Presentation:
Small Group Discussion: Public Awareness Strategy for the MBP
Discussions
Group A Recommendations
1.Building & Sustaining a Client Base
• Centralization of tools and support services
• Must be accessible
• Must be well documented
• Third party assessment
• Cite successful examples
• Illustrate the potentiality of this technology
• Leveling the playing field for small breeding programs
2.Crafting compelling communications
• Mission: "Empowering plant breeders with modern tools"
• Demonstrate better value than the current practices with high quality
• Convincing illustrations depicting routes to faster genetic gain
• Better breeding products per dollar spent
3.Branding•Must be accessible
• Needs to be changed to reach the target communities
• Target audience: Plant breeders from public sector and small & medium enterprises(SME)
• Innovation, integration of practical tools for effective variety development
• Practical tools for modern plant breeding made available (softwares, molecular markers, support services etc)
4.Dissemination of IBP information and materials - Actions speak louder than words
• Testimonials from CoPs
• Case studies
Group B Recommendations
Building and sustaining a client base: what is in it for the clients?
a. What value-added benefits does the IBP bring that we should be trumpeting from the rooftops?
• To bridge between the traditional genetic improvement of crops and the new tools developed by the plant molecular biologists, a more efficient breeding.
• To open the doors to breeders to conduct molecular breeding.
• To offer the means and deliver the means and tools to the breeders.
• To offer competitive costs for high quality services.
• To alleviate the burden of paper-work, negotiations and contracts.
• To offer complimentary workshops, training and data analysis by highly qualified experts.
• To make available the support services and expertise of IBP that encompasses digital technology for data collection in the field, electronic notebooks, appropriate data
processing and storage, and analysis and interpretation of data.
• To integrate a dynamic network for breeders to interact and share experiences, knowledge, common problems and solutions (offers points of contact, community building).
b. Credibility elements - what statements can we make to prove we can really deliver on these benefits? What supporting statistics, expert endorsements, track records or
customer testimonials can/should we present?
• All the related outcomes of GCP achieved during its first five years of work.
• Satisfied customers that have used the Genotyping Support Service (GSS) of GCP. The GSS as the precursor of the IBP.
• Try to get an expert endorsement: existing users of ICIS can pitch for the benefis.
• Good delivery plans for the projects in a structured and organized way.
c. Relieving risk and adding credibility - what guarantees can we provide for the risk-averse, that would assure them satisfaction is guaranteed?
Risk is associated - can not avoid .
• Successful stories, testimonials.
• Mitigate risk through training and communication.
• Have a correct project plan.
• Intermediation of third parties in the contracts gives a security to clients.
Crafting compelling communications
a. There is urgency in the IBP mission, clear in the risk analysis in the project proposal.
i. Being aware of this risk that the platform may not be adopted by targeted users, how then do we effectively convey the urgency element of our mission?
• A market study of the potential users well differentiated by sectors, reassuring both the economic sustainability of the platform and the fulfillment of the mission of
the GCP to work for the resource poor countries.
• A differentiated communication strategy according to the diverse audience of clients - ie, CGIAR centers, private sector, NARs, others.
• A differentiated communication strategy to donors.
ii. What powerful benefit-based headlines can we use to seize the attention the platform needs, and appeal to people's hearts and minds? To jolt them out of their comfort
zones to venture into new ways of doing their business.
A differentiated treatment according with the nature and financial possibilities of the institutions.
• Message to resource rich institutions based in: state-of-the-art technology, efficiency, lower costs and time saving, added value to the processes.
• Message to NARs: introductory subsidized schemes, moving one step forward from conventional breeding to molecular breeding, capacity building, networking through CoP.
• Message in common: cost of opportunity - comfort zone versus new benefits ahead.
Branding
A working title at project conception and proposal writing is not necessarily the best title for describing a project to external audiences.
a. With external audiences in mind (ie, people not involved in IBP), and given IBP's goals and projected future, is Integrated Breeding Platform an appropriate name for
this initiative now and into its future?
• It is not an appropriate name. It is very "technical" and non-explicit enough, and commercially unattractive.
• One suggestion is: MOLECULAR SOLUTIONS TODAY!
• It is necessary to have the word MOLECULAR in the title for the technology itself. It is the hard core of the service offered.
• The word SOLUTIONS gives the sense of solving problems timely and comprehensively.
• The word TODAY with the exclamation mark accentuates the sense of actuality in having responses to the necessities with an updated technology.
• One participant considered that the word MOLECULAR should not be included because creates confusion to public and regulators, could be confused with GMOs.
• It was suggested MARKER BREEDING PLATFORM.
b. Tagline - Do we need one? A fixed one or changing ones?
• It is highly advisable to have a tagline (or caption) that complements the name. Just one because changing taglines could lead to confusion.
• One suggestion is: YOUR SERVICE PLATFORM FOR CROP BREEDING.
• The word SERVICE is needed to make it clear that the platform offers comprehensive services throughout the complex process required for the creation of improved
germoplasm.
• The word YOUR gives a sense of belonging and proximity to the customers.
• It is important to stress that the title and the tagline must be clear, direct, attractive, easy to remember and "sticky".
• Both elements, as suggested, pretend to emphasize the modernity of the molecular technology. They also emphasize in the aim and purposes of the platform and its
benefits for the clients.
• Advice from an expert in marketing should be requested in this respect.
c. Logo - Do we need one? What should be its key characteristics?
It is absolutely necessary to have a logo which should involve both the title and the tagline with any sort of depiction or illustration. Advice from an expert in
visual design should be requested in this respect.
Dissemination of IBP information and materials
a. Publishing for widest possible readership: what works, and why?
• Scientific bulletins, scientific magazines, scientific meetings and congresses, newsletters of technical institutions, government offices of international cooperation,
newspapers (science and technology section), email to persons and/or research institutes involved in breeding activities.
• The messages and advertisements should be short but complete, appealing and motivating.
b. Packaging for widest possible distribution: what works, and why?
• Printed and audiovisual material packages to be sent to same potential clients as cited in 3.a.
• The materials should be easy to read, see and listen, appealing and convincing.
• Delivery of audiovisual and printed materials could be accompanied with organized talks addressed to specific audiences to increase the coverage of the promotion of the
IBP.
• The basic idea in both cases is to reach the targeted clients with the appropriate material at the right time to "create" the need for the IBP services.
• Expert advice in public relations and high-tech promotion is also recommended.
enough food on the table ii) Nutrition - healthy well-being
• Increasing population
Benefit headlines
• Leave behind conventional hunger
• Rapid response to 'hunger'
• Hunger and links to science
Building a client base
• Target breeders (as clients)
• Engender Speed and precision
• On the cutting edge - not 'being left behind'
• Empowerment
• Inclusiveness
• Pathway to success
• Team approach
• Accessibility
• Technology (MB) works - that MB is possible in public sector
Credibility
• Examples: public and private sector
• Product substantiating facts
• Statistics
• Building on success and science (track record), eg, sub1 rice gene, Blb resistance gene in rice, and QPM maize.
• Guarantee to provide: services and tools to be available
Confidence in outcome
Robust
Dissemination of information and material - What and why?
• Readership - gradual education programme (breeders, administrators)
• Professional societies
• Electronic networks
• Conferences and meetings attended mostly by breeders
Distribution
Complete packaging - present markers, training, etc, together, as part of a whole, the complete picture
Group C Recommendations
Branding
Name - IBP not appropriate. Suggestions:
• Modern Breeding Platform
• Integrated Breeding Platform
• Integrated Crop Improvement Platform
• Precision Breeding Platform
• Accelerated Breeding Platfomr
What the platform does:
• An enabling or outcome platform
• Accelerating
• Making better varieties faster
Logo - Should show 'speed', precision or connecting in developing variety
Tagline - Key words: enabling, accelerating, targeting. Moving ahead with prevention of food crisis
Mission, Vision
• Single message, very compelling
• Deploying modern techniques to speed up new varieties for increasing productivity
• ...increase rate of genetic gain
• ...to develop better varieties faster
Urgency element of mission
• Urgency - more food: i) getting enough food on the table ii) Nutrition - healthy well-being
• Increasing population
Benefit to headline:
• Leave behind conventional hunger
• Rapid response to 'hunger'
• Hunger and links to science
Building a client base
• Target breeders (as clients)
• Engender Speed and precision
• On the cutting edge - not 'being left behind'
• Empowerment
• Inclusiveness
• Pathway to success
• Team approach
• Accessibility
• Technology (MB) works - that MB is possible in public sector
Credibility
• Examples: public and private sector
• Product substantiating facts
• Statistics
• Building on success and science (track record), eg, sub1 rice gene, Blb resistance gene in rice, and QPM maize.
• Guarantee to provide: services and tools to be available
Confidence in outcome
Robust
Dissemination of information and material - What and why?
• Readership - gradual education programme (breeders, administrators)
• Professional societies
• Electronic networks
• Conferences and meetings attended mostly by breeders
Distribution
Complete packaging - present markers, training, etc, together, as part of a whole, the complete picture
Group D Recommendations
Clients - Who are they?
• Breeders of the country programmes and SMEs in developing countries
• Other players, eg, wide selection team, genertic resources team that provide service to breeders
Credibility
• Enhanced by services that are of high quality which are delivered on time
• Testimonies
o Can be by people involved in the platform who are seeing value
o Can be by video, or pictures accompanied by testimonies
Branding
• Questions raised on the name IBP. Debated and no consensus reached.
o Some like 'IBP' - descriptive and factual
o Some don't - could be confused for transgenics and GMOs
• Logo
o Must not restrict the forum to plants by inserting tissues such as a leaf.
o Excludes animals which could be in IBP in the future.
o 'Borrow' aspects of GCP logo for link between the two
o Also, 'person' motif in GCP logo embraces both plants, animals (as human food) and people
• Tagline is critical
• 'IBP power!' branded on all products coming out of the platform
Dissemination
• Any released variety through the IBP facilitation should have 'IBP power' inscription on the name (see 'Branding' above)
• This can also be or appear on the link to the portal
• Institutes involved in IBP to include links to IBP from their websites
Group E Recommendations
1) Building and sustaining a client base: what is in it for the client?
a) Making plant breeding more efficient - change from a stand-alone breeding to a community of global breeders
b) Raise awareness about the fact that markers are not for every programme or trait.
• Use testimonials as work in progress rather than finalized product
• Listen and attend to their growing pains
c) Listening to users concerns and working towards fixing them
• The platform, through cheap genotyping and analysis tools reduces risks
• Showing success stories
• Through providing honest feedback on the limits of IBP. For instance, on the large gap existing between a published markers and its routine deployment
2) Crafting compelling communications
• Further clarification is needed on IBP's outcomes to address this
• Using food security issues, using the reduction of genetic gains, being aggressive yet honest
3) Branding
• Name must be about outcome, rather than the process
• A tagline is needed, but it should not change
• Logo - best done by experts in the area
4) Dissemination
• Using FaceBook, for instance. Tailoring materials for students
Group F Recommendations
1) Building and sustaining a client base: what is in it for the client?
a) Efficient services, germplasm access
• Critical mass
• expense
• global network
• public good
b) A network with proven track record and publications
• The multi-institution 'collective wisdom'
2) Crafting compelling communications
• capacity-building
• knowledge exchange
3) Branding
• Change name: does not reflect the whole plant breeding process. Get rid of word 'molecular'
• Tagline is needed, and should include words like 'generation' and 'innovation', eg, New Generation Plant Breeding.
• Logo - needed. Organise a campaign through GCP website. No DNA in logo, should be simple. Refer to GCP logo
4) Dissemination
• Using Facebook, for instance.
• Tailoring materials for students
• The power of the collective - dissemination should not be within a closed loop but should be open to the general public
Group G Recommendations
1) Building and sustaining a client base: what is in it for the client? Credibility:
• Don't oversell, now or for future products
• Breeding cycle very tight.
• Deliver what you say, be positive, but also realistic
• Also needs boost from a leap of faith to some degree
• Not over-commit by having too many users at the beginning. First focus primarily on 14 pioneer user cases and on policymakers
• Publicise benefits IBP offers to customers
2) Crafting compelling communications
• Identify target audiences and have common understanding on what should be done.
• Target scientists, policymakers, general public
• Visualisation - It's easier! what's really visible beyond the numbers and figures
• CBA analyses on savings made
3) Branding
• Name - IBP describes what the platform does, but a catchy name welcome to draw attention
• Tagline - only necessary if name is not descriptive
• Logo - good to have, creates an image (but one member expressed concern on GCP losing identity or too many logos for the same effort, ie, IBP, GCP and user case
insititute)
4) Dissemination
• Simple, visual media
• Good clean examples
• Provide clear proven examples to avoid danger of oversell
This page
Other pages
Account
Administration