Branding and Marketing RFP Questions and Responses

Transcription

1 Branding and Marketing RFP Questions and Responses The following are the questions/comments we received and responded to through July 3: What audience research have you already done that can inform the marketing plan? This will help us understand what further audience research is needed. We have not done any formal scientific survey or research on our audiences in over 5 years, however last summer FVRL conducted a series of anecdotal surveys with people in our communities to learn more about the topics they care about in their community (not specific to libraries). This has been useful in shaping our strategic vision, but not necessarily thorough enough to base our marketing plan on. We will, of course, be happy to share the top-level results from that with the consultant we hire. Additionally, there is a number of national surveys, including one last year conducted by Pew Research Center ( that are certainly informative on national attitudes and trends in regards to libraries, just not specific to FVRL s audiences in Clark, Skamania and Klickitat Counties. If you pursue online or in-person surveys, community meetings or demographic data research, what channels do you have to reach potential participants? For example, would the chosen consultant have access to your list? This will help us understand how much time needs to be invested in recruiting. Our list is protected by state law and can t be shared. However we do maintain a monthly newsletter that goes to 60,000+ patrons. We would be willing to add a link to a survey to that newsletter and/or do some direct outreach to the newsletter list. We also have the ability to do surveys via our website and to share links to online surveys via our social media channels. What kind of perceptions and demographics are you wanting to capture with the audience research? Is there an opportunity for increased budget for the audience research? Ideally, we d like to cover the breadth of our district with a comprehensive marketing survey, but we recognize that the budget allocation for audience research might not be enough to do a full set across our service area. Given the budget constraints, we d welcome proposals that would help FVRL to determine a select audience or audiences (could be based on demographics or regions we are wanting to reach) and to drill down for just them to understand better how we reach those specific audience(s) with our messages and promotions.

2 You mention in the RFP that you're developing a strategic plan. Will that be complete by the time this project begins? We are actively working on the strategic plan now, and anticipate completing it about the same time as this project begins. It s potentially difficult to find one agency who can provide both marketing strategy and also brand/design strategy under one roof as they are different disciplines. Are you hoping to get everything in one agency, or are you OK bringing in two specialist groups to work together on this? We are more than happy for firms with focused specialties in either branding or marketing to respond to just one of the two project scopes (branding, marketing plan) as outlined on pages 3 and 4 of the RFP. We do reserve the right to award the contract to separate consultants for each scope. Should we choose separate consultants, we'd work with them individually, but it would be useful to include in your RFP response how you would anticipate working with another vendor on any overlap in your separate (but related) project. Additionally, if there's another firm you'd specifically like to partner with on this project, you are welcome to work with them to submit one response that covers both scopes and outlines the division of labor for the projects. Branding deliverables include a brand usage guidelines/style guide and a brand book. Could you please clarify your expectations for these deliverables? Good question, and apologies if we re using a couple terms that are semisynonymous. We see these as separate but linked and complimentary pieces, for two distinct audience types, although it s possible that the second part is a subset of the first: 1. We need a larger document, what we re calling a brand book that would be for our graphics and marketing staff that would provide overarching brand philosophy, as well as give practical guidelines and examples of: FVRL s visual identity Our logo(s) and icon(s), including usage and do s/don t Color palette Copy and tone of voice Use of district tagline (if one is created) Typography considerations web and print

3 Guidelines for co-branding, including with outside agencies as well as with FVRL s Foundation and community Friends of the Library groups 2. We d like a shorter variation like a style guide that we can share with branch staff, community agencies, partners, media, etc. that provides more generalized guidelines on how they can use our logo effectively without brand creep, but without the philosophic or technical guidelines needed in the document specific to the graphics and marketing team. For the branding deliverables, you mention design templates for key communications and marketing needs. Is there a specific number of templates you have identified? Not yet, we d hope that the branding work itself would help us uncover how many templates we might need we d like help with the scoping of this as well as establishing a few examples (in coordination with the brand book ), but understand that it might befall our internal graphics team to down the road develop further templates identified in the process. Are there meeting rooms at the branch locations we could utilize for the community meetings? Absolutely. Seven of our branches have meeting rooms at the branch, and several of the others are adjacent to other community meeting spaces which we can use. Do we need to provide the certificate of insurance with the response or only if chosen for the work? Only if chosen for the work. Is FVRL exempt from state sales tax? Based on the Washington Department of Revenue s list, it does not appear marketing consulting services are included as taxable. We are not exempt from state sales tax. Whether companies from Outside USA can apply for this? We would be willing to consider responses from outside the USA, although we'd anticipate the selected vendor to travel to our district headquarters in Vancouver, WA at least twice and potentially to several branches in our district in SW

4 Washington. Respondents would need to outline any travel expenses in their submission, keeping in mind our not-to-exceed budget amounts. All payments will be in USD. Will the consulting firm need to come over there for meetings? As answered above, we'd anticipate at least two meetings in person. The rest could conceivably be done remotely. Can tasks related to the RFP be completed outside the USA? Beyond the required in-person meetings, the rest could be done virtually. Can we submit the proposals via ? Absolutely. Please send digital proposals in PDF format to the address listed in the RFP. What kind of perceptions and demographics are you wanting to capture with the audience research? Is there an opportunity for increased budget for the audience research? Ideally, we d like to cover the breadth of our district with a comprehensive marketing survey, but we recognize that the budget allocation for audience research might not be enough to do a full set across our service area. Given the budget constraints, we d welcome proposals that would help FVRL to determine a select audience or audiences (could be based on demographics or regions we are wanting to reach) and to drill down for just them to understand better how we reach those specific audience(s) with our messages and promotions. Are you currently working with a creative agency? Do you have an incumbent agency or someone in mind for this project? We are not currently working with a creative agency, nor is there any one agency we have in mind for the project. We always travel for our clients do you have a preference to work with someone local or are you open to considering national agencies? We are open to national agencies, understanding that travel costs will have to be included in the proposal s project costs.

5 Do you have a preference to work with a single agency on both the branding and the marketing plan? We understand that there are specialized agencies that might best serve one or the other of our needs, so we are open to multiple agencies, but don t have a preference either way. We d look for the best fit for our project and budget. Did an outside agency take you through the mission and vision change and strategy planning process, or was that done internally? These were done internally, although we used pieces from the toolkit developed by the American Library Association s Libraries Transform campaign. What inspired these fundamental changes? What was the tipping point? In late 2015, we hired a new Executive Director; combined with some additional changes in our administrative team and the conclusion of our existing strategic plan, the past year has been an opportune moment to take stock of our mission, vision, values and strategy. Do you expect the branding project and the marketing project to happen concurrently, one after another, or are you looking for our recommended process? We d look towards our consultants for guidance on how to stage these. What are you looking for most in a partner that isn t accomplished by your internal team? By our nature and composition our internal team has to be generalists and are often driven by the immediate needs of marketing and promotions for our district and some 500 programs happening monthly. We re looking for a consultant(s) to provide focused guidance, expertise, and the ability to bind our Strategic Goals with our day-to-day minutae to take our work and work processes to the next level. What design templates will you need for communications and marketing?

6 We aren't necessarily asking consultants to develop a full suite of templates and marketing materials, we have a trained graphics team for that, but we do need help in developing the brand, and some of the top level brand collateral (logo, guidelines, color palette, fonts, etc) that might go into a brand book. Then perhaps as part of that brand book giving our graphics team (and other staff) guidelines/mockups of how the brand would apply to various things such as library cards, event promotions, signage. Your RFP mentions providing the resumes of our team members our proposal introduces our team members and gives a short bio to describe our roles, skill sets, and experience. Will this be sufficient, or do you require an exhaustive work history? Short bios, etc would be fine. To the extent that you want to provide deeper information, focusing on the people would be the day-to-day contacts, over executive leadership, would be helpful. As an environmentally conscious company, would it be acceptable for us to submit this proposal only by ? Yes. Please send your proposal as a PDF to the contact in the proposal. We have never included sales tax as part of our price when submitting a proposal. Is this included in the budget? The amount we ve budgeted not-to-exceed needs to include everything needed to complete the contract including, tax, travel or other expense. We don t have the ability to go over that figure.