Every school or colleges is a brand. Your brand is who you are, how others perceive you, how you operate and communicate and the image and reputation you build. At Oyster we work with organisations in education, commerce and charity to held develop brands that give guidance, improve perceptions and reflect your true strengths and character.
'Reputation' is commonly referred to in education. A reputation is a significant part of a brand - academic and sport performance, teaching staff, pupil appearance, music, drama, facilities, the front entrance ... the list goes on. The key to controlling and enhancing brand is to focus all the strengths and build them into your communications and ethos. By identifying your brand it is possible to define not only the look and message of your communications but also how you operate. Brand is everything from the way you answer the phone to the academic results you achieve.
The key is to build positive associations around your establishment, your name, your logo. A strong brand guides your marketing with communications that deliver clear, positive and inspiring brand messages.
Refreshing a brand can send out a very positive message to your target audience. A strong brand enhancement demonstrates initiative and positive action. It's a great chance to change gear and has an incredibly powerful influence on your market place. If you're worried about implementing a change to your brand, rest assured there are different ways to implement brand enhancement without it costing the world!
A new brand or brand refresh should be developed and implemented as part of a carefully planned process. At Oyster, we love working with educational, charitable and commercial organisations to help focus on their brand strengths and character, and from there to design and build really strong brand solutions that will often revolutionise their future.
Involvement - involve key parties in the decision making process, but manage the process to ensure people opinions are gathered but a smaller group makes the decisions. Identify your key decision makers and involve them in the process from start to finish.
The brief - get it agreed, in writing, before you start any work on the project. The brief should cover key objectives, milestones and timescales, budget constraints, the breadth and depth of the project, who the key decision makers are and the process for sign off.
Choose the right agency - your agency should guide you through the whole process, provide valued advice and support but not dictate your decision making process!
A brand needs to be consistent across your whole organisation and in a school, that can be a huge task! If you're implementing a completely new brand, you may need to consider how it is rolled out, i.e. instantly throughout the whole school (considering cost implication and take up by parents) or on a year-by-year or gradual basis, replacing the old logo etc with new as and when you can. We can help throughout the whole process, planning your roll out to suit your budget and your objectives.
Oyster can manage as much of the brand process as you need us to, from consultation, design and copywriting to the design, development and delivery of websites, prospectuses and print communications. We can provide signage, vehicle livery, marketing strategy, video .... the whole package. We are extremely competitive on price and able to deliver as much of your brand update as you need us to.
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