Background

The Social Enterprise Identifier Project  came from an initial piece of work commissioned by the Office of the Third Sector (OTS) and conducted by the Central Office of Information (COI) - "Is social enterprise at a crossroads?"  - that  showed an overall lack of understanding about what social enterprise is and that the social enterprise movement needs to raise awareness and define itself to a wider audience. 

Since then, the COI have been looking at what is needed to effectively market social enterprise to the public and other key groups such as commissioners of public services.  They have produced two reports that are available here (and here).  The first is an initial background paper and the second is their recommendations for going forward with a project to communicate to a wider audience the values and identity of social enterprise, or social enterprise ‘identifier'. 

A steering group, consisting of leaders from the social enterprise movement, was set up tp take the project forward. One of the first proposals put forward to the steering group consisted of a 'three-tiered' brand family that would distinguish between established social enterprises, those on a social enterprise 'journey' and organisations that worked with and supported social enterprise.

Moving forward

At a meeting on 10 September, the Social Enterprise Identifier Steering Group agreed to continue to develop a brand identity for social enterprise, but the group decided to focus on a single business identifier, instead of the three-tiered system that was initially proposed.

As a result, they are now proceeding with the development of one identifier for social enterprises, with the criteria used by RISE for the current social enterprise mark as a foundation.

The steering group is considering some modifications to these criteria – the aim is that the identifier must be robust and give significant added value to social enterprises, and also must allow for maximum take up by as many social enterprises as possible. The group also thinks there could be value in some carefully controlled use of a generic brand image - for example for use by the specialist social enterprise support agencies, for specific purposes.

Various design options have been tested and the one that performed the best was a new and vibrant visual image based on an evolution of the RISE mark. The steering group unanimously agreed to pursue that design and it is now undergoing further development. The next step is to figure out how best to go forward to make this into a sustainable project with a viable business plan. In the coming weeks, decisions will be made on how best to proceed on this front.

Chair of the steering group, Steve Wyler, said “We believe that a business identifier for social enterprise – and a sustainable mechanism behind it - is critical if we want to move social enterprise into the mainstream. The mark pioneered by RISE has laid the foundation, and we are now working towards taking a shared visual identity to the next level.

"Ultimately, we want to see thousands of organisations using the identifier. We still have a way to go and we have to continue to work hard to get this right, but I believe this is a really exciting venture and one that could potentially go very far in raising awareness and understanding of social enterprise – something that I think we would all agree is a high priority.“

If you need any further information please contact George on george.leahy@socialenterprise.org.uk  

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