for supporters Benefit for enablers
Our Values
Our values are an important part of the Brand
Experience. The organizational values defined in The
AIESEC Way were not made to be written up on a wall
and forgotten about. They dictate how we should act
according to our value system for the organization. Our
values are also what our target audiences experience
and live when they interact with AIESEC, thus they
definitely determine how others view us and experience
our brand.
Our values
Imagine a TN taker hears all about the ambitious top talented youth that • Demonstrating integrity
exist in AIESEC during his first interaction at a conference and decides to
taken on an intern for himself. Imagine that intern meets all his • Acting sustainably
expectations of being a bright, ambitious and passionate young person
• Activating leadership
that makes a big difference in the company. The impression that TN taker
will have of AIESEC will be quite good, because of the way he • Enjoying participation
experienced our brand. Now imagine the same situation but in a negative
way, this is not how we want our stakeholders to experience AIESEC. • Living diversity
That is why values are so important and interlinked with our brand.
• Striving for excellence
Differentiator
Youth driven impactful experience
Our differentiator is what makes us unique, or simply
put, what sets us apart from the competition. This layer
is very much linked with the next (the essence). While
the essence may not be unique to our competitors, our
differentiator is the unique point—how we do what we do
differently than our competitors.
• Youth driven – the concept that AIESEC is run by youth for youth
• Integrated experience – the AIESEC experience comprised of leadership opportunities, an international exchange and a
global learning environment
• Impact/activating positive leadership – making a positive impact on society
To express these three differentiators in one sentence we have come up with the phrase: Youth driven impactful experience. Each
part of this phrase has a strong meaning behind it.
Youth driven
This emphasizes energy, passion, emotion, and leadership or leading, essentially what AIESEC is about. It also reinforces
the fact that we are youth run.
Impactful
This is about the kind of experience that our stakeholders have when they engage with AIESEC, and the positive impact it
can have on them and/or on society.
Experience
The complete yet individual experience that our stakeholders have with AIESEC from a member’s AIESEC experience to a
TN taker’s experience with an intern to a sponsor’s experience at a conference. This experience draws together all aspects
of the AIESEC experience – leadership opportunities, international exchange and a global learning environment.
This sentence is not meant to be used explicitly to explain AIESEC. The essence behind this statement is what matters. When
you are explaining what sets AIESEC apart these are elements that should come up in your explanation, though the actual phrase
“youth driven impactful experience” is not meant to be a slogan.
Essence
This is the essence of what we do as an organization.
This may not be different to our competitors, but it is the
centre of our actions. Our differentiator is how we do
this differently to our competitors.
Through activating leadership we also want to communicate the important role the individual plays in the experience - the self-
driven element. We do this through the concept of AIESEC as a platform of opportunities from which individuals can drive their own
experience.
To use this tool, you will need to have your product in question with you. Go through the series of questions below and answer
them using a “traffic light” system: green if the answer if completely true, red if it is completely untrue and yellow if it is somewhere
in the middle. The Filter tool questions:
For products with many green’s, this is a very good representation of the Brand Experience and will help to strengthen our global
brand.
For products with many yellows, this should be an indicator that some parts of the product need to be worked on a bit more in order
to better reflect the whole of our Brand Experience and contribute to strengthening our brand. Use the Brand Experience filter tool
to help you identify what areas exactly need a bit of work in order to be more reflective of our ideal Brand Experience, and strive for
this.
For products with many red’s, first consider how much this product is reflecting our Brand Experience. If it is not, then it is not the
ideal way we would want our target audiences to interact with AIESEC. In this case, consider the need of this product in your LC or
MC and work out a plan to ensure the product will be redefined in the future, towards our Brand Experience, or consider phasing
out the product altogether, by finding other more aligned products to help meet the financial resources brought in by your non-
aligned product.