Three Crucial Questions to Ask about Your School's Brand
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou
In a fast-paced, stats-driven world, the art of branding can easily become lost. Too often, we miss the mark by trying to measure or quantify branding. But brands can’t be measured in numbers, nor are they comprised of logos, color schemes, or a suite of fonts. Your brand is the soul of your organization and its identity lives in the minds of your constituents.
Colleges and universities, most with long histories, can sometimes fall victim to ineffective, watered-down branding over time. How healthy is your brand? For a quick check-up, ask yourself the following questions:
1. Can I immediately point out at least one core factor that makes my brand unique?
There’s no question—your school needs a defined brand that stands out. There are approximately 4,000 colleges and universities in the United States. Even if a prospective student eliminates, for example, large state schools, that’s still an enormous pool to choose from.
This is why schools can’t rely solely on common themes for branding. For instance, faith-based institutions can’t expect their church affiliation to single-handedly carry the brand message. While an integral piece of many brands, it would be incomplete to depend only on such a frequent characteristic.
There are over 500 faith-based colleges and universities in the U.S.—imagine a viewbook from each one stacked on a prospective student’s dining room table. Do you know how your school would be distinctive?
2. Can I count my brand’s core messages on one hand?
When you think about your school’s brand, do excessive, scattered messages float through your mind? Brands are effectually powerful but they’re not heavy lifters when it comes to messaging—they can only carry so much before falling apart and fading from memory.
Human brains cling faster to simple messaging. The more complicated your school’s brand becomes by trying to include too many varied messages, the more likely your constituents are to be confused, never giving your brand a chance to cement itself in their minds. Try auditing the number of your branding messages – they may add up more quickly than you expect.
3. What emotions are evoked when someone says my brand’s name?
Emotions are intrinsic to the human experience. We all have them, and successful brands typically create an emotional response from their audiences. Provoking feeling isn’t accidental. Emotional messages are more likely to stick. They register with us, cutting through the clutter of so much that competes for our attention.
Say your school’s name – what emotions arise? Perhaps an even better question is to ask if saying the name of your school elicits an emotional response at all. If not, it’s time to make a plan to stake a claim your audience’s mind
Based on your answers, could your brand use a little help? Here are a few practical tips to get started:
Look to your students first. Colleges sometimes makes the branding mistake of promoting institutional accomplishments before aiming to first make a connection with students.
A prospective student won’t make an emotionally connect with a list of awards, accreditations or facilities, no matter how impressive. While these may be essential functions attributes of the organization and worthy of attention, they won’t be the reason your school’s brand will reside in a prospective student’s mind. Your students are the most unique asset your brand has—their stories and experiences provide endless opportunities for engaging key audiences and differentiating your brand.
Create patterns. Branding relies on memory. Memory relies on repetition. You won’t automatically set up a permanent address in your audience’s mind when you unveil your brand. The good news is that relearning forgotten information is a much quicker process than learning it upon first exposure, according to Nielsen research. This means repetition is key, so make sure to include strategic patterns in marketing campaigns for your brand. Here are a few practical ways to do this:
Be consistent with your social media presence. Aim to show up on newsfeeds at least several times a week.
Consider the role of digital marketing. Paid online advertising is a straightforward way to get your brand regularly in front of your target audience(s).
Focus on the primary emotional response(s) that you want audiences to associate with your brand. Ensure that your key marketing efforts are built with consistent attention to these feelings.
Plan regular brand audits every 6—12 months to make sure that as time goes on, your brand is staying on a path of consistent, effective patterns. This also helps identify opportunities for improved engagement.
Pay attention to the experience. What can you do to make your audience’s experience with your school as positive and memorable as possible? For prospective students, this is where the campus visit (and your follow-up) is pivotal. It’s a two-part operation because:
You need to make a case for why they should want to visit your school to begin with (see question #1).
The visit has to be executed with care, hospitality, and attention to detail (now more than ever, in light of the current COVID pandemic). A surefire way to skip leaving a mark in a student’s mind is a lackluster—or worse, unpleasant—trip to your campus. It’s a good idea to collaborate with your admissions team to plan visits worthy of your brand.
Bonus: Don’t forget to consider the role of emotions in the campus visit. How do you want a prospective student or parent to feel when their visit concludes? Start with the end in mind.
Don’t be generic. When focusing on a branding identity for your school, it can be tempting to craft a message that appeals to everyone. Remind yourself that it’s ok if some prospective students decide your school isn’t for them. Your campus won’t feel like home to every person who inquires. Don’t let this scare you—it’s better to take a strong, memorable branding stance that resonates with a smaller group of students who will enroll than to try to attract the masses with generic messaging that’s largely forgettable.
Branding in Action. The best way to think about branding is to see an inspiring example. One effective, memorable brand is the University of Pikeville in Kentucky. One of the school’s core institutional principles is to support students in overcoming barriers to successful futures. The straightforward tagline, “Move Mountains,” creates a poignant visual that conveys the emotional concept of prevailing against obstacles. The message also ties into UPIKE’s location—hitting another core principle—as the university is heavily invested in the Appalachian region. Take a look.
Once you understand what branding truly is—and isn’t—along with how brand messaging functions in the human brain, you’re on your way to creating a lasting brand that will live in hearts and minds for a lifetime.
How’s your brand’s health? We’d love to chat about how to strengthen your school’s branding. Contact us today and we’ll give you a call.
“Products are created in a factory. Brands are created in the mind.”
- Walter Landor
