White Paper 01 BRANDING AND SCHOOLS

Transcription

1 White Paper 01 BRANDING AND SCHOOLS

2 Introduction Branding is all around us. We see it every day and can recognise many well known organisations even by seeing a fleeting glimpse of their brand. Your branding is the face of your school and will often be the first thing that a prospective student or parent will see. People identify with brands, trust them and believe in them. A well considered brand becomes your entire identity; it informs people of your values and helps them identify with you. Problem Most schools in the UK are vibrant, energetic, creative places to learn, where sta ff and students strive to achieve outstanding results. However many are not conveying this message through their brand and so are throwing away opportunities to communicate who they really are. In extreme cases their brand can be working against them, sending a message of inadequate standards and inconsistency. Historically a school brand consisted of a school uniform or tie colour and a school crest. Schools did not have to compete in the same way as they do today and so this was enough. With ever increasing competition amongst schools, the introduction of academies as well as the scope for schools to have their own personality, this approach to branding isn t enough to stand out any more. Most schools will be operating with a wide array of logos or badges, each one normally recreated and copied by third party suppliers over the years for use on uniforms, prospectus brochures, signs etc. It is not uncommon for the school itself not to even have a good quality version of its own logo. For those that do, each version of the logo is often di fferent and displaying varying levels of professionalism. This is typically the case when branding is not managed centrally by one person, allowing many di fferent people to commission marketing and brand projects without a clear unifying set of guidelines to inform them. One major problem within education is that many leadership teams simply do not have the time or capacity required to implement change in their school s brand identity. The creative process is not easy and normally requires a delicate journey of presenting vision, preserving or incorporating historic elements and considering the myriad of touch points (the physical interaction that someone has with your brand, such as a website, brochure or sign etc) that a modern school will have. In the frenetic pace of school life it is easy to

3 overlook brand as a nice to have but those who take the time to commission and develop a well considered brand could dramatically improve many aspects of school life. Solution Discover the members of your sta ff who best understand branding (often this may not be your art and design team - many people have worked in this field before entering education). Use some or all of these people to be involved in educating the wider body of sta ff. Brand management requires constant internal auditing; Is everyone using the correct logo? Have we got consistent letter templates? Is our message clear to parents? Discovering brand ambassadors from your sta ff will improve the consistency of your own school identity, and make working with creative agencies and other third party suppliers a much smoother process. Commission a brand consultant or design agency to help you define your brand identity. This may mean small changes to update your logo and include it in a wider identity design or it could mean a complete rethink. Either way the process should be engaging, informative and provide you with a better sense of not only who you are, but how to present yourselves to your audience. A good design agency will help you understand how to roll out your brand across the di fferent touch points, from school signage to printed literature, letterheads and everything in between. Be consistent. Spending money on a new brand identity does not immediately solve your problem. A trusted brand is developed over a period of years and relies on a consistent standard and message. Your brand can develop over time and new ideas added, but the key components (i.e. logo, name etc) and the production quality should remain the same. Never be tempted to do a quick in-house newsletter if all of your previous newsletters were professionally designed. It will stick out like a sore thumb and weaken your brand. Branding for schools is not the same as branding for business so select an agency that understand and have experience of working with schools and will help provide realistic timeframes, or o ffer to take on extra work in order to help get to a decision.

4 Benefits A recent report by the Design Council cited that for every 100 a design alert business spends on design, turnover increases by 225. Design works, and it works just as well in education as in the commercial sector. Schools that spend time and money on their brand see a ripple of benefits that cascade from inside to out that can be far wider than you realise. The more obvious of these include an increased and consistent message of professionalism and excellence; excellence in your school brand identity and marketing will often be perceived as excellence at every level. A good brand identity will also present your school s particular personality or specialism. Would you like to be known for your creativity? Your brand should display this. Are you more traditional but have excellent success with sport? Your brand can convey this. Whether contemporary or conservative if you develop your brand in the right way you can stand out as unique. Young people seek to identify themselves with brands and evidence suggests that schools that include them in the brand see a greater buy-in from their wider student body. Internal messages and displays, uniform motifs and branded stationery can be excellent vehicles for increased respect by students for the school, as they start to identify with the brand identity. Developing brand identity involves looking inward as well as out. Spending time improving internal corridors, sta ff room and classrooms by applying varying degrees of the brand identity across them is know to have a dramatic e ffect on both morale and respect for the school property itself. There a endless ways to develop your brand internally and this can be an extremely rewarding process for everyone involved. When Nicholas Chamberlaine School decided to revamp 20 drab corridors in one of their school blocks they came to The Media Collective for a solution. What we created and installed won immediate respect from sta ff and students and of the 100 linear metres of vinyl and acrylic not one incident of damage has been reported. A good brand will build trust, inspire students and sta ff to raise attainment, create an increased sense of belonging and

5 be a constant reminder of the level of excellence that is expected by all. It will give shape to your vision and values, provide an opportunity to create and give rise to student creativity. It can be the catalyst for student innovation, business projects and community outreach. It is the expression of who you are in more ways than can be contained in a written vision statement and can carry the weight of all your ideas and inspiration as you move forward. Case Study 1 Ash Green School This school was typical of many across the country. It had been given a logo that was not suitable for most applications beyond print and so it was not widely used. In addition the school uniform was not worn by many students, meaning that the school brand was not recognised in the local community. The Media Collective worked with the school to devise a simple but strong brand identity. A new colour palette was introduced and a range of logos were created to suit various requirements. A new uniform was designed, which used a specially considered AGS motif. The uniform was designed to increase the desirability as well as look smart when seen on student in the local community. Both the rebrand and the new logo were an immediate success. The uniform has repeatedly sold out and is worn with pride by students. The new brand was rolled out across the school site and marketing materials with consistency and the Deputy Head quotes: "We have worked closely with the Media Collective and have been continuously impressed by the calibre of their work. Many of our publicity materials now have a unique Ash Green brand. Because it is of high quality and high impact design, it grabs the attention and has helped in establishing our improved profile in the community. The school looks better too and there is a professional feel to the bespoke decoration around the site." M Rennie Deputy Head teacher

6 Case Study 2 Caludon Castle School Caludon Castle were an old school that had recently moved into a new PFI building. The school did not have a clear brand beyond their historic crest and school colour. For such a prominent school in the local community this was not conveying the level of expectation and standards of the school. The Media Collective worked closely with a delegated team member who understood the importance of brand and that had been asked to oversee the process. It became apparent that the school did not want to turn completely away from the historic identity but desperately needed something that it could take forward. Our solution was to create an identity that retained a place for a revitalised school crest in certain applications, but that leaned heavily on a more contemporary, forward looking brand. The launch of the brand across new site signage, letterheads and other aspects was incredibly successful. The success on some levels was that it brought immediate attention, both good and (initially) bad, with one outspoken sta ff member declaring to our installation team that she did not like it at all. However one testament of it s success can be that when we returned later to the school the same member of sta ff made a point to tell us that she now loves the logo and thinks it works brilliantly. The school said: The work that was completed resulted in more than just the creation of a new logo. Walking around the school now, there is a unifying theme adopted throughout the building which links all of the individual areas. Materials produced for parents, such as letters, news updates and event programmes are high quality and immediately recognisable as being from Caludon. Similarly all of the materials produced for use by sta ff look and feel professional, which helps to engender pride and an ethos of high standards. This is also

7 communicated to our students who recognise clearly that they are part of an organisation with a clear identity and reputation for high standards and high expectations. Amy Oldroyd Assistant Head Caludon Castle School, Coventry Caludon Castle have now built upon this brand with the development of further school and business brands that echo the school identity, creating a family of brands from which to hang their extensive school training services. Conclusion The benefits of having a clear, professional and considered brand are numerous. Big corporations recognise this and spend millions on developing and maintaining brand identity, yet most schools still have missed the added value it brings. A good brand will deliver more students to your school, help them to belong, and provide consistently clear messages to the local community about your values and results. A good brand will stay with you for many years, working hard for you wherever it is seen and is your ally in all types of communication. It is worth investing in and developing as though it were a valued member of your team for it will work just as hard. The Media Collective are experts in understanding the needs of schools and working with them to create, develop and manage their brand identities. Our experience in the education sector and our wide range of creative expertise means that we can can tailor a strategy to your requirements, whether a one-o ff design or an ongoing working agreement.