Beyond The Logo
What makes a brand work for a school?
I BELIEVE IN A THING CALLED BRAND!
The online sales giant Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon) once said,
“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
And in today's educational landscape nothing is more true. Current parents grasp for one-to-one contact with teachers, online or over-the-phone. Now, imagine what prospective parents are going through trying to engage with a one-way, static, online brand.
It’s time for your school to take a stand! Drive your brand forward from being nothing more than a logo, set of colours and a font. Be a sensory brand experience that cultivates lasting and meaningful relationships. An experience that parents, students and teachers can't help but gush positively about.
Now, you might be sitting there saying: “but we worked really hard on our logo and everyone thinks it looks great!” Fantastic! You need a visual you can be proud of - and I should know! I've been designing these things for over ten years now. Consider your logo as an empty vessel and your challenge is to build meaning into it. It should be synonymous with your school's values and experiences.
BUT I’M SUPER BUSY - WHY SHOULD I EVEN CARE ABOUT MY BRAND EXPERIENCE?
That's simple: a brand experience can be hard to define but it's actually easy to pinpoint. Just look at all the different ways your community interacts with you on a daily basis...
Calls with reception.
Tours of your school with admissions staff or pupils (back in the day when we could set foot on a school campus).
The first load of your school website.
The opening of a crisp welcome pack that arrives in the post.
An email to a staff member.
A Zoom chat with the Headteacher/Principal.
Like these examples, your brand experience is any interaction with any audience. And that experience can be visual, verbal, sensorial, behavioural, conversational, digital or physical.
Why is all this so important? Well, everyday interaction drives a whopping 85% of a brand's reputation. Traditional marketing creates only 15%. That includes schools… I bet that's not how you are splitting your budget or focus!
So now we have an idea of why you should take this seriously and where you can build on your brand experience. Let's take a look at how we work out what that experience should be in the first place!
YOU CAN’T MAKE AN EXPERIENCE WITHOUT KNOWING WHO YOU ARE!
No matter where you are in your school's brand identity journey, you can't make experiences without an identity.
Ok guys, this is where it gets interactive. Well sort of... Grab yourself a pencil & paper and let's get doodling. This simple task can take your brand identity forward at light speed.
STEP ONE - Draw two large circles side by side with a little overlap in the middle a little like this…
STEP TWO - List out what your school is good at or better than all the rest (thanks, Tina Turner!) in the left-hand circle.
STEP THREE - List what is most important to your prospective parents in the right-hand circle.
STEP FOUR - Stare at the intersection, because that is where the magic happens. That is where your brand identity can come to life!
By combining the best aspects that your school already delivers with the needs and wants of your prospective market, you can identify where your brand should sit. You can also create the messages you should share about your school.
Now you can create a tasty positioning statement, one that succinctly tells people what your school is and does. (Marketing-types call this an ‘elevator pitch’, since such a statement can be delivered between floors on a lift!). In a school market it's harder than you would think, but now you're in great shape!
LET'S GET THIS EXPERIENCE ON THE ROAD! (PART TWO)
This is the most exciting part, in my opinion. Now you have a great understanding of what your brand is and you can get really creative with how you reflect this…
And if you don't have time to do all this, well “who ya gonna call?”......... @intSchools!!!
BY TIM WEAVER (@TWEEDESIGNER)
@IntSchools very own Creative Director!