Marketing Inventory for the World Wildlife Fund

Marketing Inventory for the World Wildlife Fund

The World Wildlife Fund for Nature, formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund, (WWF) is a global, non-profit making organization. The organization is a foundation, made up of a number of different organizations set up in numerous countries with individual country registrations. For example, when the foundation was formed in 1961 it was set up in Geneva, followed by incorporation in United States as the second national organization to join the foundation, while the Australian office was initially set up in 1963 under the auspices of the London Office, subsequently incorporating in Sydney in 1978 (WWF, 2011). The organization, as a non-profit making foundation, does not have shareholders or owners. The organization is run by a board in each country and the operations are overseen by a board of trustees on behalf of the 5 million global members (WWF, 2012).

The founding of the brand dates back to 1961 following the Morges Manifesto, in a document which was signed by 16 of the world's leading conservationists, including Sir Peter Scott the vice president of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), EM Nicholson the director-general of the British Nature Conservancy and the well-known biologist and African wildlife experts said Julian Huxley (WWF, 2012). The manifesto stated that it was necessary for an international organization to be created to facilitate collaborative work conservation. The key driver being the recognition that expertise to achieve this aim existed but it existed without sufficient financial support. The development of the WWF was a direct response to this manifesto, and became reality on 29 April 1961, with the first WWF opening at the Switzerland headquarters of the IUCN (WWF, 2012).

The organization has been highly active in undertaking conservation work in protecting nature and endangered species since its foundation. Examples of work include in 1973 purchase of 37,000 acres next to Lake Nekuru in Kenya, which is home to 30 different bird species, and the principal feeding ground of more than 1 million flamingos (WWF, 2012). In the same year the WWF was an influential party in the development of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a convention which has now been signed by more than 170 nations (WWF, 2012). The Primate Action Fund was established in 1983, and during the 1980s the organization undertook a debt for nature swap program, converting portions of national debts into conservation funding (WWF, 2012). The largest of these swaps was to occur in 1993, when $19 million in debt in the Philippines was swapped, this was the largest transaction undertaken by a non-governmental organization (WWF, 2012).

The brand name was changed in 1986 to the Worldwide Fund for Nature, with the aim of adopting more accurately reflected the scope of the organization; however the original name is still used in Canada and the United States (WWF, 2012). In 1990 WWF merged with the Conservation Foundation, which formalized a relationship that had started in 1985. The organization is also undertaking a large number of campaigns, including the living planet campaign launched 1997, which presented a vision for the way in which the biodiversity of the Earth may be preserved, as well as working with a number of commercial organizations in order to gain funding and support operations. The organization is supported by the well-known panda logo, which is based on the panda Chi, who at the time the logo designed was the only Panda in the Western world (WWF, 2012)