Web Design Agency/ Branding Palestinian Exports

RFP-PTC-053-06-2018

OVERVIEW

PALESTINE TRADE CENTER (PALTRADE)

PalTrade was established in 1998, as a non-profit development organization, which was mandated as the Palestinian National Trade Promotion Organization. PalTrade has evolved into an export development organization with a mission to lead the development and sustainable increase of Palestinian exports as a driving force for sustainable national economic growth; and has been instrumental in leading the way to establish a National Export Strategy. PalTrade provides a wide range of support in the areas of export development and market intelligence, export promotion, and export policy and advocacy.  

INITIATIVE CONTEXT

In 2014 The Palestinian Export Council (PEC) was established according to a decision by Palestinian cabinet. The PEC is a formal public-private platform that is composed of 26 members from the public and private sectors and academia, headed by the minister of National Economy and chairman of Palestine Trade Center (PalTrade) as vice president, and supported by the PEC secretariat, which is mandated for and  managed by PalTrade.

One of the strategic objectives of the National Export Strategy is to “Build and promote the image of the State of Palestine as a supplier of value-added quality products and services.” Recognizing that perceptions linked to Palestine have, for decades, been driven by external actors, primarily journalists reporting on political conflict throughout the region, and that changing the image of Palestine requires active participation from internal sources, it is clear that a more proactive effort is needed to transform Palestine’s global reputation and that of its export products and services.

The goal of this endeavor is to develop a branding initiative that accurately and effectively promotes Palestinian exports (goods and services) to key international audiences and ensures outcomes that support the economic needs and agendas of the PEC and all related stakeholders.

To satisfy this objective, a significant amount of research was conducted to understand the dynamics of destination branding as well as both market and operational dynamics on a sector by sector basis across Palestine. From this effort, outcomes included:

• challenges faced when Palestinian enterprise enters new markets;
• obvious shortcomings across all sectors of Palestinian enterprise;
• opportunities and advantages for export activity;
• Identification of markets that have been receptive to Palestinian exports.

Having that said, a branding marketing plan (attached) was designed based on a clear understanding of these findings, responds to those issues that are shared across all sectors and areas of professional endeavor, and provides a clearly defined model for branding activities that will satisfy both business and marketing objectives linked to Palestinian exports.

Based on reliable and documented researches, there are several manufacturing and service sectors that are contributing significantly to Palestine’s economy, generating meaningful and measurable gains through exports, and are projected to perform even better over the short, medium and long term. These sectors are:

- Agro Processed Meat

- Footwear & Leather

- Fresh Fruits, Vegetables & Herbs

- Furniture

- Information & Communications Technology (ICT)

- Olive Oil

- Stone & Marble

- Textiles & Garments

- Tourism

Having found that Palestinian specialty products have been well received in markets within the UAE, and a large number of operators from many other sectors are also finding favorable responses for their goods and services from within this country, it makes sense to target the UAE for the pilot program in Year 1. This being said and according to the  evaluation of UAE markets on a city by city basis to ensure suitability, cost effectiveness and reasonable expectations for meaningful outcomes the initiative will target cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

To be effective, and recognizing that information must be distributed within Palestine (internal audiences) as well as target export markets (regional and international). In this regard, the campaign will promote the attitudes, attributes, advantages and business opportunities associated with Palestinian exports (goods and services) to key audiences in both Palestine as well as UAE.  

Witnessing the strength of offerings from Palestine’s agricultural community, especially added-value products including Medjool dates, Dead Sea Salt, Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Fresh Herbs, along with the rich and varied storytelling opportunities that can be extracted, the branding program in Year 1 will focus upon the agricultural sector and the growing regions and producers involved with these and related agricultural products.

There is an overall lack of understanding throughout the world about Palestine and a reluctance to embrace Palestinian exports (goods and services). While export activity is having a favorable impact across all sectors, taking steps to improve the reputation of Palestinian exports (goods and services) will help create additional opportunity.

PalTrade is partnering with The Palestinian Market Development Programme (PMDP) to develop the branding initiative and to support the implementation in the pilot phase. PMDP has been designed to improve market systems and improve the competitiveness of the Palestinian private sector. PMDP aims to improve private sector competitiveness through technical assistance and matching grants. Additionally, PMDP works on strengthening trade and investment linkages as well as linkages with the Palestinian Diaspora to play an active role in economic development in Palestine. PMDP is funded by UK Department for International Development (DFID) and European Union (EU) in-cooperation with the Ministry of National Economy and implemented by DAI Europe over a period of five years in the OPT, with offices both in Ramallah and Gaza.

PalTrade is currently working with a Design Studio to develop a wordmark and sector icons for this branding initiative and with a Branding Agency to develop a strategic and creative promotional campaigns; as such PalTrade is seeking a Web Design provider to work with the Branding Manager for the below mentioned assignment.

Objective and Expected Results

Business Objectives

When it comes to the business objectives for Palestinian exports, the goals are described in purely quantitative terms, on a sector by sector basis, as follows:

• Primary Objective

-  Increase annual export volumes for each sector.

• Secondary Objectives

-  Increase the number of individual markets in which Palestinian products appears.

-  Increase the number of business relationships between Palestinian producers and international buyers.

Marketing Objectives

The reputation (brand) of Palestinian exports (goods and services) throughout the world is based upon outdated information, misconceptions, misrepresentations, and limited access, all of which conspire to discourage or prevent meaningful business relationships and export activity. Seeking to create more accurate and favorable impressions with existing and prospective export audiences on a sector by sector basis, the marketing objectives for this initiative are:

• Primary Objectives

-  Identify and position goods and services made in Palestine as desirable.

-  Create interest that leads to first time trial of goods and services made in Palestine.

• Secondary Objective

-  Create accurate and positive associations about Palestine and Palestinian enterprise.

Initiative Context

The overriding objective of the Web Design provider is to design and build a website that communicates undeniable credibility, resonates effectively on an international stage, is easy to understand and navigate, and performs seamlessly across a number of platforms, devices and international locations. This website is intended to be the main hub for Palestinian brands internationally. In order to ensure the greatest possible outcomes, and without exception, a high level of creativity and digital ability is required. In order for this branding plan to succeed, it will be essential to deliver informative and persuasive messages to internal audiences (Palestinians living and working in Palestine), external audiences (international trade audiences in target markets), and the media (business and consumer press) in a manner that is relevant and engaging to all targeted audience.

What’s needed is a well maintained website that communicates all of the wonderful and desirable attributes of Palestine and Palestinian industry, including breaking news and success stories that are equally favorable, a media outreach effort that reaches both domestic and targeted international audiences with the same, emotionally charged content, and branded encounters with key audiences at trade events, B2B missions and other such events that are memorable, impactful and enjoyable.

Key Audiences

International Trade

Making contact with, and influencing perceptions and opinions about Palestine and Palestinian industry with trade representatives and buyers internationally, starting in the UAE is an essential objective.

General Public

This audience, in effect, is the general population of Palestine and UAE for the current period and for the international public in the future. While these individuals may not participate in export development, everything will be a reflection of their everyday lives. Accordingly, it is essential for this audience to be made aware, and embrace, the content that is being distributed.

Media

Since changing public (domestic and international) perceptions of Palestine, particularly its goods and services, is our primary marketing agenda, communicating with the media in Palestine and UAE is essential. Of course, the stories that are told will focus on the accomplishments of Palestinian industry on the agricultural/agribusiness sectors, distributed to both general and trade channels, and position Palestine as a place where productivity is impressive and life is enjoyable on a daily basis.

Scope of Work

A strong online information portal (website) is needed to raise visibility and awareness of exports from Palestine. Communicate undeniable credibility, provide content that support the development of international trade, and facilitate efficient communication between key audiences.

An easy to access, credible and content rich website is needed as a resource that will reach and communicate with a varied and growing number of stakeholders for prompt further inquiries. So this website is needed to answer questions, provide depth of information, facilitate meaningful contact, and keep all audiences informed and updated regarding the program’s activities and achievements.

The website needs to attract attention from key audiences including manufacturers & service providers, local and international press, importers, representatives from both government and trade agencies, and the international public. Accordingly, it must be engineered to anticipate and efficiently respond to their individual needs. To satisfy this objective, the website needs to embrace a navigation strategy, logical pathways, and destination pages that deliver easy to access and relevant content that includes meaningful response mechanisms and present clearly all the sectors of the Palestinian trade required.

For key audiences to contact and obtain information in support of a variety of business activities, the website is needed to be built as a standalone website with its own web address, also to be integrated as a subset of PalTrade’s website through a connected hyperlink.

From an engineering perspective, and acknowledging the international nature of this branding initiative, the site must be developed in a fully responsive mode, ensuring that it can be easily and efficiently displayed on desktop, laptop, tablet and handheld (phone) devices, responds to the most popular browsers in use within each target market, and provides suitable translation functions.

The site must be developed using the latest stable PHP release under one of the top web development frameworks, and using HTML5, CSS3, jQuery v3.3.1 and MySQL Database.

The website should include an online form, providing a mechanism for the submission of all qualifying information, including Palestinian certificate of business registration, company contact details, and other such information. A user name and password needs to be issued, providing easy access to downloadable files, including the wordmark, appropriate sector icons, graphic standards manual, and other such essential materials.

Creative APproach

In order to effectively position exports from Palestine as both credible and desirable, and to offset long-standing negative perceptions, the website must deliver an exceptional user experience. This means that the user interface must:

• Be visually appealing, engaging, memorable and compelling.
• Have a significant presence of emotionally appealing destination and sector imagery.
• Ensure clear communication, brand consistency, and authentic appeal.
• The website should provide exceptional usability and easy navigation; conduct usability testing; optimize pages for search engine indexing; and integrate with web analytics systems (Google analytics).
• Communicate undeniable credibility.
• Embrace established Graphic Standards (Graphic Standards document to be provided).
• Be perceived as equal or superior to other destinations (see Brand Strategy, attached).
• Create impressions that are delightful, impactful, distinctive, memorable, stimulate the senses, provoke curiosity, cut through the clutter, and compel further investigation.

Design Process

While the pilot program will focus upon Agribusiness sectors and export audiences will be limited to Palestine and UAE in the current period, the website design and engineering must anticipate numerous export sectors (up to 15) and target audiences in a variety of countries scattered around the world; thus the website needs to be built in both Arabic and English with flexibility to further add other languages.

Accordingly, and in order to ensure the best possible outcomes, the website should be developed in a manner that:

• Is scalable - allowing for content specific to a variety of export sectors.
• Is compatible - anticipates visitors from around the world speaking numerous languages, using a variety of internet connections, browsers, and devices.
• Is unique, distinctive and emotionally engaging - does not rely on commonplace templates.
• Provides easy to use back end content management features (i.e. text changes, image changes, stores data from Contact Us form, links to social media platforms).

Once a structure, navigation strategy and design have been approved, development of the website should include:

• Engineering that aligns accurately with approved design.
• Site is responsive, compatible with desktop, tablet and handheld mobile devices.
• Assembly anticipates and includes all content, as indicated in the navigation map.
• Creation of password protected, back-end content management function for entire site.
• Installation of tracking (i.e. Google analytics) allowing us to quantify and evaluate site performance.
• Implement W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), embed Java script on client-side and create validations on server-side to ensure data is correctly filled.
• Use SSL to protect site from hackers and unwanted users to use/register and from unwanted SQL injunction.
• A built-in search engine through the website to filter products, categories, etc..
• Illustrator (vector art) and layered PSD files (including copies of font files used) for all website imagery.
• XHTML 1.1 files, a site-wise CSS cascading style sheet for all public pages and a site wide print CSS.
• Website imagery in PNG, GIF or JPG format as appropriate.

Business requirements analysis and technical system design

• Provide a technical document outlining which technologies will be used/procured, licensing and other costs such as the cost of annual hosting services.
• Provide integration with email servers to allow for real-time messages to be sent to website visitors, following the completions of forms or transactions.
• Database integration; for example, a website visitor could register to receive our monthly newsletter and be added to an email marketing database.
• Ensure the website have appropriate keywords for search engine optimization and test content structure to ensure consistent natural engine page rankings.
• System administrator and content management training to ensure internal system administrator is fully comfortable managing the website, and for adding the content to the website on a consistent basis. Provide simple mechanism for uploading/updating new content, including copy, images, forms, documents, or other materials.
• Provide reference material to internal system administrator.
• Provide an ongoing agreement for support, training, and ongoing development
• Caching or content delivery networks (CDN) strategy.

The website needs to have tracking mechanisms are properly connected, and customized URLs that are attached to individual tactics, so it can offer a wide range of data. At the most basic level, numbers of visitors and pages visited on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis. Additional information can include visitor’s point of origin by city, time spent on the site, and frequency of visits. With this data, it will become clear which tactics are generating the most interest, what content is most regularly sought, and which markets are responding most favorably. All of this information can be used to refine the marketing plan, deliver more relevant content, and better communicate with key audiences.

Mandatories in the design process

• Presentation of navigation strategy and map
• Presentation of multiple design options
• Copywriting and Photography, as needed
• Presentation of design refinements, as needed
• Design must be consistent with, and embrace graphic standards established for the wordmark and sector icons
• Comprehensive engineering (including multi-lingual translation services, as needed)
• Utilizing industry best practices (compatible with all major browsers used globally)

Website References:

A few websites that we’ve identified that agree, in principle, with this creative brief are:

Destination Websites

      www.japan.travel/en/   www.turkeydiscoverthepotential.com

      www.makeinindia.com            https://peru.info/en-us/

Other Websites

                  www.tacofino.com      www.westaway.co

                  www.beaverstreetfisheries.com

special terms and conditions

Some of the essential qualifications and credentials are:

• Demonstrate significant experience creating globally relevant websites.
• Must have a portfolio illustrating world-class creative and engineering capabilities that includes examples of relevant websites (active links), including front and back end functionalities.
• Provide at least 5 client references.
• Provide financial oversight; budget by line item and timeline with major tasks and milestones for all initiatives.
• Content creation to be fully administered by the client (PalTrade/Branding Manager).
• Provide a breakdown of costs, project schedule, which identifies timelines, key milestones, project phases, and other details as needed.

General terms and Conditions

7.1 Your quotations should be submitted as the following:

• For National companies: you need to submit your quotations into two sealed envelopes ( Technical and Financial) to PalTrade Ramallah office – Al Wataniya Tower Building , 5th floor by COB Thursday , June 14th , 2018 at 02:00 pm hours Jerusalem time with subject RFP-PTC-053-06-2018
• No quotations will be received by email, or after the mentioned time and date
• For international companies: you need to submit your quotation by email to procurement department at [email protected]. . As two attached files, one for technical offer and one for financial) by COB Thursday , June 14h , 2018 at 02:00 pm hours Jerusalem time with subject RFP # PTC-053-046-2018.

7.2 No quotations will be accepted after the mentioned date and time, late bids will be rejected after the mentioned date and time.

7.3 The RFP documents should be signed and stamped, and returned back within the offers along with other requirements presented in the RFP documents. Any offers will not include the RFP documents signed and stamped will be rejected

7.4 PRICES:  The prices shall include all costs, taxes, duties, etc.

7.5 The Supplier shall quote in the (US$) US Dollars and include VAT.

7.6 The quotations should remain valid for whole the contract period starting from the deadline date specified for submission.

7.7 Quotations should be sent by completing a price schedule.

7.8 The rates quoted should be fixed for the duration of the contract and should not be subject to adjustment on any account, unless to offer a deduction to the rates.

7.9 Payment will be issued within 30 days from the date of the issue of the invoice.

7.10 Please, sign and stamp all pages of this RFP plus sign and stamp all technical and financial offers from your side.

7.12 PalTrade will award the contract to the bidder whose quotation has been determined to be responsive to requests.

7.13 PalTrade has the right to award the RFP fully or partially to more than one supplier.

7.14 If PalTrade decides to make change to this RFP this shall be through Addendum.  Copies of Addendum will be furnished to all Bidders.

7.15 Information relating to the examination, evaluation, comparison, and post-qualification of bids, and recommendation of contract award, shall not be disclosed to bidders or any other persons not officially concerned with such process.

7.16 Any effort by a Bidder to influence PalTrade in the examination, evaluation, comparison, and post-qualification of the bids or contract award decisions may result in the rejection of its Bid.

Contract

This assignment is covered from The Palestinian Market Development Programme PMDP “, the contract will be issued from PMDP and managed by PalTrade.

Duration

The assignment is expected to commence on June 20th, 2018 for duration of 11 months; for the completion of the above mentioned task as well as the after-service support for PalTrade.  Please advise on the duration allotment. Companies who possess all the above requirements are encouraged to submit their offers as mentioned above.

Offers should include

Technical offers should include the following:

• The Company’s detailed creative methodology of implementation including a detailed schedule and specific milestones.
• Experience of carrying out similar initiatives in other countries; please include all initiatives carried out and the scope of each initiative.
• The number of in-house staff within the company that would be working on this task.
• CVs for experts and should clearly reflect the following :

A minimum of one letter of reference

     Years of experience working in web design

     Years of experience in website engineering

Listing professional accreditations and affiliations for the individual

• Please describe how you plan to keep PalTrade and other stakeholders involved and informed along the process.
• Company profile
• Expected duration for the contract to completed the task and follow up the website and do the maintenance work

Financial offers, you should include the following:

• Your financial offer in USD Include VAT and include clear # of working days expected for this assignment.

The evaluation criteria is the following

Submission

• The Technical Proposal and financial offer MUST be submitted for national companies in two separated sealed envelopes titled with RFP # PTC-053-06-2018 before 14:00 Jerusalem time on Tuesday June 19th, 2018 for companies. For International companies, you need to send your technical and financial offer by email to: [email protected] not later than Tuesday June 19th, 2018 before 14:00 Jerusalem time with mention in the email subject

RFP # PTC-053-06-2018

General terms

Interested Agencies are requested to adhere to the following terms and conditions:

1. Interested Agencies should be registered in official bodies either local or international; a copy of the registration should be submitted along with the price offer.

*Attachment: Brand Strategy