NBMBAA - Brand Audit & Assessment

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NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

Table of Content

Terms

Brand Audit Interview

Brand Audit

Brand Assessment

Brand Recommendations

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

Terms

Brand A person’s perception of a product, service, experience, or organization.

Brand Guidelines A set of rules that define how a brand works and how it should be used. Brandmark The symbol or unique emblem that is used within a logo. Brand Message The underlying value proposition and promise conveyed and language used that makes people relate to a brand by inspiring them, persuading them, motivating them, and ultimately making them want to buy, use, or share a product or service. Brand Signature The structure, position, and arrangement of the logo’s wordmark, brandmark, and tagline. Brand Strategy A plan for the systematic development of a brand in order to meet business objectives. Font A set of characters of the same style and size. Logo A graphical mark used to identify a company, organization, product or brand. Wordmark A distinct logotype or text-only typographic treatment of the name of a company or product used in a logo or as the logo for the purpose of identification and branding.

Branding The process of brand-building.

Brand Alignment The practice of connecting brand strategy and customer experience. Brand Ambassador Anyone who promotes the brand through interactions with customers, prospects, partners, or the media; ideally every company employee. Anyone who evangelizes or protects the brand; a brand steward; a brand champion. Brand Assessment An analysis of a brand’s strengths and weaknesses across all of its brand assets. The purpose is to identify brand gaps, inconsistencies, and opportunities. Brand Asset Any aspect of a brand that has strategic value (ie. logos, fonts, colors, graphics and visuals, photography, messaging, ads, print collateral, websites, social media accounts, promotional materials, style guides, brand guidelines, etc.) Brand Audit The gathering and reviewing of all brand assets for the purpose of understanding and determining a brand’s strengths and weaknesses. Brand Gap The disconnect between business strategy and customer experience. It’s the difference between who you say you are and who your customer says you are.

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

Brand Audit Interview

This audit includes some of what we learned while interviewing NBMBAA’s VP of Marketing, Rita Parker, about your brand and marketing efforts:

• How often do you refer to your current Brand Guidelines? Most NBMBAA Chapters follow the Brand Guidelines. However, not all Chapter Presidents refer to it. • What are some gaps, inconsistencies, and inefficiencies you’ve seen in your brand? - The NBMBAA brand is outdated, stale, and stagnant. - NBMBAA has rested on what was established 50 years ago and what is needed is a refresh button that says, ‘We’re not what we were 50 years ago’. - The “change” for NBMBAA is huge and hard. Some people are not always willing to do that. - The Board of Directors at NBMBAA has a very set opinion on why things should or should not change. - The “Leaders of Tomorrow” - the program for the 9th-12th graders - logo needed a refresh also. - NBMBAA has structural gaps when it comes to what role the headquarters serves to the chapters, what a successful chapter should look like, etc. Some of these gaps have never been assessed. - NBMBAA has an annual conference every September that is really hard to market because the staff usually walks into each year without a plan for the next conference later that year. - A full year is needed to plan and execute the annual NBMBAA conference, however, the staff usually starts planning and marketing the next conference around June or July for the conference in September. This only allows around 3 to 4 months to pull off an entire conference. • Why do you think these gaps, inconsistencies, and inefficiencies in your brand exist? - NBMBAA had to rebuild the organization when it transferred from Chicago to Atlanta in 2016. - The transition to Atlanta happened with a smaller, contracted staff. - The NBMBAA brand suffered as a result of the transition to Atlanta. - NBMBAA hasn’t been strategic about understanding the needs of its chapters, sponsors, and members.

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

- NBMBAA hasn’t put a system or structure in place to address the needs of its chapters, sponsors, and members or charted a plan for the next 10 years. - NBMBAA focuses a lot of its efforts and energy on planning and executing the conference every year. - NBMBAA rarely has time to plan the conference earlier in the year because the same staff is also doing annual programming for its chapters. - NBMBAA lacks a separate conference team to focus solely on the planning and execution of the conference year-round. - NBMBAA has never been able to get ahead of the annual conference. - NBMBAA has a process where there’s supposed to be a designated person who is connected to the chapters, but it’s not structured very well. - NBMBAA is a volunteer organization, which is a struggle. Most of NBMBAA’s Chapter Presidents are full-time employees with families and careers. - NBMBAA has “general” members who are not in a chapter and who don’t attend any events, and there’s not a lot that NBMBAA has to offer them. - NBMBAA’s “general” members want to have leadership development, home- ownership education, career coaching, and resume building, but these options are currently unavailable to them outside of a chapter. - NBMBAA does not have defined “Non-Member Offerings” and “Member Offerings” that are executed in every chapter. - Some NBMBAA Chapters are really small. Not all are as big as the chapters in cities like Atlanta and Chicago. The smaller chapters lack in offering some of the programming that bigger chapters offer. - NBMBAA needed a President/CEO with a vision for addressing these gaps, inconsistencies, and inefficiencies in the brand. • Do you think your customers see these gaps or inconsistencies in your brand? How do you think this has impacted their loyalty and desire to share your brand with others? - Yes. - The NBMBAA Chapters don’t feel connected to the national headquarters. - NBMBAA does surveys with its members and some of the feedback is that members don’t see the value of being a member other than the conference. - The NBMBAA “general” members who are not in a chapter and who don’t attend events are losing interest in being members because of this. - Some NMBAA Chapter Presidents aren’t as good at leadership which impacts their chapters directly. These chapters suffer as a result of this.

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

Brand Audit In preparation of this brand audit, we gathered insights about NBMBAA’s brand and reviewed some of its past and present brand assets. The purpose was to get an understanding of how NBMBAA has positioned its brand both online and offline, and to identify any brand gaps, inconsistencies, and opportunities. This audit includes what we learned while reviewing 10 of NBMBAA’s brand assets.

*We’ve color-coded each bullet point to indicate if the audit is…

Good

Caution

Concern

1. Brand Guidelines: Having a strong Brand Guideline saves time, money, and frustration. Managing the consistency and integrity of a brand requires intelligent standards and guidelines that everyone adheres to internally. Adhering to the guidelines requires discipline and vigilance amongst all key stakeholders.

• What are the fonts? The primary font is TradeGothic. The secondary font is Bodoni.

• What are the colors? The primary color is Blue (PMS 281). The complementary colors are Green (PMS 348), Blue (PMS 7455), Red (PMS 201), Gold (PMS 1255), and Yellow (PMS 124). The color palette used only specifies the Pantone number for each color. It should also include the RGB number, CMYK number, and Hex number for each color. • Are the fonts and colors properly defined and showcased? The fonts are properly defined and are showcased by name and weight in the Typography section of the Brand Guidelines. However, two of the fonts used in the actual logo are not defined or showcased in the Brand Guidelines. The colors are properly showcased, but not properly defined. Each color is missing its CMYK number, RGB number, and Hex number. • What are the rules? The Brand Guidelines list the following rules: - Rules on how to place and position the logo. - Rules on the minimum amount of clear space that must surround the logo to ensure its integrity. - Rules on how to and how not to use the logo. - Rules on color variations. - Rules on size restrictions for the logo. - Rules on the use of images. - However, there are no rules or guidelines for other brand assets such as promotional material, signage, social media, website, etc. • How easy is it to follow? The guide is easy to follow. It’s legible and provides headings and descriptions for each page.

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

2. Colors: Color is used to evoke emotion and express personality. It stimulates brand association and accelerates differentiation. The brain reads color after it registers a shape and before it reads content. Choosing a color for a brand requires a core understanding of color theory and color meaning. • Are the colors distinctive? The primary color Blue is distinct. It is carried throughout most of the logo and is used across all brand assets. However, the complementing colors within the logo are not as distinct. They’re darker and duller shaded colors. • What meaning has been assigned to the colors? The meaning and purpose behind the colors of the current logo is unknown. However, the Brand Guidelines states that “the cornerstone of the NBMBAA® Color Palette is NBMBAA Blue (PMS 281) and tints of that color. In addition, recommended colors exude a warmth and sophistication that reflect and reinforce the organization’s brand direction.” Based on the colors used in the logo, we have provided color definitions: - Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven. Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. Blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness. Dark blue is associated with depth, expertise, and stability; it is a preferred color for corporate America. - Green is the color of nature. It symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. Green has strong emotional correspondence with safety. Dark green is also commonly associated with money. Green has great healing power. It is the most restful color for the human eye; it can improve vision. Green suggests stability and endurance. - Red is the color of fire and blood. It is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. Red is a very emotionally intense color. It enhances human metabolism, increases respiration rate, and raises blood pressure. - Yellow is the color of sunshine. It’s associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy. Yellow produces a warming effect, arouses cheerfulness, stimulates mental activity, and generates muscle energy. Yellow is often associated with food. - Gold is the color of extravagance, wealth, riches, luxury, and excess, and shares several of the same attributes of the color yellow. Gold is often associated with jewelry, trophies, awards, first place medals, success, and victory.

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

• Are the colors being used properly on all brand assets? Yes. The primary color Blue along with the complementary colors are being used on all brand assets. The primary color Blue is used the most for text headers and backgrounds. The complementary colors are used for borders and text headers. 3. Font: The font is a core building block of an effective brand. A brand’s logo is not possible without a font that has a unique personality and an inherent legibility. Fonts are chosen for their legibility, their unique character, and their range of weights and widths. • Is the font distinctive? The font used in the logo is only distinctive because it is a dated font. It appears to be a “groovy, old school” font from the 1970’s that is considered dated for today’s fonts (see examples of fonts from the 1970’s below). This style of font, though dated, makes it identifiable. However, the fonts listed in the Brand Guidelines are different from the fonts used in the logo. The fonts in the Brand Guidelines are not unique. The TradeGothic font appears to be a standard sans serif font and the Bodoni font appears to be a traditional serif font. Neither of these fonts are unique.

• Is the font being used properly on all brand assets? The primary font - TradeGothic - from the Brand Guidelines seems to be used in all of the brand assets provided. The font is being used for text headings and paragraphs. The secondary font - Bodoni - from the Brand Guidelines is not used on any of the brand assets provided. There seems to be a few more fonts (possibly Bebas, Poppins, and Century Gothic) used in some of the promotional materials, but they are similar to the primary font. The fonts used in the logo are not used on any of the brand assets. This is an improper use of the fonts in the logo. Also, the font used for the tagline on the business card is different from the font used for the tagline on other brand assets.

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

4. Logo: • What meaning has been assigned to the logo?

The meaning behind the current logo is unknown. It is assumed that the current logo was created when the organization was founded 50 years ago. The creator of the logo is unknown. The dots in the logo represent the 5 channels (ie. Education, Career, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, & Lifestyle). • Is the logo being used properly on all brand assets? No. Though the company logo does follow the Brand Guidelines size restrictions, background control, and signature usage, some brand assets have the logo with the 5 dots and others do not. Also, the conference logo for 2020 is stacked underneath the corporate logo on some of the brand assets, which brings the total lines of text in the logo to 7 lines. This makes the combined logo harder to read when the size is reduced and placed on various brand assets. Instead, the conference logo should be separate or positioned next to the corporate logo. • Is the symbol distinctive? The logo doesn’t have a distinctive symbol. Most of the logo design is font- based. The only symbolic element in the logo are the 5 dots. The 5 dots offer no distinctive or distinguishable value to the logo.

5. Photography: • What types of photos are usually captured? Photos of events, conferences, classes, and social gatherings.

• Which photos capture the brand best? Though photos of events, conferences, classes, and social gatherings are captured, most of them lack character and personality. There aren’t enough candid, lifestyle photos that capture the mood, experience, and tone of the events and gatherings. Below is a list of the type of photos that can capture the brand best: - Up-close photos of people attending events and social gatherings (specifically photos of people not looking at the camera who are smiling, taking notes, laughing, thinking, and using technology). - Up-close photos of speakers speaking (specifically photos of their hand gestures, facial expressions, and personality). - Wide-angle photos of the audience. - Wide-angle photos of the event space (both indoor and outdoor). - Candid photos of people together (specifically photos of people not looking at the camera who are collaborating and working together, greeting each other, talking and laughing together). - Photos capturing the lifestyle of people (specifically photos of them at work, walking, working at their business, working with a team, reading, and planning).

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6. Promotional Material: • How are the brand colors incorporated?

The colors from the Brand Guidelines are incorporated in all promotional materials provided. The primary color Blue is used the most for text headers and backgrounds. The complementary colors are used for borders and text headers. • How are the fonts incorporated? The primary font - TradeGothic - from the Brand Guidelines seems to be used in all of the promotional materials provided. The font is being used for text headings and paragraphs. There seems to be a few more fonts (possibly Bebas, Poppins, and Century Gothic) used in some of the promotional materials. These fonts are not Trade Gothic, but they are similar to it. • Does the content communicate a consistent brand message? Yes and no. Though the promotional material reflects business, professionalism, personal development, leadership, and networking, which are consistent with the use of images in the Brand Guidelines, it lacks creativity and modern design. The messaging used includes words like “business”, “success”, “career”, “network”, “membership”, and “conference”, which are consistent with the organization’s mission, vision, and values. However, after reviewing the brochures and presentations provided along with a lot of the social media posts, we’ve concluded that the promotional material is dated and needs a more modern look and feel.

7. Signage: • How are the brand colors incorporated?

The colors from the Brand Guidelines are incorporated across all signage from the photos provided of the 2018 conference in Detroit. The primary color Blue is used the most for text headers and backgrounds. The complementary colors are used for borders and text headers. • How are the fonts incorporated? The primary font - TradeGothic - from the Brand Guidelines seems to be used for text headings, messaging, and directions. • Does the content communicate a consistent brand message? Yes and no. Though the messaging used includes words like “Empowered”, “Career”, and “Membership”, which are consistent with the organization’s mission, vision, and values, most of the signage lacks creativity and boldness of colors and fonts. None of the signage incorporates images of people, members, or professionals. There was not enough signage that used quotes, phrases, and relevant messaging that relates to the attendees and the theme of the event.

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

8. Social Media: • Which photos are used?

Photos of young professionals, speakers, and events.

• Does the content communicate a consistent brand message? No. Thought the images used reflect business, professionalism, personal

development, leadership, and networking, which are consistent with the use of images in the Brand Guidelines, they don’t show enough images of members, organization-related events, and chapter-related events. The social media accounts lack a narrative and visual representation of the members and Chapter Presidents that are the lifeblood of the organization’s brand. There aren’t enough stories about chapter members. Also, the social media strategy seems to be off-brand with a lot of content focusing on black celebrities. Several of the black celebrities highlighted (ie. Tina Turner, Whoopi Goldberg, Diahann Carrol, etc.) are entertainers, not business professionals. Though this garners more likes, comments, and shares, it’s not a proper representation of the organization’s brand message. This type of social media content may lead to followers who view your organization online as a black celebrity news outlet rather than a national black business organization. The messaging used includes words like “business”, “success”, “career”, “network”, “membership”, and “conference”, which are consistent with the organization’s mission, vision, and values.

• Which posts get the most engagement? From our assessment, LinkedIn gets the most engagement, followed by Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. - LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/theblackmba

i. Posts that show portrait photos and a caption that highlight the success and story of African American professionals with a direct link to a news article get the most engagement. ii. Posts that have captivating titles at the top with a photo underneath get the second most engagement. iii. Posts that have a video get the third most engagement. - Instagram: instagram.com/theblackmba i. Posts that have captivating titles at the top with a photo underneath get the most engagement. ii. Posts that show portrait photos and a caption that highlight the success and story of African American professionals get the second most engagement. iii. Posts that have a video get the third most engagement.

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- Facebook: facebook.com/theblackmba i. Posts that show portrait photos and a caption that highlight the success and story of African American professionals with a direct link to a news article get the most engagement. These posts also get the most likes and shares. For example, one of the posts from 2019 with a high engagement was a post titled “Teen mom at Trezevant High graduates with $1 million in scholarships, top honors”. That post received over 2,000 likes, 99 comments, and 453 shares. ii. Posts that have captivating titles at the top with a photo underneath get the second most engagement. - Twitter: twitter.com/nbmbaahq i. Posts that show portrait photos and a caption that highlight the success and story of African American professionals get the most engagement.

9. Stationery: • How are the brand colors incorporated?

Stationery is an ideal brand asset to showcase the use of your brand colors. The primary color Blue from the Brand Guidelines is incorporated the most on the stationery. However, the complementary colors are not incorporated at all, except within the logo. • How are the fonts incorporated? The primary font - TradeGothic - from the Brand Guidelines seems to be used for text headings and paragraphs. However, both the business card and letterhead lack creativity and modern design. The stationery feels dated and text-heavy with no design aesthetic or layout.

10.Website: • How are the brand colors incorporated?

The colors from the Brand Guidelines are incorporated on the website, but without a sense of hierarchy. The colors are used mostly as background color, buttons, and icons. It seems the colors Blue and Red are used the most, though Red is not considered a secondary color to Blue in the Brand Guidelines. • How are the fonts incorporated? The fonts from the Brand Guidelines are not incorporated on the website. This may be due to the fonts not being uploaded to the website to be used. The fonts used on the website include Helvetica Neue, Montserrat, and Oswald.

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• Does the content communicate a consistent brand message? No. Though, the images used on the website reflect business, professionalism, personal development, leadership, and networking, which are consistent with the use of images in the Brand Guidelines, the website lacks a clean, modern design. The website doesn’t properly use images, graphics and text to tell the story of the organization. Instead, the website is cluttered with a lot of boxed images, white space, and copy. The website lacks information architecture, design direction, and a brand story.

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

Brand Assessment

This assessment analyzes 11 of NBMBAA’s brand assets based on strengths and weaknesses that we identified.

Assets

Strengths

Weaknesses

Brand Guidelines

The Brand Guidelines has rules on how to use the logo, color, and images.

The 3 fonts used in the logo are not listed in the Brand Guidelines. The TradeGothic font listed in the Brand Guidelines is not used in the logo. There are no rules or guidelines for other brand assets such as promotional material, signage, social media, website, etc. The color palette used in the Brand Guidelines only specify the Pantone number for each color. It should also include the RGB number, CMYK number, and Hex number. The color Blue in the logo that was provided is not the same color Blue in the Brand Guidelines. This is a major inconsistency. The Brand Guidelines shows several complementary colors. The use of several colors in the logo can diminish the value of the logo and brand. The complementary colors don’t form a cohesive color palette. The colors don’t blend well together naturally. The use of complementary colors in the 5 dots at the bottom of the logo lacks purpose and meaning. These colors don’t feel like they belong.

Colors

The primary color Blue represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness. It is associated with wisdom, confidence, and intelligence. Blue is linked to consciousness and intellect. It is the preferred color for corporate America. These are all attributes that are consistent with the overall brand, mission, vision, and values of the organization.

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

Font

The font size and font weight for the word “mba” makes the logo recognizable.

The fonts in the logo look dated. The font used for the word “mba” appears to be a “groovy, old school” font from the 1970’s. This font is considered dated for today’s fonts. The logo incorporates 3 different fonts that don’t blend together visually. The first font that reads “NATIONAL BLACK ASSOCIATION, INC.” is an all-caps san serif font. The second font that reads “mba” is a lowercase san serif font. The third font that reads “Empowering Visionaries.” is a title case serif font. The logo looks dated and lacks uniformity and design perspective. The placement and arrangement of the name of the organization, the tagline, and the 5 dots in the logo all lack symmetry. The 5 dots at the bottom of the logo have no design narrative and lack visual representation of the organization. They don’t add value to the logo visually. The conference logo for 2020 is stacked underneath the corporate logo on some of the brand assets, which brings the total lines of text in the logo to 7 lines. This makes the combined logo harder to read when the size is reduced and placed on various brand assets.

Logo

The word “mba” is pronounced and garners the most attention in the logo. This is consistent with the idea that the word “mba” is the central and most memorable word in the name of the organization.

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

Photography The photos being used on all brand assets are of events, conferences, classes, and social gatherings.

Most of the photos provided are of people posing for the camera. There aren’t enough candid, lifestyle photos that capture the mood, experience, and tone of the events and gatherings. There are several photos of people attending events who are sitting and looking toward the stage with no facial expression. These photos lack character, personality, and an overall reaction. There are little to no professionally staged photos that capture specific and intentional moods, experiences, and lifestyles. There are little to no wide-angle photos of the audience or the event space (both indoor and outdoor). Most of the photos provided lack retouching edits, treatment, and/or filters. Most of the photos provided look like the original raw photos that were taken. Some of the promotional materials such as the brochures and presentations lack creativity and modern design. Some of the design layouts are either box-heavy or cluttered with several elements.

The photos capture people attending events in professional attire. The photos are consistent with the overall mission and vision of the organization.

Promotional Material

Most of the promotional materials provided are compliant with the Brand Guidelines regarding the use of color, fonts, and images.

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Signage

The images provided from the Detroit conference in 2018 showcases large displays and signage that incorporate the logo and colors from the Brand Guidelines. The use of the primary color Blue and the complementary colors are represented well throughout all of the signage. The complementary color Red was used as text headings and as a background color to draw attention to the messaging. The interactive display where attendees could write on the wall and the voting display with the yellow balls were great design concepts, user experiences, and attention- grabbers. The stationery incorporates the logo, font, and colors from the Brand Guidelines.

The logo had a different font for the tagline on all of the signage. This is not consistent with the Brand Guidelines. The overall design of the logo for the 40th annual conference didn’t connect to the theme of the conference or the tagline “One Voice. One Mission.” Some of the signage could use more creativity and boldness of colors and fonts. None of the signage incorporates images of people, members, or professionals. There was not enough signage that used quotes, phrases, and relevant messaging that relates to the attendees and the theme of the event. Both the business card and letterhead lack creativity and modern design. The stationery feels dated and text-heavy with no design aesthetic or layout. There is nothing memorable about the stationery other than the logo.

Stationery

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Social Media Most of the social media graphics created are

Posts don’t show enough images of members, organization-related events, and chapter-related events. Posts lack a narrative and visual representation of the members and Chapter Presidents that are the lifeblood of the organization’s brand.

compliant with the Brand Guidelines regarding the use of color, fonts, and images.

Post frequency is at least 1 per day.

There aren’t enough stories about chapter members.

Posts that show portrait photos and a caption that highlight the success and story of African American professionals with a direct link to a news article get the most engagement. Posts that have captivating titles at the top with a photo underneath get the second most engagement. Posts that have a video get the third most engagement. Posts have hashtags that are specific to the content within the post.

The social media strategy seems to be off-brand with a lot of content focusing mostly on black celebrities. Several of the black celebrities highlighted (ie. Tina Turner, Whoopi Goldberg, Diahann Carrol, etc.) are entertainers, not business professionals. Though this garners more likes, comments, and shares, it’s not a proper representation of the organization’s brand message. This type of social media content may lead to followers who view your organization online as a black celebrity news outlet rather than a national black business organization. There’s no overall theme or consistent branded look and feel of the social media graphics. The social media graphics look like they were edited using predesigned templates from online. Posts lack an engagement approach or strategy. They lack the use of questions, polls, creative call-to-actions, or opportunities to spark conversation, debate, or dialogue.

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Website

The brand colors from the Brand Guidelines are incorporated on the website. The images used on the website reflect business, professionalism, personal development, leadership, and networking, which are consistent with the use of images in the Brand Guidelines. The messaging used on the website includes words like “business”, “success”, “career”, “network”, “membership”, and “conference”, which are consistent with the organization’s mission, vision, and values.

The website lacks a clean, modern design. It is box-heavy with a lot of images in boxes, white space, and copy. The Homepage incorporates 12 sections, all with different layouts. It’s isn’t cohesive while scrolling. This makes the homepage less visually appealing and harder for a visitor to process. The website is heavy with copy. Some pages have close to 1,000 words (ie. Homepage has 984 words, About Page has 885 words). The layout of content on some pages doesn’t look as appealing or inviting to read (ie. Homepage, About Page, and Program Pages). The combination of images, copy, headings, and color aren’t arranged in a way that visually flows well while scrolling. It feels cluttered. There are two navigation menus (ie. Main Menu and Submenu) on certain pages. This makes finding information more difficult to a firsttime or returning visitor. The submenus on certain pages get lost on both desktop and mobile. These menus should lock to the top of the browser screen while scrolling, but they do not.

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Website Traffic

Note: Web Traffic = Users, Unique Users, Pageviews, Pages/Session, and Average Session Duration

Note: Web Traffic = Users, Unique Users, Pageviews, Pages/Session, and Average Session Duration Web Traffic: • There is a major drop-off of web traffic in the month of October, which is right after the annual NBMBAA conference. • Web traffic decreased by almost 50% from September to October. This shows a decline in awareness and engagement of the website. • Comparing December 2018 to December 2019, there was a decrease in overall web traffic. This shows a decline in growth and engagement year-to-year. Pageviews: • The total Pageviews during the months of January to May and October to December were 548,176.

Web Traffic: • Web traffic peaked in 2019 during the months of June to September. This may be due to the marketing and promotion of the annual NBMBAA conference. • Web traffic increased by almost 800% from June to September. This shows an improvement in awareness and engagement of the website during those months.

Pageviews: • The total Pageviews during

the months of June to September 2019 were 2,169,742.

Avg. Session Duration: • The website experienced an increase, month-over- month from January to September.

Avg. Session Duration: • The average session duration

decreased by more than 50% from September to October. This shows a decline in how much time a user spent on the website.

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

Brand Recommendations After a full audit and assessment, we have discovered enough identifiable gaps, inconsistencies, and inefficiencies to recommend a full rebrand of NBMBAA regarding the 10 brand assets we audited and assessed. Below is a list of our recommendations.

*We’ve color-coded each bullet point to indicate which recommendation needs to happen…

Before the Rebrand

After the Rebrand

1. Brand Guidelines: a. When creating Brand Guidelines, keep your corporate/company Brand Guidelines separate from your event/conference Brand Guidelines. b. Add the fonts used in the logo to the Brand Guidelines. c. Define the meaning and purpose of each font used in the Brand Guidelines. c. Add the RGB number, CMYK number, and Hex number to the color palette for each color in the Brand Guidelines. d. Define the meaning and purpose of each color used in the Brand Guidelines. e. Define how promotional materials are to be used in the Brand Guidelines. f. Define how signage is to be used in the Brand Guidelines. g. Define how social media graphics are to be used in the Brand Guidelines. h. Define how the website is to be used in the Brand Guidelines. i. Define which stakeholders will need access to the Brand Guidelines (ie. Head of Marketing, Chapter Presidents, Graphic Designers, Web Content Managers, Social Media Managers, Agencies, Photographers, Contractors, Freelancers, etc.), clearly define how they need to use it, and ensure that anyone who creates any type of brand asset, creative, or material adheres to it. j. Host an annual Brand Guidelines training with your key stakeholders, staff, and departments to review, update, and get overall buy-in to adhere to the Brand Guidelines within all departments. The Brand Guidelines is a living and breathing document that holds an organizations brand and use of brand assets together. Detail Brand Guidelines are vital to ensure brand consistency.

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

2. Colors: a. One way you can improve your brand colors is by narrowing them down to a primary color and a secondary color. These should be your brand colors. Great brands with memorable colors usually only have 1 to 2 colors in their brand (ie. Chick-fil-A, Pepsi, Target, Bank of America, Best Buy, Starbucks, Coca Cola, Amazon, Shell, etc.). Here are examples of popular brands that have 1 to 2 colors in their brand:

b. Choose brand colors that align with the brand message, mission, vision, and core values of the organization. These brand colors should blend well together and complement each other visually. Here are 2 examples of logo brand colors that each blend well together:

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

c. When choosing the right colors for your brand, it is important for you understand the meaning behind the colors. Refer to the color meanings we provided on p.7 in this document. To see more examples of color meanings, visit color-wheelpro.com/color-meaning.html. 3. Font: a. One way you can improve your brand is by choosing the right font for your logo. Choosing the right font involves thinking about the personality of your brand and the meaning of the colors you’ve selected. b. Select up to 5 fonts and compare them with fonts used in other logos from brands that have a similar personality to your brand. c. Narrow the fonts down to one or two fonts for the logo. Your logo shouldn’t have more than 2 fonts. Most great brands only have 1 font in their logo. d. We recommend that your font(s) be modern, clean, and legible when used in the logo. 4. Logo: a. Great logos incorporate both a wordmark (which is the font) and a brandmark (which is the symbol) that is unique, identifiable, meaningful, and memorable. For example, Amazon’s “smile” symbol and Nike’s “check” symbol are both unique, identifiable, and memorable. And their fonts are just as identifiable and memorable. Their symbol and their font work well together and can stand alone separately. b. Redesign the logo using a symbol and font(s) that is meaningful and memorable. c. Create a symbol or icon that can be used as the brandmark for the logo. The shape, color, and form of the symbol should be consistent with the organization’s brand message, mission, vision, and core values. d. Use a more modern font(s) as the wordmark for the logo. e. Think through the best placement and arrangement of the brand signature - how you write out the name of the organization and the tagline in the logo, and where you place the symbol. Make sure the arrangement is legible and easy to identify. Here is an example of the arrangement of a brand signature:

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

f. When creating conference logos for events/conferences, be mindful of the placement of the conference logo in relation to the corporate logo. Instead of stacking the conference logo underneath the corporate logo or combining them as one logo, keep them separate as 2 logos. Or size the text for the conference logo so that it doesn’t clash, compete, or clutter the corporate logo. Otherwise, both logos will be harder to read when the size is reduced and/or placed on various brand assets. Here are examples of organizations that have proper placement of their corporate logo and conference logo, or a combined logo:

5. Photography: a. Capture “lifestyle” moments that feel candid and not planned (specifically photos of people at work, walking, working at their business, working with a team, reading, planning, etc.). b. Capture photos of what members look like at work, in meetings, and at events when they are wearing casual attire instead of a business suit. c. Capture up-close photos of people attending events and social gatherings (specifically photos of people not looking at the camera - who are smiling, taking notes, laughing, thinking, using technology, etc.). d. Capture up-close photos of speakers speaking (specifically photos of their hand gestures, facial expressions, and personality). e. Capture wide-angle photos of the audience or the event space (both indoor and outdoor). f. Capture candid photos of people together (specifically photos of people not looking at the camera - who are collaborating and working together, greeting each other, talking and laughing together). g. Look for moments that have character, personality, and an overall reaction. These moments capture more of the mood, experience, and tone of your events and gatherings.

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

h. Consider staging professional photoshoots to capture specific and intentional moods, experiences, and lifestyle shots. i. Avoid using the original raw photos for promotional purposes. Instead, define a specific type of retouching treatment and/or filter that should be applied to all photos that will be used for promotional purposes. Here are examples of images of events, speakers, attendees, and professionals that have been properly retouched and edited (notice the image quality and color dynamics):

j. Choose your best photos and apply retouching edits, treatment, and/or filters before using them for promotional purposes on your website, social media, print material, etc.). Here are examples of the before and after of photo retouching:

k. Be mindful of your organization’s brand message, mission, vision, and core values when deciding what moments to capture when photgraphing.

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

6. Promotional Material: a. One of the ways you can improve your brand is by creating visually appealing promotional material that captures your brand message and captivates your viewer. The use of fonts, colors, images, and graphics are all important in creating layouts and templates for your promotional material. b. Create layouts and templates that are both modern and creative, and can be reused as promotional material. This helps to ensure that there is brand consistency with the use of color, fonts, images and graphics. c. Reduce the amount of design elements and information/text used in your promotional material designs so that the design isn’t cluttered or hard to read. d. Here are examples of promotional material that are modern and creative:

e. To see other examples of promotional material like this, you can research words like “brochure”, “poster”, “flyer”, and “booklet” designs online using sites like dribbble.com and behance.net. Use the examples above and others on the sites mentioned to get design inspiration and to identify how fonts, colors, images, and graphics, and layouts are incorporated.

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

7. Signage: a. Signage is the first thing someone sees at your event and it should mirror the brand message, design aesthetic, and overall personality of your brand. Signage can be fun, stimulating, and interactive. It allows your brand to show more of its personality. When used for events, your signage should not only inform attendees; it should delight them as well. It should be used to assist in creating a better user experience for attendees. b. Great signage makes use of colors, fonts, and images in a way that is visually compelling and communicates well. Here are examples of signage that are both visually compelling and informative:

c. To see other examples of signage like this, you can research “signage” and “billboard” designs online using sites like dribbble.com and behance.net. Use the examples above and others on the sites mentioned to get design inspiration and to identify how fonts, colors, images, and graphics, and layouts are incorporated. d. Don’t be afraid to be more creative and bold in your signage ideas and concepts for your events. e. Incorporate the brand colors as solid backgrounds in your signage. f. Incorporate images of people in your signage. g. Incorporate quotes, phrases, and relevant messaging that relates to the event in your signage.

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

8. Social Media: a. Facebook: Facebook is a conversational and video-content driven platform.

• Focus less on just posting content and more on creating opportunities for engagement with followers and fans on each social network (specifically Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter). For example, ask interesting questions and create polls to get feedback and responses, hold contests, do trivia, etc. Turn your posts into opportunities to create engagement with others. • Video converts well on Facebook. Posting clips of the events (ie. sessions, speakers, testimonials, interviews, etc.) to get engagement. • Quotes convert well on Facebook. Taking a quote and turning it into a post is a great way to get engagement. Avoid using quotes from outside people or random quotes that have already been created into graphics. • Gifs convert well on Facebook. Taking a video clip from an event and making a 3 to 5 second gif is a great way to get engagement. • Create more posts that have captivating titles at the top with a photo underneath. Our assessment showed that these posts get the most engagement. • Post portrait photos with a caption that highlight the success and story of African American professionals. Our assessment showed that these posts get the most likes and shares. • Create templates that have a consistent branded look and feel for the social media graphics. • Post more content about your members, chapters, Chapter Presidents, and chapter-related events. • Encourage your members to share any posts you publish to Facebook. b. Instagram: Instagram is a photo sharing platform. • Videos converts well on Instagram. Posting clips of the events (ie. sessions, speakers, testimonials, interviews, etc.) to get engagement. • Instagram allows you to add up to 30 hashtags to a post. Along with using hashtags specific to NBMBAA, also consider using hashtags that would be popular for people to search and relevant to your industry. This makes it easier for Instagram users to find you when they search these hashtags. Using more relevant hashtags helps garner a greater reach. Examples of relevant popular hashtags include #business, #career, and #success. • Create more posts that have captivating titles at the top with a photo underneath. Our assessment showed that these posts get the most engagement.

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

• Post portrait photos with a caption that highlight the success and story of African American professionals. Our assessment showed that these posts get the most likes and shares. • Create templates that have a consistent branded look and feel for the social media graphics. • Post more content about your members, chapters, Chapter Presidents, and chapter-related events. • Encourage your members to share any posts you publish to Instagram. c. LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a social media platform geared to professionals. • LinkedIn is a great place to post your professional content and blogs. Writing industry-related blogs and posting them on LinkedIn with a compelling title and image is a great way to get engagement. • Make sure you follow all of your members on LinkedIn and invite them to follow you. • Post more content about your members, chapters, Chapter Presidents, and chapter-related events. • Encourage your members to share any posts you publish to LinkedIn. d. Twitter: Twitter is an online news, microblogging and social networking site where users communicate in short messages called tweets. • Twitter is best used to spark conversations or to join conversations. Create conversations that your followers and members can join on Twitter. Or search for conversations that are relevant to your industry and join those conversations by commenting and providing insight and expertise. • Create polls on Twitter to gather insight from your followers and to increase engagement. • Incorporate more hashtags in your tweets (ie. Your #career in #business depends on how smart you work, how long you stay, and how many relationships and #partnerships you #create). • Post more content about your members, chapters, Chapter Presidents, and chapter-related events. • Encourage your members to share any posts you publish to Twitter.

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

9. Stationery: a. One of the ways you can improve your brand is by having beautiful stationery. Your stationery gives a person a glimpse into your brand. It’s a tangible item in their hand that represents the look, feel, and personality of your brand. Whether it’s a business card, letterhead, envelope, notepad, pen, button, folder, or coaster, they are all touchpoints that should connect people to your brand. So the use of your corporate fonts, logos, and brand colors are important on stationery. b. Incorporate more creativity and use of color in your stationery. c. Find creative ways to be more memorable with your stationery, whether its by choosing a different type of print material or size for your business card, or having a fun design for your letterhead or folder. Here are examples of stationery that are modern, creative, and fun:

d. To see other examples of stationery like this, you can research “stationery”, “business card”, or “envelope” designs online using sites like dribbble.com and behance.net. Use the examples above and others on the sites mentioned to get design inspiration and to identify how fonts, colors, images, and graphics, and layouts are incorporated when creating stationery.

NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION ® BRAND AUDIT & ASSESSMENT

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