The International Research Foundation for English Language Education (TIRF)
A non-profit supporting breakthrough research in how English is taught to non-native speakers, creating opportunities for upward mobility around the globe.
Company Name: The International Research Foundation for English Language Education (TIRF)
Location: Interlochen, MI
Industry: Education
TIRF provides an incredible service. They help advance how English is taught to students around the globe by supporting scholars with breakthrough research in this area. Just think of how much our world has changed in the past 3 years. Shouldn't the way language is taught change along with it?
And when it comes to English proficiency - which creates opportunities and upward mobility for folks in developing countries - it's critically important that language education evolves with the times. Like most non-profits, TIRF was fiscally mindful, but knew it was time to rebrand and revisit their mission, values, and strategies.
We partnered up with Generation Web in Denver, CO, to create a team that could both strategize and execute on a new site for TIRF.
Disciplines
Brand Strategy
Mission Statement
Vision Statement
Values
Positioning
Differentiators
Messaging & Launch
Logo Design
“Alicia Disantis and her team at 38th & Kip did an outstanding job in working with TIRF. Throughout the course of several months [in 2021], she helped to redesign our logo and provided input on elevating our brand in the language education industry.”
Goals
Defining Brand Values
Values are important to any company, but they are especially important to non-profits. “Competition” is a dirty word among non-profits, but in truth, non-profits need to explain their value and worth just as much as a for-profit organization. After all, they are asking for money and support, and folks need to trust they’ll do right by them.
Understanding Their Audience
Like many non-profits, TIRF had a complex mix of “customers,” ranging from student donor recipients, to donors, to partners, and more. Each group had a certain set of needs, goals, and interactions with TIRF.
Determining What Services to Offer
As higher education’s place in society evolves, TIRF needed to understand what services they could offer to support their overall operational goals.
“As a first step, she met with several members of my Board of Trustees and me to better understand the nature of TIRF’s mission and its programs. This process led to suggestions she crafted for our mission and vision statements, which we later adopted.”
Brand Strategy Workshop
Before any rebranding and web design work began, we conducted a series of brand strategy workshops to identify TIRF’S values, goals and audience. One of the biggest - and unfortunately - most common mistakes we see companies make is that they rush into a website or brand redesign without taking time to evaluate their brand strategy. This almost always creates problems down the line, because decisions about visuals, website content, structure, and navigation are made on the fly, almost like a patchwork.
We’ve all seen it - websites that seem disjointed, almost piecemealed together. The logo doesn’t match the site look and feel, and the text seems like it’s been written by a dozen different people. The navigation isn’t intuitive. The whole brand just seems clunky.
First, we conducted an immersive brand strategy workshop, which helped TIRF decision-makers talk through:
Who their customers and audience were
What their values and voice were
What made them different than other organizations in the education space
Once these questions were answered, we then defined ten values would act as a north star for TIRF as they evolve and develop new services.
“Alicia was very well prepared for our meetings and was extremely thoughtful in understanding our needs. She helped us to better understand how to create and maintain an informative and productive social media presence, which is now helping TIRF raise awareness of its brand around the world.
Alicia and 38th & Kip have my full confidence in working with organizations in different industries and different sizes. She is a consummate professional and a delight to work with!”
TIRF’s values were:
Enabling scholar research through funding
Supporting creation and dissemination of knowledge
Lowering the barrier to practical application
Fostering community and collaboration within industry
Supporting excellence in language learning research
Providing recognition, validation, and promotion of scholar accomplishment
Nurturing multilingualism and respect of native languages
Promoting importance of global community
Promoting diversity of language learning
English language is important globally
38th & Kip then used these values to create a series of mission statements for TIRF to choose from.
Marketing Action Plan
Lastly, we distilled all the information uncovered in the brand strategy workshop into actionable items that made sense based on TIRF’s brand and audience. Because what’s the point of brand strategy if you don’t know what to do with it? We discussed:
Best social media channels to connect with each audience
Outreach and messaging ideas
Ways to promote donor recipients and the important work TIRF was doing
TIRF Logo and Web Design
TIRF’s previous logo was significantly outdated and reflected poorly on the incredible work they were doing globally. They were a clean slate, wanting to maintaining just a few key elements from the previous brand: name, tagline, and color palette. Our goal was to create a logo that reflected their values, modernized their look, and provided flexibility for many applications.
TIRF’s new logo incorporates a subtle overlap design, paying respects to the overlapping nature of multilingualism and multiculturalism. Bold cobalt blues, indigos, and purples create a unique tone within the education space, representing creativity, positivity, and stability.
“Alicia went through several reiterations of our new logo and helped us eventually land on the one you can see on TIRF’s website and social media platforms. The final logo she and her team created provided a modern image we’re now happily using and has increased our flexibility in the various colors we can use for our organizational messaging.
Taken together, the new logo and color scheme help to capture the adapting nature of TIRF to the ever-changing landscape of our industry.”
Interested in seeing if brand strategy can help your new or growing business?
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