The Role of Branding.

1
The Role of Branding.

• Linking internal and external brand building
  activities
• AUA Briefing

2
Who are we? University of Leeds

• Total staff 7,581
• Total turnover 370m
• Total Undergraduate Students 22,957
• Total Postgraduate Students 4,331
• 34 growth in total student numbers over 5 years
• Position in the Guardian league table 40th in
  05 (32nd in 04)
• Position in the Times league table 38th in 05
  (34th in 04 )

3
What is a brand?

• Service
• People
• Culture
• Processes
• Infrastructure
• Environment
• Promotion - advertising, brochures
• Logos
• Fees and charges
• Products

A brand is a function of the total customer
experience, the personality of the University
it is a strategic asset and as such it is owned
by everyone not just the marketing department
4
Our opportunity to differentiate

• People make choices about Universities based upon
  emotive as well as functional drivers
• At a functional level - little real
  differentiation
• Product and service initiatives easily replicated
• Long term gains lie in a deeper symbolic
  (personality) layer of a brand - tapping into
  emotive needs.

The importance of branding will increase as
prospective students become more discriminating
based upon perceptions of value for money and
breadth of choice.
5
What defines an effective brand?

• The 5 Cs of effective branding
• clear in its positioning - where we will compete
• compelling to internal and external stakeholders
  - through its relevance (how we will compete)
• credible and is aligned to the Universitys core
  competencies - ensures delivery
• consistent in its execution - delivered through
  all touch points - physical and non physical
• cohesive - it serves to bond all stakeholders
  around a shared vision that is aligned to the
  Universitys mission - it is actively owned

6
Where do you start?

• Create a compelling reason for change
• why does the University need to change?
• what are the internal and external issues
  impacting upon us?
• what is the consequence of no action?
• defining the nature of change tweak vs
  fundamental change

7
Where do you start? Organisational Strategy

• Strategic questions
• what is our business?
• who are our customers?
• where will we compete?
• how will we compete?
• how do we know if we are being successful?

VALUE CREATION
Measure Value
8
University of Leeds Strategic Development
University of Leeds Vision
Purpose
Mission
Values Click here
Group 1
Group 2
P3
P2
P1
P7
P4
P5
P6
Stakeholders Partners
Key Themes (T)
Core Theme 1
Core Theme 4
Core Theme 3
Core Theme 2
T1
T10
T4
T7
T6
T11
T5
T2-
T8
T3
T9
Effectiveness (E)
Strategic Enablers
E2
E3
E5
E1
E4
Finance (F)
Staff (S)
S1
F1
F2
S2
F4
F3
S4
S3
9
So where are we now?

• Progress to date
• we have a clearly defined vision and purpose
• we are clear about the strategic imperatives that
  underpin delivery of that vision
• we have defined what success would look like do
  wells
• we are starting to understand the relationship
  between the delivery of strategy and the
  measurement of success
• we have involved key stakeholders in the journey
  to date
• we have started the process of internal
  communication and engagement
• we have deliberately NOT talked about the Brand

10
Identification of marketing priorities

• The strategy map provides a vehicle through which
  to focus upon
• some basic marketing imperatives
• definition of needs by target market
• develop target propositions student, research
  and
• enterprise
• develop and implement effective acquisition /
  retention strategies
• Critical delivery of each of the above is central
  to our strategic intent,
• rather than simply being seen as marketing
  veneer.

11
How do we plan to move forward?

• This is a long term agenda for organisational
  change, it is not about superficial
  transformation
• Success will be defined not by what we say or do,
  but by how we do it
• Cultural change will be central to our ability to
  deliver meaningful differentiation
• Communication is a key element of cultural
  change
• we must be able to communicate what this means
  for our employees before we can define what this
  means for our customers
• The role of leadership cannot be underestimated
  in creating an effective communication culture

12
What is the communications challenge?

• Nature of our culture
• Leadership and management competencies
• Complexity of business model / diversity of
  stakeholders
• The combination of the above present significant
• challenges for effective communications

13
The cultural challenge
How relevant are our values?
14
The communication challenge internal engagement
July 05
3 5 years

• communicate
• purpose

• Communicate content
• Communicate rationale
• Test and refine messages

• Create involvement
• Identify key advocates
• Let people engage
• with process

• Demonstrate benefits
• Re-enforce traction
• Create linkages between
• action and outcome

• Let go
• Embed in business
• processes

15
The diversity of the communications challenge
Internal Audiences
External Audiences

• Government bodies

• Academic staff

• Parents

• Prospective students UK/Int.

• Non academic staff

University Of Leeds

• Alumni

• UK UG Students

• Media

• City and Region

• International UG Students

• Charities / funding bodies

• UK Post Graduate Students

• NHS

• Commerce and industry

• International PG Students

• Russell Group peers

• Students Union

• WUN partners

• Staff Unions

16
Two immediate communications priorities

• Place disproportionate emphasis upon internal
  communications - start to move from awareness to
  understanding
• structured internal communications programme
• take strategy off the page and embed into
  business as usual activity
• create ownership and engagement amongst key
  internal audiences
• Get the basics of external communications right
• cohesive, professional identity across all
  activity
• clearly defined contact strategies
• start to communicate strategic intent in a
  cohesive structured manner

17
Creating internal understanding

• workshops across the University to bring the
  strategy map to life and align functional and
  corporate objectives
• focus upon a limited number of tangible
  activities to help demonstrate traction /
  commitment to change make the strategy real
• create an appreciation of the benefits and
  relevance of a market-led approach e.g.
  definition of proposition, understanding of
  competitive positioning etc
• embedding marketing skills and resources into
  academic teams not creating a central
  marketing team
• intensive on going internal communications to
  gain buy-in and support

18
Developing the Universitys brand

• the development of the Universitys brand will be
  an explicit outcome of our strategic development
  based upon
• thorough understanding of needs
• robust analysis of purchase decisions
• detailed examination of our culture and values
• orientating business processes around the
  stakeholders
• the development of customer and employee value
  propositions
• there will be a structured process by which we
  define the essence of the University of Leeds
  experience
• Employees
• Students and scholars
• Research partners
• there will be a three-year programme that
  rebuilds the brand from an internal and external
  perspective

19
Outline brand programme

• Five workstreams
• Customer value proposition design / development
• Employee value proposition design / development
• Internal communications
• Identity management
• External profile development

20
Eight steps to transforming the organisation
Establishing a sense of urgency
v
in place
Forming a powerful guiding coalition
v
In place
Creating a vision
v
in place
v
Communicating the vision
on going
v
Empowering others to act
on going
Creating short term wins
Consolidating improvements to sustain change
Institutionalising new approaches
Source Leading Change Why Transformation Fails
John Kotter HBR 95
21
A final thought
Culture
The University of Leeds Experience
Customer Propositions (internal and external)
Business Processes

• Sustainable brand leadership is created through
  the synergistic alignment of culture, process and
  customer focus.

22
Summary

• The University of Leeds is going through a
  structured strategic review the strengths of
  the existing brand proposition must be
  capitalised upon
• Brands are built carefully over time we need to
  actively refine and strengthen our brand
  proposition
• There is a clear imperative to change, which is
  increasingly understood
• There are things that can be achieved quickly
  which are important building blocks
• The development of an effective internal
  communications process, as a key drive component
  of cultural change, is essential
• Effective brands are built synergistically
  internally and externally