YMCA — Mandi Swenson

YMCA was losing market share when it came to their childcare programs. They hired me to gain an understanding of what was going on and to recommend a new approach to their childcare branding and marketing tactics.

Approach

I did a market messaging analysis, along with stakeholder, customer, and prospective customer interviews. Presented the new brand recommendation and did the content design of the new site, as well as all of the writing for the new childcare site.

Messaging Analysis

YMCA stakeholders identified several childcare programs they were losing families to in the metro area. I dove in to see how each organization marketed its childcare program and presented to stakeholders my findings and recommendations of how YMCA can use its differentiators and existing content to tell its own story for parents.

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 1.51.08 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 1.52.05 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 1.54.39 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 1.52.27 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 1.52.49 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 1.53.09 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 1.53.20 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 1.53.29 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 1.53.40 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 1.53.53 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 1.54.03 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.01.18 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.01.27 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.01.35 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.01.46 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.01.55 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.02.06 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.02.16 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.02.25 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.02.35 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.02.48 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.02.56 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.03.03 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.03.11 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.03.20 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.03.33 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.03.41 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.03.50 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.03.59 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.04.14 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.04.27 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.04.35 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.04.43 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.04.53 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.05.29 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.05.36 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.05.46 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.05.53 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.06.06 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.06.18 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.06.33 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.06.42 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.06.54 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.07.00 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.07.08 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.07.19 PM.png

Branding Recommendation

Impressed with my market research, YMCA executives had me take the lead on finding their new childcare core branding. During this process, I interviewed current and prospective childcare parents, YMCA childcare staff and directors, and found other childcare program case studies to understand what was important when it came to childcare programs. I worked with the director of marketing, a design firm in the Netherlands chosen by the director, and a YMCA website designer to create creative assets. Then presented the new branding and website prototype to the YMCA C-suite

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.53.41 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.53.51 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.54.02 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.54.14 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.54.26 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.54.46 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.55.00 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.55.12 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.55.56 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.56.09 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.56.17 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.56.59 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.57.08 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.57.18 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.57.26 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 2.57.36 PM.png

New Childcare Site

I created a site content map based on all the information above and worked with a web developer to bring a prototype into user testing to make sure our new navigation and content design was easy to use for parents looking for childcare programs. From user testing, we developed the rest of the site and launched. With the new site improvements and added information, the YMCA childcare site launched in April 2019 and increased its SEO rank.

New YMCA childcare site