Great Start to Quality
The Great Start to Quality Rebranding Story
Great Start to Quality (GSQ) had a big problem, and they knew it (they actually had two big problems, but we’ll get to that later). GSQ is an early education program, funded by the Michigan Department of Education, charged with ensuring that licensed preschool and child care providers in Michigan meet specific quality standards. But while their old system of quality ratings worked well for school district-run programs, it didn’t work as well for other types, like individual in-home providers and programs outside the state school system, like Montessori. As a result, many of those providers didn’t participate in GSQ’s program. To make matters worse GSQ used a 5-star rating system that didn’t conform to public perception. In their system a 2-star provider was still a good provider, but the general population perceived any 2-star provider to be one of poor quality.
GSQ smartly decided to completely revamp the way they worked with child care providers to better serve a wider range of programs. They scrapped the 5-star system in favor of one based on continuous improvement. But how could they change perception of their program with providers who didn’t care for the old system? The answer was to do a complete rebrand.
Rebuilding the Brand from the Ground Up
It all starts with a new logo. The old logo was a human figure reaching for the stars. Any new branding needed to leave the dreaded stars behind. McClure Marketing team members were tasked with creating a logo that reflected their significant operational changes in a way that felt like a fresh leap into this new world.
GSQ’s advisory committee unanimous chose a logo we created that represented their new way of operating. The new logo was created with an infinity sign as its base, representing their new commitment to continuous improvement. One loop of the infinity sign was smaller than the other and each loop had a solid dot over it. The resulting image was an abstract of a grown-up person holding hands with a child.
After the logo was chosen, we developed a themeline, wrote their mission, vison and value statements and created an animated anthem video that showed how the new logo represented the new continuing improvement emphasis while telling the story of the revamped GSQ. The target audience for this video was all of Michigan’s child care providers. It was the centerpiece of large regional meetings across the state to tell the rebrand story and explain how GSQ was not only better but equitable for all types of childcare providers. We also developed invites, flyers, branded give-away items and other materials for this statewide road show.
GSQ’s Successful Rebrand Launch
Feedback from the regional meetings was a resounding success. Not only did providers understand the changes, but they were also excited about them. Our team developed brand standards and guidelines that were distributed throughout the GSQ organization to make sure the new brand would be consistent across all external and internal channels. Part of this process included creating a separate explainer video. While the anthem video was designed to tap into an emotional level, the explainer video was created to make some of the complex changes to the system easier to understand.
Oh Yeah, That Other Problem
GSQ also helps families find quality preschool and child care for children ages 0 -12. They have a robust tool on their site that families can use to search for providers by a number of factors like location, hours, cost, center type and more. But they had never marketed it, so very few people knew about it. It was a great tool that hardly anyone was using. A campaign targeting families was created to spread the word and drive families to the site to make use of the search tool.
Multimedia For All!
Our creative team developed two different multimedia campaigns. The first one targeted child care providers, helping them understand the new brand and what it meant for their programs. It was designed both to educate and to drive more providers to begin the process of continuous improvement.
This was followed by the second campaign where, for the first time ever, families were informed of the GSQ tool for finding quality child care that met their specific needs. Each campaign included video, social media, digital and paid social ads, infographics, flyers. emails and more.
In the end, both campaigns were a success. Participation in the program rose among providers and use of the child care search tool rose among families.
