SWITZERLAND
PARTICIPANTS: MIRIAM AND IRMA
Describe your Project Idea and how it originated:
Our project is for the early intervention programme, called PRIMISSIMO, www.primissimo.org.
What problem do you want to address with this Project? Why you want to address this problem? How does your Project address this problem?
We want to set up online coaching for the new volunteer storytellers.
What will be the product? Describe the primary product/service offered by your company.
An online coching for the volunteers to prepare them for their volunteer work. It aims to provide basic information on the early language development of children aged 3 - 5 years.
What kind of competitors do you have? How will you compete with them?
We found an online training by a speech therapist from Austria. She has built this programme for parents. It is fee-based and too academic for our target group (https://www.sprachgold-online.de/lies-mit-mir). We think we can enrich our coaching with more practical examples / best practices. We are also planning to translate this programme into English so that we can offer it in India in the future (for PRIMISSIMO volunteers with English as their mother tongue which we will connect with little children from a NGO in South India).
What is your tone of voice? What is your Brand Philosophy? What are the main values of your project?
The PRIMISSIMO programme can contribute to equal opportunities for participating preschool children and strengthen their volunteer storytellers.
What is your primary logo? Wordmark? Brandmark?
Company Management Structure
Will you start this project with a team? How will you distribute responsibilities?
Yes,, we work in a team. Our Indian team takes care of the website and the technical part (online-shop, online-communication-plattform, content management system), Irma takes responsibility of the administration and the finances :) ... Janine contributes to the pedagogy and the didactics. Claudia (a professionel story teller) will take care of the dubbing into English and will also be responsible for the didactics/methods. Miriam is the project manager and takes care of the sponsoring and the the project expansion to the NGO in India (via ERASMUS+ and a foundation).
Organizational Timeline: Timetable of how you will build your Company or Digital Enterprise Project
We already started the programme in our canton Zug (Central Switzerland) this summer. It has started very well and the budget is secured until mid-2023. Currently, 15 PRIMISSIMO volunteers are active in the families and support young children in language development (German).
Company Assets: What will be the property of your Company or Digital Enterprise Project? How will you secure that property or that value? Describe the company's Assets.
We are organised as a sole proprietorship (Miriam is liable as owner with her company SPIN, SPIN is registered in the commercial register in Switzerland).The product is not protected by copyright (e.g. national/international patent). However, we have already secured the name of the website.
Future Plans: Describe in what way, you will expand your project (e.g., through future products or plans). In what ways, can your company/project be expanded?
We don't want to be big ... we have already had requests from other cantons but want to stick to "KISS" - keep it small and simple (and local, canton Zug). ... however, as one couple in our PRIMISSIMO Team (the digital one) is originally from India, we want to expand the project to South India (Goa or Karnataka, Kerala or Tamil Nadu).
MARKETING PLAN
Target Audience: What is your target audience? What kind of needs are you trying to address?
Our target group are volunteer storytellers and children from vulnerable families to learn the local language. The children are aged between 3 and 4 years and do not yet attend kindergarten.
Pricing: How will you price the product/service? Will this price be affordable for your target audience? What will you do if the price is higher for your target audience? How will you manage to get a lower price?
Thanks to our sponsorship, we are able to offer the PRIMISSIMO programme free of charge for our families (children) and we can also offer the volunteers an expense allowance of about 50 Euros for the 3 months of their commitment.
Advertising: How will you advertise your product/service?
We advertise through various online platforms that provide local volunteering opportunities (free of charge). Through this we receive many interested volunteers for our PRIMISSIMO children. We have flyers that we display in libraries and at institutions such as parent counselling centres, social welfare offices and early intervention programmes etc. We also use our existing network from the integration programme MUNTERwegs (mentoring programm for children aged 5 - 12 years and teenagers aged 14 - 16 years). Here we are in regular contact with over 100 families with a migration background. Finally, we also use our network of key persons (intercultural translators). Of course, we also maintain a website, which is especially important for registrations (www.primissimo.org). The volunteers also get information from this website. However, we have learned that above all our PRIMISSIMO families value personal contact, e.g. via presentations or home visits.
Write a marketing abstract of two-three sentences:
PRIMISSIMO offers early language support for toddlers aged between three and four years in the canton of Zug. Personal story friends accompany the PRIMISSIMO children with exciting, creative stories and thus strengthen the equal opportunities and long-term integration of the participating children.
SWOT Analysis (Strengths/ Weaknesses/ Opportunities/ Threats)
Strengths: What are the strengths of your Project?
PRIMISSIMO supports the goals of the 2030 Agenda, in particular the project strengthens a sustainable, social development. Through PRMISSIMO, future generations should be given the perspective of a dignified life. There are desired social, economic, etc. changes for the PRIMISSIMO participants, especially for the children. They get a better start in kindergarten, more equal opportunities in education through more successful integration, and thus better labour market opportunities in the long run. The volunteers (Story Friends) experience themselves as self-effective and are sustainably engaged in civil society. In society as a whole, voluntary engagement experiences more appreciation and strengthens solidarity between (socio)cultures and generations in the long term. The programme also satisfies the growing need of companies/organisations to help strengthen the society and address social issues (Employee engagement, e.g. Banks like Credit Suisse, UBS, Pharme like Roche). Thanks to our social value network (many local relationships with migrant families and great, proven experience in volunteer management), the programme is relatively easy for the project team to implement. Resources can thus be kept lean. In addition, PRIMISSIMO serves the national education programmes for early support and integration (language support) and can therefore benefit from national funding.
Weaknesses: What are the weaknesses of your Project?
Funding is based on the current migration policy and the government's sustainability goals (funding programmes). If these change, the expenses for project management, training and supervision of volunteers etc. cannot be financed. PRIMISSIMO is also dependent on the commitment of the volunteers. In times of economic crisis and uncertainty, this will decrease. Funding is based on the current migration policy and the government's sustainability goals (funding programmes). If these change, the expenses for project management, training and supervision of volunteers etc. cannot be financed. PRIMISSIMO is also dependent on the commitment of the volunteers. In times of economic crisis and uncertainty, this will decrease. During pandemics, the physical visit of the volunteer storyteller is not possible or equally feasible.
Opportunities: Which opportunities are open to you? How will you grasp these opportunities?
It can be easily multiplied in the sense of social franchising, e.g. to other Swiss cantons or to other countries via an EU education programme. It is an attractive programme for social entrepreneurs. PRIMISSIMO also offers the possibility to accept students (e.g. of speech therapy, social work, education, etc.) as PRIMISSIMO storytellers. In this way, they could receive ECTS points and PRIMISSIMO could strengthen its pool of storytellers in the long term. This would alleviate the dependency on volunteers. In times of energy shortage or black outs, PRIMISSIMO can still be carried out (classical story telling, dialogical reading aloud with children's books).
Threats
How will you manage your threats if you don't know them? Try to find all the threats of your Project.
During pandemics, PRIMISSIMO can also be conducted online. In this case, the methods and didactics must be adapted - not only for the story telling session but also for the coaching/education of the volunteers. The online platform for this digital exchange has already been prepared and is linked to the project website (login area with password. In the event of political changes in Switzerland (new priorities in migration policy), alternative sources of funding must be found, e.g. via local, national foundations, private benefactors or churches. The project team must not rely on this source of income alone and should be financialle independent. The project team is no longer motivated and finds no joy in implementing PRIMISSIMO. In regular joint meetings we talk about our motivation and take our emotional resistances seriously (stay with the flow ;)
Make a Poster accumulating your answers to all the previous questions to present them in a creative way in our next session (5-7 minutes presentation).
Video: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFORn_hXDk/7mgVSxl20gAXSUozs0QfeA/edit?utm_content=DAFORn_hXDk&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton