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Building a Brand That Matters

A Short Stack PPT Developed by the Center for Strategic Change

at George Fox University

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The Center for Strategic Change at George Fox University

The Center for Strategic Change at George Fox University has a simple mission: To help college and university leaders succeed.

We will accomplish this mission by serving as both a platform and resource for strategic innovation. As a platform, we will provide current practitioners an opportunity to present their ideas and insights to the higher education community.

As a resource, we will provide content in the areas of leadership, visioning, strategic planning and organizational design.

Questions about this short stack can be addressed to Bob Sevier at rsevier@georgefox.edu.

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Brands Matter

• Research consistently shows that students prefer to attend a college or university that is well-branded.

• We know, too, that brands: Save time in decision making Project a clear message Provide an identity Give permission Instill confidence

• In addition, colleges and universities with strong brands generate: More alumni support Positive word of mouth

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What is a Brand?

• But even as there is general agreement that brands matter, there is less agreement, even confusion, over what exactly a brand is.

• More than a look or a logo, a brand is a compelling promise a college, university or school makes to its most important audiences to meet a need or fulfill an expectation.

• Brands are often projected by images and symbols. However, it is what people think when they view a symbol that is the brand, not the symbol itself.

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Indicators That You Have a Brand Problem • Tuition revenue is flat or declining

• Prospective students and parents have undue price sensitivity

• New programs languish

• You can’t describe in one sentence what makes you compelling

• You cannot cite meaningful differences between your institution and your top competitors

• Alumni involvement and giving is flat or declining

• First-year to second-year retention rate is below norms

• Job ads fail to attract best candidates

• Giving is localized to alumni and historic friends

• Pronounced negative word of mouth

• Negative or no media

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Integrated Marketing Communication

• Brand marketing is one of the key elements of integrated marketing communication (IMC).

• IMC includes: Brand marketing – generate awareness Direct marketing – generate response (Do you want to attend? Give?) Internal communication

• The purpose of brand marketing is to set up the ask. For example, you project your brand to prospective students prior to recruiting and to

donors prior to solicitation

• Ideally, you want your brand plan to dovetail neatly with your recruiting and advancement plans

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What We Believe About Brands

• Strong brands depend on: 1) current and comprehensive market research; 2) respect for your school’s heritage; and 3) a clear and shared vision.

• A brand strategy will more likely involve the clarification of your institution’s current core values rather than the creation of new core values.

• The goal of a brand strategy is to establish and hold a position of perceived and real value in the minds of your most important internal and external audiences.

• In all cases, an effective brand strategy returns measurable value to the institution.

• The brand strategy should engage, equip and energize the campus community.

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Unique, Distinctive and Compelling

• Too often, college and universities focus on what makes them unique or distinctive.

This institutional-centric approach is almost always ill-fated because it relies on what the institution values and not necessarily what is of interest to your audiences.

• Your goal, instead, is to build your brand around what makes you compelling to both internal stakeholders and external audiences. Ideally, this brand position is not of interest to your competitors.

• In other words, what do you care about, that your audiences also care about, that your competitors don’t care about?

Your point of compelling

differentiation

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Expecteds

high in relevance, low in differentiation

Neutrals

low in relevance, low in

differentiation

Drivers

high in relevance, high in differentiation

Fool’s gold

low in relevance, high in

differentiation

Source: McKinseyQuarterly.com

Seeking Compelling Points of Differentiation

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Brand Focus• Strong brands avoid the idea of “more.” Rather than seeking to serve everyone

everywhere, they focus on:

– A specific style/way of teaching Cornell College:One course at a time

– A specific learning environment Biola University: Christian worldview

– A specific academic area MIT: Technology

– A specific people BYU: Church of Jesus Christ/LDS

– A specific target geography Appalachian State: People of Appalachia

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Three Key Steps

• Building an effective brand is a three-step process:

Clarify and confirm the stated and unstated institutional core values that will drive your overall brand strategy.

Settle on, or commit to, a single brand positioning strategy.

Convey involves both communicating the brand and living out the brand.

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Step One: Clarify and Confirm

• Internally, you want to review your current vision and your stated and unstated core values.

Your goal is to identify those compelling distinctives that will serve as the foundation for your brand.

• Externally, you want to review the brand positions of your top competitors (you want to avoid competing for positions that are already owned) as well as examine perceptions and misperceptions among your target audiences.

• The result of this twin assessment is two or more testable brand promises (statements).

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Step Two: Commit• The second step begins with testing the brand promises you have identified in step one. This

test, usually delivered via the web, is directed at both internal stakeholders and external audiences.

• As part of this test, ask your which of the potential brand promises is:

Most important Most believable Most distinctive from your competitors (especially external audiences) Most emotionally engaging

• At the conclusion of the brand test you need commit to a final brand promise.

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• Flows directly from your vision

• Makes a claim, takes a position and breaks through the competitive clutter

• Is understandable, important, believable, distinctive and emotionally engaging (that’s what compelling is all about)

• Is credible and attainable

• Leaves out more than it leaves in (focus)

• Supports five or six key attributes and message points

A Good Brand Promise …

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Brand Rationale

ProofPoints

Brand Attributes Tagline Elevator

SpeechGraphic Identity

CreativeBoards

BrandAttribute

Matrix

SingleWord

Institutional Brand Promise(super-brand)

Sub- Brands

The Brand Platform

• A fully developed brand platform details the essential elements of your brand strategy so it can be easily understood and operationalized

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Step Three: Convey Your Promise

• Convey means to both communicate and live out.

• From a communication perspective, your goal is to establish awareness of your brand position in the minds of your most important internal and external target audiences.

• Ultimately, you want messages that are:

Relevant (understandable, important, believable, distinctive) Repeated Remembered

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Brand Communication Plan • Mission and vision • Singular brand promise and attributes

Sub-brands • Broad brand communication goals• Prioritized target audiences (who we are talking to) • Clarified target geography (where they live)• Internal launch and maintenance strategy • Brand action plans (How are we reaching our

target audiences?)• Budget year one, two and three• Calendar (by audience)• Evaluation mechanisms and timeline

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Media Mix Options

• Internal communication including brand launch (see next slide)• Presentation in recruiting flow• Presentation in fundraising flow • Public relations• Media relations • Special events• Publicity • Traditional media (advertising) [print, broadcast, outdoor/transit, mall, et al.]• Interactive/direct marketing/social media • Environmental marketing (facilities, atmospherics, signage/vehicle ID)• Merchandising• Alliance marketing

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Convey - continued

• In addition to communicating your brand, you most commit to living out your brand.

• Importantly, because your brand promise flows directly from your vision, this means:

Identifying those institutional behaviors which are inconsistent with your core values

Supporting and reinforcing those behaviors which are consistent with your core values

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Internal Launch

• Before you roll out your brand to external audiences, you must undertake an internal launch to:

Celebrate the new brand (pump up the volume) Give internal audiences talking points Build support among internal audiences Educate people on the brand portfolio, especially the rationale Offer guidelines on how to communicate the brand Offer guidelines on how to live the brand

Vision + Communication = Shared Purpose

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Build Momentum

• Pick some low-hanging fruit

• Celebrate early wins

• Communicate at three stages: At the campaign launch Periodically (quarterly) throughout the campaign When the plan achieves short-term wins, intermediate goals or evidences other indicators

of success (especially successes related to resource gains)

• Show outcomes, not merely output

• Share the rewards

• Don’t blink

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Assimilation Takes Time

Time

Amou

nt o

f Cha

nge

Living it

Believing it

Hearing it

How do we get it in their hearts?

How do we get it in their heads?

How do we get it in their hands?

Passionate advocacy Cultural experience Utilize and internalize PersonalizeReady to promote

Ready to defend Acceptance Undertaking AwarenessContact

Source: Aaker, Prophet, modified

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Monitor the Brand Experience

• To assess brand performance, you need to revisit key audiences and ask them: “How are we doing?”

Conduct internal assessments Evaluate retention, student satisfaction and outcome data

• Consider experience marketing: An organizational commitment to identifying and managing, to a specific end, the key

touch points that define an experience that a customer has with a product or service

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Evaluate Progress

• Periodically, you need to repeat baseline research to determine whether or not your overall campaign is effective.

Invest in a research cycle

• Solid data that indicates progress is one means to legitimize the effort and gain political and monetary support.

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Available from strategypublishing.com