Black Diamond Agency presents:

A rebranding campaign for the National Education Association

Table of Contents:

Target Audience

Primary and Secondary Research

SWOT Analysis

Objectives

10

Programming

11

Budget

25

Evaluation

26

Target Audience:
Strategy One:

NEA members and administration

Community members ages 25-70+

Strategy Two:

Students in public schools

Parents of students in public school
Taxpayers ages 25-70+
Non-union teachers

The target audience mentioned in primary research section are parents of students in public schools and taxpayers ages 25-70+. The
strategies will be explained in the programming section of the plans book.

Primary and Secondary Research

Primary Research: In-Depth Interviews:
After interviewing people in our primary target market (parents of public school students and taxpayers), Black Diamond
Group discovered that the target does not trust the NEA on multiple levels. All of the people who were interviewed had in mind the
same three core issues within the NEA. The first core problem the NEA faces is political. While claiming to be bi-partisan, it is clear
that the NEA greatly favors the Democratic Party. Another prime concern of the target market is funding. The audience is aware of
political donations between candidates and the NEA. This exchange of money is seen as a bribe for members of the NEA to vote for a
candidate. Those interviewed were also all skeptical of the money the NEA spends on lobbying. Millions of dollars each year goes
toward lobbying for educational bills, however, no common taxpayer or parent can easily research NEA lobbying accomplishments.
Lastly, parents and taxpayers are concerned with teacher accountability. Those who Black Diamond Group interviewed are aware of
scandals that are "swept under the rug" to protect the teacher. They want to see the focus on protecting the children.
Secondary Research:
Black Diamond Group also conducted secondary research and discovered a few points of interest. NEA membership is
exponentially decreasing, the organization spent $80 million dollars in elections, the NEA coerces makes teachers into donating to
political campaigns they do not agree with, and lastly, some states ban union teachers.

Current Situation and SWOT Analysis

Strengths:
The National Education Associations (NEA) mission statement states, Our mission is to advocate for education professionals
and to unite our members and the nation to fulfill the promise of public education to prepare every student to succeed in a diverse and
interdependent world. The organizations vision statement is as follows: Our vision is a great public school for every student.
These are two very powerful statements that can be easily incorporated into a campaign. This mission identifies the most significant
strength of the NEA, the members exist to educate the future generation.
In addition, The National Education Associations website defines core values of the organization, which are directly
correlated to the mission and vision statements previously mentioned. For example, the associations core values include equal
opportunity, a just society, democracy, professionalism, partnership and collective action. Along with the mission and vision
statements, these core values can contribute to affective messaging during the campaign, which seeks to positively rebrand teachers
and unions in general. Essentially, one core strength that the union has it that its members teach those who will become future citizens.
They influence the children and ultimately have the ability to teach the future society.
The NEA's largest asset is its membership; the strength in numbers. Ultimately, this translates into support of the union.
Nationally, there are a little more than 3 million members who belong to the NEA union. The NEA is broken down into local, state
and national chapters. This union has 14,000 local affiliates, 51 state affiliates and 555 staff members working for the NEA at the
national headquarters in Washington, D.C.
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Another strength of the NEA is that the union offers good benefits to the teachers. The NEA fights constantly for an increase in
salary and paid in full insurance.
Because of these large numbers in membership, the NEA receives significant financial support due to the member fees that
must be paid by each person who belongs to the NEA. Their funding is to be estimated at about 36 million dollars. This endowment
allows for the union to initiate education programs and catalyze education reforms via lobbyists.
An additional strength of the NEA is its partnerships. Some states (Florida, Montana, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota)
have partnered with the American Federation of Teaching and there was also a partnership formed between the NEA and the
American Teacher's Association. These partnerships are a huge asset to the NEA because as a partners, these units can cooperate and
work toward shared goals and successfully complete objectives.

Opportunities
The National Education Association can take advantage of their partnerships, as well. The purpose of partnerships is to form
relationships with other organizations to promote public schools or community initiatives. These partnerships can be implemented to
enhance student success, achieve excellence in professions, and fight for opportunity and equity for all students, as stated on the
National Education Associations website.
A large portion of the NEA homepage featured a section on college affordability. Since college prices will become only a
greater issue in the future, we can set the stage for the NEA to be at the forefront of this battle. An opportunity for the NEA is to be
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one of the leading advocates for the change in a more affordable college education, beginning with awarding more scholarships for
essays submitted which focus on the NEA teacher and how they help accomplish a student's goals. The organization is dedicated to
establishing standards and systems for educators, and Black Diamond Group recommends instituting a program where the quality of
teaching is emphasized to the nation.
Another opportunity to improve the union includes some compromise with the taxpayers. The union can identify causes of the
core complaints from the public and really work to make sure that the public is in favor and aligned with not only the values of the
NEA, but the actions of the NEA. This will open up a major opportunity to counter public opinion criticisms with positive and helpful
action. Needless to say, there are several opportunities for positive rebranding of teachers and unions through the NEAs existing
partnerships. Campaigns can focus on publicizing a specific partnership per month, and dedicating all advertising, events and
messaging to that cause.

Weaknesses
There have been many public instances of the NEA's weaknesses. However, before these problems are mentioned, let us
examine membership. By 2014 16% of the members are expected to drop the union. It is also estimated that at the end of 2014, the
NEA budget will shrink by 18% because of the lack of dues.
Public weaknesses typically include one of the NEA's largest issue: corruption. This corruption is manifested in many forms
such as administrative, political teacher misconduct. There have been many instances of administrative power being abused in regard
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to money. These administrators take advantage of the large budget to cover up small misdirection of funds. In addition, it has become
"common knowledge" that even though the NEA claims to not be partisan, it almost always supports Democratic Party and never
backs the Republican Party.
Though the democrats focus on improving education, it is not beneficial to be associated with a political party. Effects of
unofficially siding with a party can be disastrous, as seen by the Republican backlash on the NEA union. When an organization like
the NEA is even unofficially associated with a party, problems with the party can be translated over to problems with the union. There
have also been a significant amount of cases in public schools of teachers sexually abusing students while their colleagues look the
other way. These teacher are still allowed to practice their specialty because they were aided by their coworkers in covering up
scandals.

Threats
Since the NEA is the largest professional organization and largest labor union in the United States, it will obviously have some
enemies and threats. First, we have to be aware of the people that dislike unions in general, and some of the tactics they use to protest
the NEAs direction. There are many anti-union groups in existence and the Heritage Foundation is one extreme critic that even went
so far as to post an article titled 10 great reasons to hate the NEA they state that we are critically damaging the arts in the school
system and are nothing more than a welfare for cultural elitist.

They have strong opinions among others that the NEA focuses on every school topic except the arts. After reading other
articles, a common opinion is that the NEA is wasting resources constantly. Since the NEA is the largest teacher's union, faults within
the organization will be magnified, made public and will be critically examined.
Another threat to the NEA are scandal cover-ups done to protect teachers who do not deserve tenure or who should not be
teaching. The NEA needs to increase the element of transparency within the organization because transparency leads to trust.
In addition to these, there is also the threat of the NEA's non-educational agenda, such as supporting gay rights and the
Democratic Party. It is ideal to have students growing up as accepting all types of people, these ideas should not be incorporated in the
classroom.
Though these are all significant factors in threats to the NEA, one of the most significant threats to the union is the media. In
the United States, the media makes anything out to be one giant crisis. One wrong thing and the media hyper focus on it. So if one
teacher from one local affiliation gets in trouble with the law, the entire NEA gets called into attention.

Objectives:
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: To positively change the public's perception of the NEA organization.
SUPPLEMENTARY OBJECTIVES:

To increase the element of transparency in the NEA

To improve accountability within the organization

To increase community knowledge of the organization such as employees, new policies and initiatives

To promote favorable community opinions toward the NEA

To improve the image of the NEA in local, state and national communities

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Programming:
Strategy One: Internal Transparency
To tackle the negative perception the target audience has of the NEA, there must be some sense of reform within the organization to
make the NEA more transparent and trustworthy. The organization must be open about the three core issues people have with the
NEA: funding, politics and accountability.
Funding:
In order to remain as transparent as possible and honest with the public, the Black Diamond Group recommends that each NEA
chapter will post their yearly budget on their website to make it easily accessed by the public. In an effort to be as detail-oriented as
possible, there will be no miscellaneous category. This is a large step toward gaining back pubic trust, and again we highly
recommend it. An example of the website addition can be found below.
Politics:
Black Diamond would like the NEA to encourage students to vote, but not how to vote. By implementing the Wear White
initiative, teachers and students across the nation will wear white to school on the Tuesday of Election Day. Since white is not
traditionally associated with any political party, there will be no bias included in this campaign. The whole purpose of the "Wear
White" campaign is for teachers to show students that they should be proud to exercise their right to vote, while not influencing a
student's vote. In addition, the NEA's primary target audience is opposed to the organization spending millions of dollars lobbying in
Washington D.C. without seeing the results. Black Diamond Group suggests posting lobbying successes on each NEA affiliate

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website. The description will include the bill number and title, what the passing of the bill means and how it will positively affect
teachers, students and the community.

LOBBYING UPDATES
2014 NEA BUDGET

Accountability:
To address the issue of accountability, Black Diamond Group suggests contract revisions that include causes addressing political
kickbacks and coercion as well as illegal relationship with students. For example: Accepting money for voting will result in a contract
revision, strip teacher of tenure, start a thorough investigation and can result in fines against the teacher. Another example of a
contract revisions will be involving illegal relationships discovered with a teacher will NOT be swept under the rug. Colleagues who
know about relationships with students will be investigated and include possible suspension and definite expulsion for the involved
teacher. All these changes are meant to lead to an increase of trust of the target audience in the NEA. Black Diamond Group will alert
all publics via press release. This story will be published in newspapers and broadcast radio or television and show the public that this
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organization is trying to become more transparent and more accountable. The higher the transparency within the NEA, the higher the
community trust in the organization will be. An example of the contract press release can be found below:
Contact Information:
Black Diamond Group
mediacontact@blackdiamondgroup.com
For Immediate Release
Press Release
NEA Set to Apply New Contract
WASHINGTON -- (December 2, 2014) The National Education Association is revising the
member contracts to raise accountability in NEA teachers. Set forward by the new contract, teachers will
be held accountable for several issues that may result in penile actions if the new terms are violated.
The NEA will have zero tolerance for teachers who accept bribes, have illegal relationships with
students, or teachers who may have known about such cases and never reported the known offenses of
other colleagues. This tolerance will be supported by new penalties within the contract such as being
stripped of tenure, fines, suspension and even termination.
Teachers who are discovered accepting bribes to vote for a certain political party or having illegal
relationships with students will give rise to a thorough investigation of past voting records and bank
statements to discover if they previously have accepted money from politicians for voting. If found guilty
the teachers contract will immediately go into revision, the teacher will be stripped of tenure, and fines
will have to be paid by the teacher. If colleagues knew of the matter and said nothing, they may be subject
to a thorough investigation as well.
The NEA is applying this new contract to ensure not only the safety of the students but also to
raise standards for all future and current teachers. This contract will raise the criteria for teacher
accountability. For more information, please contact media@blackdiamongroup.org or visit
www.nea.org/accountability.

###

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New logo:
The release of the new logo will reflect the transparency in the organization and again illustrates the fact that the NEA is bi-partisan
with the elimination of the blue color that can be viewed as the traditional blue of the Democratic Party. Replacing blue with grey and
changing the texture into a grey glass again conveys the element of transparency.

Strategy Two: Image Management through Community Relations

Tagline:

"Not just any teacher, an NEA teacher."

This NEA slogan makes NEA teacher synonymous with high quality, fantastic teachers. This tagline is going to make non-union
teachers want to join the NEA and let the target audience know that the NEA isn't just any teacher's union, it is the best and it is elite.
The tagline will prominently be displayed on print ads. They will be seen on billboards, national newspapers and local newspapers.
The prints ads can be seen on the following page.

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15

Teachers Pledge:
Our research has indicated that the public opinion is not favorable toward teachers. According to public opinion polls, the public
believes that teachers do not care about their students and instead, are more focused on their professional benefits. In order to address
this misconception, we will implement the Teachers Pledge initiative. Teachers will sign a pledge to dedicate themselves to their
students in a variety of ways. Each teacher that signs the pledge seen below will receive a packet of apple seeds and gardening
supplies. The teachers will plant apple seeds with their students during the beginning of the school year, and they will periodically
check on the growth of the tree throughout the school year. Planting these seeds in the community illustrates a partnership between
NEA teachers and the community and also represents how teachers help their students grow during the course of a school year.

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To publicize the Teacher's Pledge initiative, Black Diamond Group will document teacher's signing the pledge and planting the seeds
with their students on the local NEA affiliate social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube. In addition, Black Diamond Group
will send out VNR's of the story to local and national news station. Black Diamond Group also created a commercial for the Teacher's
Pledge initiative. The storyboard can be found below.
Teachers Pledge Commercial

The camera will start out with a wide

shot of the desk, and zoom in on the
teacher when she says I pledge to
instill a love of learning in my
students.

The camera will pan around a

teachers workshop, will zoom in
on one teacher, who will say,
I promise to never stop learning,
so that I grow as an educator.

The camera will show a side view of

a teacher handing back a paper to
her student. After she gives back
the paper, she will say, I pledge to
treat all students fairly.

The camera will follow a teacher

leaving school. When she goes
through the doors, the camera will
zoom in on her she says, Im not just
any teacher, Im an NEA teacher.

The camera will show a

teacher tutoring a student
and will pan in on her when
she says, I will go above
and beyond for any
student.

The teacher will be walking

down a row of seats, handing
out an exam to his students,
and walking toward the
camera, he will say,
I pledge to challenge my stu
dents, so that they are ready f
or the real world.

The camera will zoom in on

the principal who will say,
"What will you pledge?"

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High School Time Capsule:

Teachers across the nation will implement the High School Time Capsule Campaign for incoming high school freshman. Teachers
will introduce a lesson dedicated to the importance of setting measurable goals, which will allow students to achieve success during
their high school years. The freshman will write letters to their future selves, defining goals and describing where they envision
themselves in the future. They will receive these letters during the spring of their junior year. The students will then be encouraged to
enter a scholarship essay contest sponsored by the NEA, in which they will reflect on what they achieved during high school, and how
their teachers have supported them along the way. The top three student essays will receive monetary prizes that will be put toward
furthering their education. The announcements for winners and finalists of the Time Capsule project will be updated via Facebook. A
video montage of the winning students reading their essays in their school along with scenes of their successes will be posted on
Facebook, YouTube and also will be made into a VNR sent to all ABC and NBC affiliates. A sample Facebook post of a winning
essay can be found below.

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Where's the Money Commercial:

Black Diamond Group will also create a commercial that will focus on one of the biggest questions for the NEA: where does the
money go? As previously stated this is a huge aspect of the NEA that the target is not pleased with. This commercial will show to the
target that the NEA doe not only focus all its money on the teachers. It is meant to illustrate the fact that the NEA teams up with the
community to make sure students have a good education experience both in and out of the classroom.
The commercial will depict how the NEA uses its funds to help out the local community, and how their funds make a positive impact
on the education experience for students attending public schools across the nation. An additional strategy that corresponds to this is
the funding portion of the internal transparency campaign. This creative illustrate that the NEA is not only spending money in
Washington D.C. The following two pages are the storyboard for the Where's the Money commercial.

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Where's the Money Storyboard:

Accountant talking to himself: "Okay

working on NEA balance sheet." Looks up a
few things and types on the keyboard.

Accountant runs past a library pauses and

says "newly furnished library"

Accountant adding up figures looking

frustrated and confused. Looks up and
shouts "WHERE'S THE MONEY?"

Accountant writes something down on

clipboard and says "Okay"

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

Accountant gets up and runs

screaming "I NEED TO FIND THE
MONEY"

Accountant runs past science lab pauses and

says "high tech science lab"

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Accountant writes something down on clipboard

and says "Alright there's another one."

Accountant leaves to return to his building

and comes across a playground. Accountant
smiles to himself and says "Got it".

Accountant runs past a computer lab and

says "got a nice computer lab here"

Accountant checks final mark on clipboard

and wonders to himself "I wonder how
many other people knew about these."

Accountant writes something down on

clipboard and says "This is starting to make
sense."

Accountant returns to his office, sits down

and lets out a sigh. Now relaxed, he says, ""I
found the money"
Narrator: Because the NEA isn't just any
teacher's union, it's one that gives back to
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the kids and to the community.

Teacher of the Month:

Black Diamond suggests the NEA to implement the Teacher of the Month contest, which will be the Peoples Choice Award of
the NEA. Students, parents and the local communities will be have their voices heard, and teachers will be nominated by those who
have been directly impacted by their education practices. All Teachers of the Month throughout the nation will be invited to an
inaugural Teacher Ball, which will be held in Washington, D.C. The teachers will be honored, and a Teacher of the Year will be
chosen among them, and the winner will be announced during the event. The teacher of the month story will most likely be covered by
local news channels and papers on slow news days, getting a lot of unpaid news coverage. The NEA national and affiliate chapters
will post congratulations to teacher of the month winners of Facebook and have picture and a short biography of the teacher on
Facebook and YouTube. Below is an example of a Facebook post.

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In addition to social media, press releases and VNRs will be sent out to local and national news channels for coverage. Black Diamond
Group has also created a teacher of the month commercial to give voters nomination information. Below is the storyboard for the
teacher of the month commercial.
Commercial for Teacher of the Month:

I work hard every day to make sure

that children can get a superior
education experience.

If your child goes to public school

visit nea.org/nomtom and you can
make your teacher a superhero.

After school, I coach sports teams and

volunteer in extracurricular activities
to lay the foundation for my students
to become well rounded and
community-minded citizens.

Because they're not just any teacher,

they're an NEA teacher.

Take into consideration the time and

effort you child's teachers dedicate to
their students and nominate them for
Teacher of the Month.

Photo credit:
teachers.net
blog.oregonlive.com
mrbarbersecgrclass.com
bangordailynews.comtimeshighereducation.co.uk23

Not Just Any Union Commercial:

Following the theme of high-quality teachers within the NEA, Black Diamond Group will publicize an additional tagline, Not just
any union, the NEA. The commercial will depict why the NEA is the premier union for teachers to join, and explain to the public
that NEA teachers are skilled, and truly make a difference in public schools.

Not Just Any Union Commercial:

157 years ago people came

together

Now with over 3 million

members, the National Education
Association is dedicated to giving
every child a quality education

to forever change the

educational system

And to help them develop every

aspect of their academic and
personal interests;

for both the children of the

present and the future.

But to achieve this future, we had

to focus on the people that were
going to get us there first.

To watch them grow from

beautiful children into driven
adults

Because we are in the business of

building a better future. And we are
not just any union. We are the NEA.

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Timetable:
Year 1

Year 2

Logo ( included in retainer)

Tagline (retainer)
Pledge (retainer)
Pledge commercial ($10,000 to shoot)
Print ad not any teacher

Year 3
Capsule Campaign
Continue old commercials
Wheres the money

Teacher of the month/ ball

Commercial Advertisement
for TOM
Not just another union
commercial

Budget:
Year 1:

Year 2:

Year 3

Retainer Fee: 1,000,000

Retainer Fee: 1,000,000

Retainer Fee: 1,000,000

Logo: Part of Retainer Fee

Capsule Campaign:
scholarship: 30,000

Teacher's Ball: $200,000

Tagline: Part of Retainer Fee

Pledge: Part of Retainer Fee
Pledge commercial:
shooting cost: $5,000
network broadcast: 1997,500

Where's The Money Commercial

shooting costs: $10,000
broadcasting: $1,320,000
Previous ad broadcast: $2,640,000

Print Ad in paper/billboards: 1,997,500

YEAR ONE TOTAL: $5,000,000

Teacher of the month Ad:

shooting costs: $5,000
broadcasting: $1,500,000
Not Just Any Union Ad
shooting cost: $5,000
broadcasting: $1,500,000
Previous ad broadcast: $790,000

YEAR TWO TOTAL: $5,000,000

YEAR THREE TOTAL: $5,000,000

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Evaluation:
Primary Objective: To positively change the public's perception of the NEA organization .
Measured by: Public Opinion Polls of the NEA

Strategy One: Internal Transparency

Transparency: Measure target audience trust of NEA by public opinion polls
Accountability: Measure membership increase in the NEA
Community knowledge of the NEA: Press clippings and readership.

Strategy 2: Image Management through Community Relations

Measure favorable community opinion: Measure likes, follows, views and comments on Social Media.
Community knowledge: Press coverage, viewer and reader numbers, and participation in Teacher of the Month.
To improve the image of the NEA in local, state and national communities.

Measure the number of pledges signed

Participation numbers in time capsule
Public opinion polls

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