The Importance of Branding to Successfully Market your Multi-Academy Trust or School.

Stand Proud.

School branding that is strong and consistent is the key to communicating what makes your school remarkable to pupils, parents, staff and communities.

The strength of your branding is in how it identifies you; that comes from the magic that is your values, strengths, style, what you actually do, shared and understood by all those involved. These special qualities and features need to be reflected in a powerful and committed school logo, strapline, colours and style.

That’s branding. That’s remarkable.

“School branding that is strong and consistent is the key to communicating what makes your school remarkable to pupils, parents, staff and communities”

Show Off.

Branding – your school logo, colour, crest or strapline makes a real difference but branding goes on making a difference as a strategy for getting you noticed. In the world of education, we need to think of branding as something that helps the customer. We’re not trying to trick people; we are trying to help them wade through everything on offer and find what is right for them. We do this by giving them information, by creating an emotional response, and by inviting them into something that will address their needs.

Be Yourself.

Branding is a tool for reinventing or rejuvenating how you do business – the business of gaining and retaining interest, the business of education, the remarkable, profound, and demanding job of building human beings. Branding is bringing together everything you do and stand for so that it permeates through from uniform style to teaching style, from headed paper to headteacher, from everything you want to be to everything you are.

Tips School Branding:

1. Know why you’re doing it

• To have an impact (it’s calling people to take action)
• To create an image and make it known

2. Know what it is Branding is not just about a logo, school crest or set of colours, nor just about your image – it is everything you do, everything you stand for – branding reflects you.

3. Understand how it works
   To be effective branding should:

• Maintain consistency across all channels
• Have integrated purpose and values
• Be built on clear goals

4. Deal with the opposition

• Stay informed about others in the field
• Be the best of your kind

5. Go digital

• Monitor your progress through collection of data
• Encourage engagement and feedback online
• Use the tools available to get your message where it needs to be

6. Learn about your audience

• Build trust
• Understand who you are appealing to
• Keep your eyes open for change

7. Consider brand specifics

• Visuals: Assess the effect on your audience
• Words: Be mindful of associations people will make
• Communications: Consider your online and off-line messages

8. Measure Impact
   Know the effectiveness of your branding – and the effectiveness of your everything – by evaluating the services you provide and the improvements brought about as a result of your new branding.

Stand Proud, Show Off and Be Yourself.

Branding will serve you well if you invest sensibly and creatively at the beginning, continue to pay attention to it thereafter, and keep on doing it.