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Return to Bulletin Home - June 2009 |
The Educational Brand: Five Ideas for Branding Your Institution If there is one constant in the international education marketplace it is intensity of competition—both between established and emerging destination countries, and also among institutions that strive to attract the strongest students, faculty, partners, and funders. The corresponding challenge for all universities and schools is to somehow distinguish themselves in a crowded field of comparable institutions. In response, educators are paying increasing attention to—and investing considerable time and budgets in—establishing or refining their institutional brands. These efforts aim to create a competitive advantage for the university or school by establishing a distinctive identity in the minds of students, staff, and other stakeholders.
Many people associate branding with a logo redesign or splashy new website. However, US-based consultant Rex Whisman argues that successful branding involves more than a clever slogan, and he has observed a growing sophistication in educational branding. "Many schools have concentrated on external communications solutions like redesigning their logos, creating taglines, and developing advertising campaigns," he says. "[However,] a growing number of schools are now realizing the need to build their identities through cultural change... This approach can resonate with faculty and prospective students more than a traditional approach because it demonstrates the school's commitment to communicating its true essence, core values, and academic reputation, rather than simply attempting to recruit more students. 1" The idea being that there are far-reaching benefits for those institutions that can successfully define and express their distinctive characteristics.
Canada's Brock University has recently launched a branding program—"For both sides of the brain."—that emphasises the university's holistic approach. Another consultant, Patricia Tan, has written persuasively about the value of the educational brand, "The best universities succeed because they live and breathe that cardinal rule of branding—that its value exists solely in the minds and hearts of its community... Moreover, the university brand thrives on the persuasive power of received understanding—because a university stands for certain values, it will attract people who share in those values, who in turn perpetuate and strengthen the brand. 2" How then can you establish an effective branding program for your institution? Here are five straightforward ideas that any university or school, regardless of size or programme focus, can apply. 1. Stay real As someone once said, "Your brand is not what you say it is, it's what they say it is." With this in mind, the best place to begin your branding process is by examining the genuine perceptions that students, faculty, and other stakeholders have of your institution. Ask them what they think, and listen hard. And then ask yourself some basic questions.
Martin Bojam, a UK-based educational marketing consultant, concurs and adds, "The brand needs to be aspirational, but founded in reality. "
2. Avoid cliché One of the challenges of educational branding is that comparable universities or schools tend to lean towards similar aspirations or goals. In a 2005 paper presented to at City University in London, Dr. Bjørn Stensaker highlights a common problem in branding institutions. "Those studying branding efforts in higher education can also quite easily note the tendency to highlight some standard elements in this process. Profiling themselves as 'the best', 'world-class', 'leading', or similar attempts is rather common. The paradox that might appear as a consequence of this strategy is that while trying to be unique and distinguishable from the rest, one risks to become more similar, removing the true unique characteristics a given university might have. 3" This is an easy trap to fall into, especially as many universities or schools may be inclined to model themselves after competitors that they perceive as more prestigious or successful. Allowing this "competitor orientation" to drive your branding process is a surefire way to obscure some of the truly unique characteristics of your institution. 3. Focus on people Just as comparable universities or schools may share similar aspirations, they tend to offer very similar programmes and services. Because of this, the genuinely distinctive characteristics of an institution are often to be found in the experiences of its students and faculty. Patricia Tan has written on this point as well, "The community that develops around the university is its true distinguishing factor. The 'inspired environment' unique to a university is not due to an institution per se—its walls, architecture, gardens, its ivy and spires—but to the other individuals who, by a shared notion of mutual affirmation, collectively create that very matrix the organization is supposed to provide. Universities are motley collections of individuals who, somehow, come together to define and redefine an idea, an ideal. By building strong emotional bonds between disparate groups of independent-minded students and professors, universities transform themselves into universes of unmistakable loyalty. This spirit transcends the individual product of the organization—the educational experience and degree. 4"
4. Be proud of your location The city or town in which your institution is located is an integral part of the student and faculty experience we discussed earlier. As such, it is often also a central aspect of an effective brand position. Peter Reader, the Director of Marketing and Communications at the University of Portsmouth, writes, "Location is important; most universities include their location in their title and the location becomes part of the brand. 5"
The Observatory Tower at The Sorbonne in Paris. What are the key characteristics of your location? Are there unique features you can emphasise? Are there any challenges that you need to address? If you're in a smaller, relatively unknown town or city, can you position yourself in relation to larger centres that are nearby? Most importantly, what about it is really important to your students, faculty, or other stakeholders? 5. All together now "The key to good brand development is a combination of consistency and buy in, especially from internal stakeholders," says Martin Bojam. "In those terms, one thinks of institutions whose name alone is sufficient to paint an accurate picture of who they are, what they do, and what they stand for. Picking out many is inevitably an invidious task because such a list can only be partial, but in the UK one thinks of Oxford and Cambridge, and amongst younger institutions particularly Warwick and, in terms of more specialist institutions, LSE and Imperial College. In the United States, one can contrast Harvard (there are of course others of a similar standing) with MIT—all these universities stand for academic excellence, but represent clearly different approaches and perform different roles in economic and social terms."
What makes these educational brands so strong? Along with the wide-reaching reputation, prestige, and profile of these institutions, they all reflect the best possibilities of an effective brand—one that is created, reinforced, and extended by the community around the university or school. When you give your community a chance to contribute their ideas to what your brand could be, then you make it easier for them to buy in and commit to supporting your brand for the long term. Endnotes 1. Rex Whisman, "Two Schools of Thought on Branding Education", brandchannel.com, January 14, 2008. |
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