Review | Social Branding Workshop Comes to A Successful End

On the afternoon of Novermber 15th, ISIB junior students successfully held a workshop on their own for the first time from inviting guests to arranging the event site.

Ben Quartermaine, incubation & innovation director for Mandala, was invited to deliver a keynote speech. Graduated from the University of Western Australia, Ben is an innovative talent with abundant experience in various fields.

Mandala Group is a British social enterprise dedicated to solving social problems like poverty with science and technology-- influential applications designed by connecting with human talent, financial capital and technological solutions. It provides top design, development, and distribution solutions through the impact of Mandala community with application ecosystem.

At first, Ben explained the difference between a socail enterprise and a non-profit enterprise. A socail enterprise takes on its responsibilities actively, having a positive effect to society as a whole. Those who have long-term social perspective can be called social enterprises.

Serving for the public, a non-profit enterprise is a social enterprise as well. The only difference is forms of organization and sources of funds.

Then Ben explained more by listing the business cases and introducing Mandala Group's responsibilities as a social enterprise in poverty, education, environment and food shortage.

For example, they specially designed an App to support the children's education for illiterate parents after investigation in India. Recently, Mandala Group is carrying out a subject about helping farmers make a living in Huaihua, Hunan province.

Practice came after some theories. The theme of this workshop is creating a brand story for a social App, which is a sales platform to offer farmers a great business cycle chain as a transfer station. The problem is how to persuade customers to choose it.

As is known to majors in branding strategy and management, a good brand is necessary for a great product. Ben gave students guidance when they were discussing and creating.

Students started their report by group after 30-minute brainstorming, sharing amazing ideas and thoughts.

They created touching stories with massive convincing data from different perspectives in only three minutes.

Ben spoke highly of these students at the end of his speech.

The atmosphere of the activity was very funny and harmonious. It enriched both students' professional knowledge of brand and language learning.

As a result, students who successfully organized the event have gained experience and improved their teamwork skills. They also put what they've learned into practice and moved forward in their professional field.