Julia Grady, co-founder and executive director of 10C Shared Space (10C) - a social enterprise offering sustainable

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Question:

Julia Grady, co-founder and executive director of 10C Shared Space (10C) - a social enterprise offering sustainable physical workspaces to social entrepreneurs in Guelph, Ontario - was preparing her presentation for the annual general meeting on July 10, 2021, just one month away and was grappling with how to determine the extent of the structural changes to the coworking industry caused by the pandemic. She knew the Board wanted a detailed analysis regarding the situation including how she planned to adjust her business strategy to succeed in the new environment. But where should she start.

Grady championed physical space as an enabler of collaboration, innovation, and sustainable community development. She had rallied 140 local investors under a social finance program to fundraise for 10C's expansion from a small office to a multistory 150-year-old property adaptively reused under a multimillion-dollar project. Through its stimulating physical space, innovative programs, and professional management services for Guelph's changemakers, 10C had quickly become loved by its members and important to the region known for its sustainability leadership.

The pandemic, however, had shifted people's working preferences and the use of physical office space. Was this change so drastic that Grady's firm's goal to offer sustainable, shared physical workspace for collaboration and connection with others had become obsolete? Grady desperately needed to evaluate the market to adjust her communications to her key audiences and develop a MarCom's strategy to present to the Board, but was not sure what tools and methods would best solve this problem.

Industry: Coworking industry

Orientation: B2B

Company background: 10C Shared Space was a not-for-profit social enterprise. It created platforms (physical, virtual, networks and financial) for social entrepreneurs across sectors engaging in collaborative environmental, social, and community development work that created social change in Guelph-Wellington.

10C put collaborative and inclusive placemaking at the core of its work in Community Engagement, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Sustainable Food Systems, Social Finance, and Social Enterprise. Its sustainably retrofitted building had a great welcoming space for its curated members, high quality facilities, and included a commercial kitchen and arts spaces.

With grants and funding being its main sources of income, its annual revenue was CAD1M at the end of FY'20.

Until FY'20, 10C invested a maximum of 3% of its annual revenue in marketing. With its limited resources, it relied heavily on generating word-of-mouth locally through collaborating on events with like-minded organizations, building-front advertising through posters and brochures, announcing updates on its website and social media accounts, and sending updates through a newsletter to subscribers.

10C's audience (as paying coworking members, social media followers, volunteers, collaborators, etc.) included social changemakers working independently or as part of an organization; not-for-profit (NFP) sector, for-profit organizations interested in getting a B-Corp certification; non-governmental organizations (NGOs), co-ops, or others offering socially relevant programming; post-secondary students in masters/Phd programs or early career; food start ups; and local farm/food producers.

Description of the case setting and the challenge: Until March 2020, 10C was a bustling physical hub for changemakers in Guelph. Community members could host meetings, book coworking space and gather informally. The space was alive with innovation and connection. As virtual and hybrid workspaces loomed large as permanent fixtures in the near-future work culture, Julia and her team at 10C wondered if people would return to physical space. They knew placemaking was an important part of innovation, collaboration and community change making, but how could they communicate this value to its key audience as its membership growth rate dropped? After all, sustaining memberships was one of its key objectives. Not only did it provide 10C with a revenue stream, but it also demonstrated 10C's breadth of impact and strengthened its positions for future grants.

As 10C prepared to re-open and re-orient in a post-covid community, Julia wondered, "What should her new marcomms strategy look like in a changed post-pandemic market? What could be the message to her key audience that would draw them to 10C and its services? Which media mix would be optimal given her objectives and budget?"

Description of 10C's existing revenue generating services: Social change membership (including organizational, individual, and student members); centralized community hubs (operating a 15,000 sqft newly renovated multi-purpose hub, an 11,000 swft Farmers' Market, and high-traffic outdoor space); shared commercial community kitchens; community events (e.g. leasing out space for small weddings, etc.) and social change engagement (e.g. leasing out space for workshops, conferences, etc.); arts engagement (e.g. leasing out space for art exhibits); contribution of content and action to the NFP social enterprise sector; 10C community bond investment program and investor stewardship; Harvest Impact social finance program and fund; research and evaluation on special projects; urban agriculture activation.

Based on the above case study, Answer the following:

Information from the given case related to business goals (e.g. business operations, financial performance, need for a pivot to respond to changing industry/market)
Information from the given case related to marketing objectives (e.g. timeline, money, audience, product, etc.)
Tactics mentioned in the case.
Inferred goals, objectives, and strategy based on (1), (2), and (3) above in one-two sentences for each.
What research/data do you think was used to make the decisions around tactics? Explain in 50-100 words