From September 2020 to June 2021, Capco Switzerland supported Room To Read on two independent projects – go-to-market strategy support and GDPR advisory & training.
Room to Read is creating a world free from illiteracy and gender inequality. We are achieving this goal by helping children in historically low-income communities develop literacy skills and a habit of reading, and by supporting girls as they build skills to succeed in school and negotiate key life decisions
1. Market Analysis
Introduction
The client wants to expand their footprint in Switzerland. By tailoring their marketing and communication activities R2R wants to further establish its brand, by becoming well-known in the Swiss market by different donor segments and entering new corporate and institutional partnerships in Switzerland. Developing a go-to-market (GTM) strategy and increasing brand awareness was difficult, because the client lacked the necessary Swiss-specific knowledge.
What we did
Capco was asked to provide strategic recommendations on how R2R can increase its brand awareness in Switzerland. Support consisted of a detailed target market and competitor analysis including an assessment of the Swiss media landscape as part of the go-to-market-strategy. The output can be considered as the key components of a marketing/ communication strategy.
How we did it
In order to achieve R2R’s objectives, we analyzed the Swiss market specifics, the Swiss consumer segments and R2R’s NGO competitors. In detail, the following approach was followed:
- As-is assessment of R2R’s current marketing strategy
- In-depth analysis of 15 key competitors and their strengths and weaknesses in marketing and communication
- Development of a framework and scoring model for market analysis to quantify results:
o Brand relationship index: Captures the quality of the consumer-brand relationship based on trust, satisfaction and commitment/attachment
o Media relationship index: Measures the amount of the NPO's media/marketing partners compared to competitors
o Media coverage index: Describes the NPO's media reporting intensity in the top national online news compared to competitors
- Assessment of the Swiss media landscape and identification of potential partnerships
- Customer segmentation based on selected criteria on demographics, psychographics and consumer behaviour
- Strategic recommendations on market entrance, communication measures and targeted messaging across key channels, including ensuring “Swissness” in messaging
- Capco CSR team presented the final results and strategic recommendations to the NGO’s Executives
Results
Overall, Capco helped R2R in strengthening its brand awareness, and ultimately increase number of donors, by generating:
- A deep understanding of Swiss market specifics, including strengths and weaknesses of key competitors and target customers
- Insights for a unique selling proposition in the new market based on a detailed gap analysis
- Concrete advisory for strategic partnerships
- Strategic recommendations on market positioning, and communication
- Components of the go-to-marketing and communication strategy
Thanks a lot to Sarah Bidinger, Sophia Steinmetz and Sarah Klinger for this great achievement, which will be extended now for other geographic regions as well.
2. GDPR Advisory
Introduction
With the implementation of GDPR, unfortunately many donors (approximately 80%) did not confirm to have their personal data kept within the Room to Read database – they neither opted in nor opted out. Hence those donors are out of scope of the outgoing flow of communication sent by Room to Read to donors (marketing communication, update on R2R activities, requests for donations, etc.), but might be interested to still receive communication in the future. Additionally, R2R was lacking clear guidance on how to handle new obtained contact details for potential donors in light of GDPR. Objective of the assignment was to help R2R in continuing their direct marketing activities while simultaneously reducing their exposure to non-compliance risks and implications.
What we did
The client wanted to become GDPR compliant in terms of data controlling and processing of past and current donors. Capco was asked to support with an analysis of main gaps with GDPR compliance regarding donors’ data controlling and processing, and list out recommendations to be implemented.
• Existing donors: R2R requested guidance on how to opt-in past donors that didn’t yet give their permission of data storage and ensure those identified ones will be included in future communication
• New donors/prospects: R2R wanted to understand how to treat data of new donors and prospects, and what needs to be done to be GDPR compliant.
Recommendations to privacy policy updates on employees’ data retention were also included in the delivery, as well as a training session hosted.
How we did it
- Analysis of trainings, processes and policies to provide list of recommendations for reaching GDPR compliance
- As-is assessment of the client’s GDPR compliance with regards to new and existing donors’ data
- Recommendations to amend privacy policy with employees’ data
- Identification of 7 main gaps, proposed remediation actions and detailed implementation plan for each gap
- Translation of identified GDPR gaps into business practices
- Final training session on best practices by our GDPR SMEs to the head office in San Francisco
Results
Through our engagement, we were able to increase the degree of compliance with GDPR and in detail reached the following achievements:
- Enhanced R2R employees’ awareness of its on data protection regulation standards and policies
- Support in the inclusion of past, current and future donors in external communication channels for fundraising campaigns
- Ensured a Privacy policy amendment with employee data retention
Thanks a lot to Gianluca Soldati, Florence Anglès, Sarah Bidinger, Coumba Ndiaye and Daniel Rubenov for this great success!