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Previously, institutions have tended to leave their brand/reputations to chance or have seen the task as a communications job A 2003 UK survey of VCs indicated increasing recognition that this has to change, institutions have to embrace the fact that their reputation/ brand is a business asset just like their human, capital & financial resources All felt reputation/brand management is a critical issue & demonstrated a willingness to give branding issues a higher priority Most clear on the interpretation of reputation, but less certain of the interpretation of brand
Branding Defined
A brand is so much more than a logo or a tagline it is a set of convictions surrounding a product/ service in the consumers/ students mind Amalgam of tangibles and intangibles: features, services and benefits that create and sustain an on-going relationship between an organization/university and its clients Its the emotional and relational bonds that brands establish with their clients that distinguish them as brands Products deliver a function - a brand is a product or service that has created an on-going relationship with its customers Products/ services are what organizations want to sell ..Brands are what people want to buy (Culture, persona, whats different) Importantly, your Brand, it is not what you say about yourselves, but what others say about you
Branding Defined
Branding Defined
A brands image is derived from all those things that impact the audiences perceptions of the organization including, in the case of an education institution: Its products and services Its physical buildings Signage Ranking The league tables Identity/logo Its research The experience
Education Branding
The same principles that drive Consumer branding can be transferred to the building of education/service brands
Including: Its ability to attract, recruit and retain students Its ability to attract, recruit and retain quality staff both academic & professional The employability of its graduates Its potential to raise funds and to attract research dollars/grants Its overall ranking; and Its profile/relationship within its local community
Cost of tuition
17% 21%
51% 60%
0%
17%
34%
51%
68%
Despite the current economic downturn there is still a shortage, which will worsen, of qualified personnel to fill academic and professional positions within universities Within this environment ensuring your brand appeals to both prospective and current employees is critical Research conducted amongst employees indicates the importance of an employers brand in their choice of employer
Donors, both philanthropists and alumni, want to give funds to an institution whose brand they respect Evident by the relative ease with which well respected institutions, both well ranked and with strong brands, are able to raise funds e.g. Harvard, Yale and the challenges faced by institutions with less well profiled brands
Anecdotal evidence suggests that while not as crucial as with the other audiences, as the decision tends to be more individual academic/ research team based, an institutions brand plays a role in the decision of a funding body to award funds for research
At JWT Education we use a five phased process to do this, called Thompson Total Branding (TTB): 1. Where are we now? 2. Why are we here? 3. Where do we want to be? 4. How do we get there? 5. Are we getting there?
Need to understand where your brand is currently and why? Who are your target audiences and what do they want? What do your target audiences, both internal and external, think about the brand? Frequently, how we think our brand is viewed and the reality are different How is your Institution performing? What are your Institutions competitive advantages, key strengths? What is going on in the marketplace, whats new, whats the competition doing? This phase typically involves both primary and secondary research
If you know where your brand is now, the next thing to determine is where do you want the brand to be? How would you like your institution to be positioned in the market place? What would you like people to say about it? What is the vision for the brand?
What are the brands: Attributes the key differentiating service/brand ingredients
Developing the Functions what each attribute does for Brand Vision the customer
Attributes Functions Rewards Values Personality Vision Focus Rewards how people feel as a result of each function Values how those feelings reflect back onto the brand Personality how these values translate into characteristic personality traits Vision Focus the essence of the brand, its rallying cry
Develop creative which brings the brand vision to life Develop and implement strategies to communicate the brand message across all touch points
Its critical to appreciate that there are multiple touch points Phase 4: How do We Get There That the brand is not just the these communication messages, its also about the experience, the experience needs to live up to the brand promise Challenge is to communicate this message across all these different touch points and to deliver on the experience Different strategies are required to reach different target audiences
Core Brand Messaging What are we talking about? (Are we relevant?) Questions
When are they listening? What is the right communications mix? What should we spend, where should we spend? How do we measure success? Are they still listening?
perceptions of the brand so that they are more closely aligned with the brand vision
Usually requires additional research to create benchmarks against which the performance of our activities can be monitored
The development of a unique brand vision which creates an emotional platform for the brand - the desired connection between the consumer and the product/service A relevant, defensible & differentiated long term positioning Definition of the language associated with the brand - attributes, functions, values, rewards & focus of the brand messaging structure and pillars to support the brand Development of the branding idea - creative which brings the brand vision to life Getting brands in peoples heads and keeping them there
As marketers we can only control some components of the brand, yet its critical that we deliver on the promise Our budgets are tiny e.g. Microsoft spend $5 million a day on branding/marketing Institutions have a large number and increasingly diverse target audiences, so while we need an overarching brand we may need to develop different value propositions to appeal to these different audiences In the current climate, any expenditure on building your brand can be contentious Securing buy-in from the internal community is critical, as they ultimately deliver on the brand University leaders feel there are significant barriers they must overcome before they can successfully build brands internal resistance to change; difficulty in capturing the essence of the institution; lack of sector relevant examples; sub/brands
Challenges
Questions