When parents are out of work and their children don’t go to school, both the family and society suffers. Each year, families without jobs and low school attendance cost the Danish society billions. Public Capacity is a startup company looking to make real changes in our society. By introducing a new and groundbreaking method, the company frees and utilises the untapped potential of socially marginalised families and their networks. We helped Public Capacity define a strategic direction with a deep sense of purpose and developed the brand concept and visual identity.

Putting the family before the system

Public Capacity offers consultancy services to municipalities and education of social workers. By using a holistic approach, Public Capacity changes the perspective of the public system and places the family unit in the centre of all initiatives. Usually a family can have as many as 20 different advisors across the municipality, school system and job centres. But what happens if there is only one case manager? You achieve impressive results in the development of the parents and the children, and the state saves enormous amounts of money.

A startup with the potential to change our public system for the better

A clearly defined purpose is at the heart of any powerful brand. The purpose gives meaning to the people that deliver the brand, it is the source of the company’s brand promise, and it is a key element in the customers ability to build a relationship with the brand. This is what determines the brand’s future path. If you succeed in acting from your brand purpose, you can unlock your company’s true potential for growth and success.

Building on interviews and discussions with founder and director Lone Vieland Mortensen, we formulated a strong purpose which communicates vision and ambition in a tangible way.

We developed a brand essence that captures the most important qualities of Public Capacity. Whereas the purpose tells the story of the brand’s reason for existing and the task ahead, a brand essence looks inwards and asks the question: Who are we, and what do we stand for? If you reach into the core of Public Capacity, what do you find? To give you some idea of the content, here is an extract:

Through an appreciative and involving effort, we strengthen the faith in own competencies and involve the family’s network in the development of one comprehensive plan of action.

On the one hand, a brand essence gives direction and cohesion in the daily work of the company and on the other, it builds a distinct brand and raises brand recognition and image by pinpointing customer value.

Now the strategic direction was in place. But we also needed to find the right outlet for expressing the strengths of the company and reaching the target group. We drew up a short-term communications plan and developed a complete visual identity to launch the brand.

New visual identity shows the strength of network

Based on the company’s purpose and brand essence, we created a new visual identity built around community and inclusion. The identity communicates how Public Capacity helps families get a better everyday life. It emphasises the importance of working together towards a better future, where socially marginalised families are an integrated part of society.

Public Capacity puts individuals and their families before the system. The new logo acknowledges the person behind the social security number and can vary, so that it shows different persons.

The concept is built on a conglomerate of faces which fit together like the pieces of a puzzle forming a whole. Everyone has a place in the pattern and contributes to its formation. This emphasises that we are all part of a bigger network and community. 

The grey-green colour represents calmness and stability and draws parallels to Public Capacity’s professionalism and seriousness. The red colour expresses warmth and power and symbolises Public Capacity’s faith in the strength and drive of the individual. Also, the red color is associated with the public sector in Denmark. 

By designing unique icons, we created a strong visual identity with a professional expression. The icons share the common feature that they all contain the face from the logo.

We designed icons to express the five company values: “The family before the system”, “Breaking down silos”, “Active effort with the family”, “Focus on the untapped potentials” and “Holistic effort”. The red arrow points forward and up to illustrate progress.

Supporting sales effort through a working communications plan

The main objective of the communications plan is to secure sales meetings for Public Capacity to present its services and get clients. The secondary objective is to attain a top-of-mind position among potential clients within the first 12 months. Being a startup with limited means, it is paramount that Public Capacity allocates its resources to the communications activities with the highest impact. Because of the agenda’s importance to society, we assess that Public Capacity can attract the attention of the mass media. Consequently, the communications plan focuses on earned media and direct communication to the target group because these activities can create fast and visible results in a short amount of time.

The plan presents a shortlist of the recommended types of communications and selected trade publications and debate oriented media. It also breaks down the target group of Danish municipalities into five particularly relevant points of entry and recommends direct marketing.

If you are looking at some of the same challenges as Public Capacity or simply want to know more about the case, feel free to contact our Director of Strategy Nikolaj. He is eager to share his experience from the case and others like it and offer his guidance.