Why I Volunteer for SHE: Meet Sam Schulman

Sam offered her brand and design skills with her Interbrand colleagues for a day of service.

Sam offered her brand and design skills with her Interbrand colleagues for a day of service.

How did you find out about SHE?

SHE and Interbrand partnered for Interbrand’s Month of Service in July 2014. SHE was selected out of many non-profit submissions to participate in a one-day intensive workshop to tackle key brand challenges.

What project did you work on with SHE? Whom did you work with? How did you use your skills and talents to help advance SHE’s mission?

We worked with Elizabeth Scharpf (founder and CEO), Connie Lewin (Strategic Partnerships and Marketing Director) and SHE’s Marketing Intern. Originally, the focus was on understanding how to implement visual assets as a result of a recent rebrand. What evolved was a deeper focus on differentiating SHE’s primary campaign, SHE28, from the SHE global brand to ensure SHE could be better leveraged as a platform to communicate the broader objectives of the organization, and support future growth. In just 8 hours, we completed an extraordinary amount together – we developed a messaging platform to express the brand personality; made adjustments to both the SHE and SHE28 logos, introducing greater clarity and flexibility in the visual system; and finally, a brand playbook that included visual, verbal and strategic guidance for implementing the brand effectively.

What are some highlights of your volunteer work with SHE?

Our day with SHE remains one of my career highlights. Not only is the SHE team incredibly passionate about what they do, but they have created a really interesting and sustainable business model unlike many in the space. The team was engaged and decisive which allowed us to iterate together to get to successful solutions.

Sam Schulman brand work as SHE volunteer

Sam and her Interbrand colleagues worked with SHE to produce a brand guide, a refreshed SHE logo, and actionable content all in one day!

What should people know about SHE?

Working with SHE opened my eyes to a topic I had previously known very little about. The work SHE is doing is unique and powerful and I can’t wait to see what SHE tackles next as it continues to grow and make lasting change at a global scale!

Introducing go!

goPads_PackageFront-01

By Connie Lewin, Strategic Partnerships and Marketing Director

Our branding process all started when I stood outside in front of 200+ girls and boys on the campus of a rural Rwandan school and we began discussing menstruation. I expected to only meet with 8-10 girls when I arrived at the school, but soon learned that it’s very common to receive a warm welcome from the entire school when you’re a new visitor.

After an awkward start when my colleague and I began introducing ourselves and what we do at SHE, the mood quickly shifted when one (brave) girl asked a question, “Can I play soccer when I am menstruating?” I’m sure a surprised look came across my face because she asked me the question again. I replied back “Of course, you can!” A sense of relief took over her body. Suddenly, more and more girls asked questions related to what they stopped doing when they had their period – laughing, dancing, riding a bike, doing chores, and going to school.

I soon began to realize that girls were missing out on more than having access to a pad; to those who even used menstrual products, they felt like they couldn’t move or do anything because if you’re “sick,” you should just stay at home.

Informed with this first-hand knowledge, the team and I began the branding process of our banana-fiber maxi-pad with these questions in mind:

 “How can we build a brand that will change the way girls think about menstruation?”

“How do we use our brand to work toward our larger goals of driving social and economic change?”

“How do we make sure our brand is used as a strategic asset, so girls can directly benefit?”

It took hundreds of conversations with girls, brainstorms and ideations within the team, and an on-street survey to develop a brand identity that we hope will change the way Rwandans think about menstruation.

go! is global. We decided to have it bi-lingual to show that will our brand is locally made, it has global aspirations to connect and serve girls in many communities. (P.S. Nshyashya means brand new)

gois bold.We’re rocking bold colors selected by the girls themselves; go! is for girls, by girls.

go! will be delivered to girls this year, and we can’t wait to see their reactions and learn more about their go! experiencesWe will be sharing more photos and testimonials about go! throughout the year, so stay tuned.

What do you think? Who do you feel we are? Let us know in the comments.