Guild
TRANSFORMATION
Purpose + Brand Transformation
CHALLENGE
Unlock growth for a B Corporation by transforming its perceived and real value.
STORY
80% of low-income working adults want to attend school but cannot afford it. That’s why CEO Rachel Romer founded Guild. Guild helps employers pay their employees’ tuition by facilitating those payments.
The B Corp’s impact delighted everyone:
• On average, Guild learners are 2.6x more likely to experience internal mobility compared to their colleagues who do not participate in the Guild benefit.
• On Average, Learning Marketplace learners were 2.3x less likely to leave their employer in the last 12 months relative to non-members.
• 71% of surveyed Learning Marketplace learners are first-generation college students.
Guild has modernized traditional tuition reimbursement programs that historically have left behind the most marginalized. Traditional tuition reimbursement programs ask employees to front the cost of tuition, fees, and books, with the company then reimbursing the employee for some portion of those costs after they complete the academic term. This has the unintended consequence of restricting programs to higher-earners who may reasonably have that kind of savings on hand or to those willing to take on debt and with credit scores to secure it.
Tuition assistance programs can reach frontline employees in ways that tuition reimbursement programs simply can’t.
According to Deloitte, 71% of employers offering tuition assistance. Yet only 2% of employees use it, according to Northeastern University. “Tuition-free education,” it turns out, only matters if it’s paired with the right educator and support to align education to career goals. But finding that match is expensive. It takes too much time for working adults to find the right one. And it takes too much money for educators to find the right students. This market friction, economists note, has contributed to America’s sharp decline in socio-economic mobility. (Globally, America slipped to 27th place.)
Solving the education market’s friction – not its high tuition costs – was the greatest value creation opportunity. This was a highly credible role for Guild.
Guild earns revenue when an employee progresses throughout their program.. This incentivizes them to help both sides of the market find each other and improve outcomes. That’s why Guild recruits learning providers, builds education programs with companies and ensures they’re aligned to the organization’s workforce needs, markets these programs to employees, and supports participants throughout their education journeys – improving outcomes for all three parties. Guild is what economists call a “market maker.”
We worked with Guild to reconceptualize their brand to reflect its evolution from modernizing traditional tuition reimbursement programs and focusing solely on education to driving career mobility for all employees with access to Guild, including the more than six million Americans who had access to Guild’s Career Opportunity Platform™ in the last 12 months. The company’s rebrand came at a time when persistent talent shortages, widening economic inequality, and a growing skills gap are making the pathway to the middle class grow increasingly out of reach for too many Americans. With career mobility becoming the requirement to close the gaps and fuel economic advancement for the millions of Americans who are vulnerable to being left behind, Guild expanded its strategic focus to deliver support and resources for people to acquire greater career and economic opportunities while enabling employers to support the advancement of their employees.
We worked with Guild to revamp their brand identity, creating an inviting new voice and a populist, dynamic expression. We helped Guild develop a new logo and design that embodies the pathways and connections the company is helping employees discover. It recognizes everyone’s journey is personally defined, can take turns and even setbacks, but is always unfolding with more potential waiting to be unleashed.
Team
- Tom Elia
- Mariah Bush
- Taamy Amaize
- L.A. Corrall
- Rejane Dal Bello
- Zuzanna Rogatty
- Morgan Light
- Barney Stepney
- Darius Wang
- Sanuk Kim
- Emily Sneddon
- Jump Jirakaweekul
- George Lavender
- Ryan Bugden
- Beth Johnson
- Jade Kuzak
- Nicole Cousins
- Eric Park
- Alex Blumfelder
- Shelby Shelman
- Taylor Zahrt
- Chris Roan
- Alex Athanasiou
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- Photography
- Eric Van Nynatten
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- Styling
- Liz Borger