Create a Unique & Impactful School Brand

Creating a Unique and Impactful School Brand

Presented by: Higher Education Marketing

1.  What is a Brand? 2.  Understanding and Inspiring Your Target Audience 3.  Aligning Your Strengths With Prospective Students’ Values

4.  Keeping Your Brand Elements Consistent

5.  Your Community and History and Your Brand 6.  Your Competitors’ Brand Identity

Overview

1. What is a Brand?

Source: HEM – 5 Steps to Creating a Unique & Impactful School Brand

Creating a consistent and clear identity for your school is a vital part of positioning yourself in the marketplace. Which begs the question:

How is your school perceived by prospective students?

“Brand is the promise, the big idea, the expectations that reside in each customer’s mind about a product, service, or company. Branding is about

making an emotional connection.”

Alina Wheeler, Designing Brand Identity

Exercise Take a moment and visualize your school: �  What three adjectives immediately come to mind when you

think of it?

�  If you asked a current or former student to do the same, would they have a similar answer?

�  Would people outside of the school have a similar perception of it?

If you think the answers would be consistent, you have a clear and compelling school brand identity. If not, you’ve got work to do!


1. What is a Brand?

If you want your school’s brand to evoke positive association from your prospective students, it’s important to nail down what they look for in a school: �  Research and develop clear targeted personas for your school

�  Look for insights into their preferences, aspirations, and concerns �  Identify your strengths, and work on what needs improving �  Poll or interview students to reveal any misconceptions about your

brand

This knowledge will help you to subvert negative perceptions about your school and re-shape your brand identity in your promotional campaigns.

2. Understanding and Inspiring Your Target Audience


In order to avoid generic or misguided messaging, clearly define your positive attributes, and how they align with your target audience’s aspirations and educational preferences.

3. Aligning Your Strengths with Prospective Students’ Values


Exercise:

Ø  Make a list of your school’s top 5-10 attributes

Ø  Clarify how each one speaks to your audience’s goals and needs

Ø  Use these messages to guide every aspect of your marketing, and make sure potential leads know exactly what your school stands for!

Example Stenberg College placed student transformation and empowerment at the heart of its brand development, with incredibly effective results.


Stenberg’s ‘I Changed Me’ campaign and ‘Our Grads Are Our Difference’ slogan deliver a powerful message about their values and goals!

3. Aligning Your Strengths with Prospective Students’ Values

Ensuring prospective students find consistent representations of your brand during their online searches is important for familiarity.

4. Keeping Your Brand Elements Consistent


Brand inconsistencies can include: Ø  Discrepancies in logo colour Ø  Discrepancies in language Ø  Inconsistent placement of logo

elements Inconsistencies often happen when different people are in charge of different channels, so it’s important to make sure your team is on the same page!

Your institution is part of a broader community, and many prospective students take this into account when deciding whether to apply. Some things applicants consider include: �  Does your school contribute to philanthropic organizations? �  How long and illustrious is your school’s history? �  What is the surrounding environment in your location like?

Consider how your school’s environment, relationship with the wider community, and history influence public perception and try and weave these elements into your brand identity.

5.  Your Community and History and Your Brand


Example Lakefield College School have made their beautiful natural surroundings a huge part of their brand identity:

5. Your Community and History and Your Brand


Lakefield’s images, colour scheme, and even logo design all evoke their location’s natural beauty, and inspire an impression of health, vitality and adventure that really speaks to the parents of prospective students.

It can be highly instructive to examine how your main competitors present themselves in the market

5. Your Competitors’ Brand Identity


Exercise What do your competitors focus on? Ø  Highlighting student success? Ø  Supporting ‘niche’ student

groups (mature students, international newcomers etc.)?

Ø  Community involvement? Ø  Cutting edge technology? Evaluating your competitors can give you fresh insights into your own evolving school brand identity!