Branding Your School:

1

• Branding Your School
• Building a Communication Network
• for Your School Vision

• Presented by
• Vanessa Landesfeind, Ed.D.
• Stephen R. D. Glass

2
Vision and Core Values

• We are strongly committed to enthusiastically
  communicating the strategic imperatives of
  branding to establishing a community partnership
  of excellence among a socially, economically, and
  academically diverse group of stakeholders and
  exceeding the expectations of the audience
  through the use of technology.

3
Background

• Our school site experiences
• School reputation real or imagined
• Social media research
• Los Angeles Times articles

4
Mission and Vision

• Research in business and education is clear about
  the need for a mission/vision statement.
• 2002 study found that 82 of organizations but
  only 40 of the stakeholders of those
  organizations felt the mission statement
  reflected reality.

5
Mission Statement Stats
Freq Concept
255 Shareholder Return/Value
230 Quality-General
211 Customer Needs/Expectations Met/Exceeded
210 Financial Performance Profitability
197 Integrity Ethics
196 Innovation Creativity
193 Community Focus /Involvement
144 Employee Training/Development/Growth
141 Continuous Improvement
137 Business Expansion/Growth
6
Our Vision and Values

• We are strongly committed to enthusiastically
  (75) communicating (36) the strategic imperatives
  of branding to establishing a community
  partnership (7) of excellence (14) among a
  socially, economically, and academically diverse
  (31) group of stakeholders and exceeding the
  expectations (2) of the audience through the use
  of technology.

7
What is the API? 568, 775, 993, or Private School
No API

• School A is a single-purpose high school for
  grades 7-12, whose primary mission is to prepare
  academically proficient students for entrance to
  and success at their best-match university. The
  school emphasizes academics and appropriate
  co-curricular experiences that develop socially
  and academically successful students.

8
568, 775, or Private No API

• The School B community is committed to fostering
  academic excellence that instills character
  development, life-long learning, respect,
  self-discipline and collaboration skills. School
  B commits to expanding community partnerships
  into mutually beneficial relationships with post
  secondary educational institutions, career and
  industry resources, civic and social
  organizations and student volunteer service to
  others. School B will continue to promote a safe
  and secure learning and social environment
  through inclusive extra-curricular and after
  school activities. It is School Bs vision that
  all students graduate having undergone a
  personalized and challenging academic program
  that empowers them to be successful and
  productive citizens in society.

9
775 or Private No API

• School C offers a bright, motivated and diverse
  student body a unique journey of discovery. Our
  academically rigorous, college preparatory
  curriculum is enriched through our commitment to
  service-learning and enhanced by ample
  opportunities for participation in athletics, the
  arts and community activities. We strive for
  personal excellence in an atmosphere of
  collaboration, trust, mutual respect and
  integrity, so that our graduates become lifelong
  learners and inventive leaders, passionate to
  bring about positive change.

10
775

• The mission of School D is to prepare ethnically
  and economically diverse students for college,
  leadership, and life through innovative
  instruction, a rigorous curriculum, and the use
  of technology. We aim to achieve our mission by
  creating a student-centered environment that
  unifies the efforts of family, community, and
  school to foster life-long learning,
  cross-cultural competency, social responsibility,
  and academic excellence.

11
Which Schools Are They?

• 568- Compton High School
• 775 Animo Inglewood Charter (Green Dot)
• 993- Whitney High School
• No API Sage Hill School

12
Aligning Vision and Action

• Executives spend too much time drafting,
  wordsmithing, and redrafting vision statements,
  mission statements, values statements, purpose
  statements, aspiration statements, and so on.
  They spend nowhere near enough time trying to
  align their organizations with the values and
  visions already in place (Collins, 2000).

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Name the Organization

• Our mission is to be our customers' favorite
  place and way to eat.
• To organize the worlds information and make it
  universally accessible and useful.
• To serve sports fans wherever sports are watched,
  listened to, discussed, debated, read about or
  played.
• No formal mission statement. (Hint Its a
  university.)

14
Who are we? What do we do? How do we do it?
15
What is a Brand?

• A brand enhances the value of a product or
  services beyond its functional purpose - thereby
  supporting volume and price.
• A brand is a link between an organization and its
  stakeholders, providing a badge of community and
  trust.
• A brand is the result of behavior - everything an
  organization has the potential to impact the
  brand.
• A brand exists only in peoples minds - it is a
  collection of feelings and perceptions in the
  mind of the consumer.
• A brand can provide an organization with purpose
  and direction - providing a source of motivation
  and interest for stakeholders.

16
Evolution of a School Brand

• Schools develop their brands through state test
  data, reputation, and word mouth.
• Schools offer courses to appeal to students
  (parents) and their collegiate aspirations.
• Schools develop athletic teams and co-curricular
  programs to appeal to parents and students.
• Schools Districts offer magnet programs to
  attract with students and stakeholders with
  specific learning interests

17
Why does a schools brand matter?

• Schools are in competition with each other
• Many districts have shrinking enrollment
• Private schools draw enrollment
• School Choice within a district impacts
  enrollment at sites.
• Schools have good reputations and bad
  reputations
• California has over 900 charter schools 115 of
  which opened in the 10-11 school year

18
Schools with Brand Value

• Strong Schools with Strong Brands can command a
  premium.
• Strong Schools with Strong Brands can attract and
  retain talent.
• Strong Schools with Strong Brands are a store of
  trust.
• Strong Schools with Strong Brands can stimulate
  innovation.

19
Facts

• Every school has a brand.
• No matter how it is established, the brand holds
  a promise for the families who send their
  children to the school.

20
What is Branding?

• The entire process involved in creating a unique
  name and image for a product (good or service) in
  the consumers mind, through advertising
  campaigns with a consistent theme.
• Branding aims to establish a significant and
  differentiated presence in the market that
  attracts and retains loyal customers.

21
Branding to Communicate Vision

• Regardless of how the message is sent the core
  mission of branding remains the same
  communicating to customers who you are, what you
  do and how you do it.
• Once a mission and values are established, a
  clear brand vision can help to align these
  fundamentals with concrete strategies and tactics
  that bring the brand experience to life.

22
External vs. Internal
Long Term Inspiration
Medium Term
Short Term Action
23
Aligning the Internal and External

• Timeless core values should never change
  operating practices and cultural norms should
  never stop changing.
• Organizational values cannot be instilled in
  people. They must be predisposed to hold them
  and then can learn practices and norms.

24
Auditing a schools brand

• With schools vision and brand do not always
  align.
• Look for internal and external misalignments
• Complaints from employees
• Complaints from stakeholders
• Ask questions
• Examine media

25
Learning from complaints

• Employees
• Values mismatch
• Practices and procedures
• Stakeholders
• Negative comments about staff
• Practices and procedures

26
Questions to Ask

• When you think about the school what do you think
  first?
• What do you value most about the school?
• What do you consider the strength of the school?
• What do you consider a weakness of the school?
• What makes this school unique?

27
A Quick Survey

• When you are looking for a new place to eat how
  do you decide where to go?
• Do you check a review site (i.e. YELP)?
• D0 you ask friend for a recommendation?
• Do you check the actual restaurant website?
• Which did you do first?

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The New Role of Media

• Owned Media

• Earned media

• Owned media is anything that the school produces
  or controls to publicize itself.
• School website
• Parent Newsletters
• School Accountability Report Card (SARC)
• Social Media initiated by school

• When stakeholders become the channel.
• Newspaper Articles
• Online reviews
• Unsolicited/unofficial social media posts from
  satisfied stakeholders

29
Branding your school

• Audit your existing brand
• Compare your brand to your mission vision
• Identify stakeholder touch points
• Identify and correct misalignments
• Protect and monitor the brand
• Take control of media when possible
• Teacher (personal behaviors)
• Students (on and off campus behavior)
• Events/Actions (unpredictable)

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References

• Akeny, J. (2010). Building a brand on a budget.
  Entrepreneur, May, 49-51
• Barwise, P. Meehan, S. (2010). The one thing
  you must get right when building a brand.
  Harvard Business Review, December, 80-84.
• Cady,S.H., Wheeler, J.V., DeWolf, J., Brodke,
  M. (2011). Mission , vision, and values what do
  they say? Organization Development Journal ,
  Spring 29(1) , 63-78.
• Collins, J. (2000). Aligning Action and Values.
  Jim Collins. Retrieved from www.jimcollins.com/art
  icle_topics/articles/aligning-action.html.
• Edelman, D. (2010). On social media and the new
  rules of branding. Harvard Business Review,
  December, 63 69.
• Faust, W. (2007). Whats the story? Aligning
  mission, vision, and strategy with your brand.
  Design Management Review, Winter, 76-92.
• Kärreman,D. Rylander, A. (2008). Managing
  meaning through branding -- the case of a
  consulting firm . Organization Studies , 29,
  103-125
• Weinewski, M. (2011). Why invest in brand? And
  where should you begin? Nonprofit World,
  May/June, 13 -15.