Why Branding Is Important For Your MAT Or School
A strong brand is invaluable to your Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) or school’s marketing assets. We’re faced with branding everywhere we go, from supermarket aisles to the daily commute, and almost every aspect of everyday life.
If you think about successful companies such as Apple, Coca-Cola, or McDonald’s, they all have strong and immediately identifiable branding. But are their products truly superior to their competition, or do they simply have excellent branding? In most cases, clear and consistent branding can lead a business to higher success than a lesser-known premium product.
Your school or MAT is a little different, as your excellent and highly skilled teachers, support staff, and core values are key. But a strong brand can help make your organisation memorable and stand out from the competition while letting the community know what it can expect from you.
Your branding is how you are identified and remembered by the outside world. When people see your brand, your logo, or your school colours, it should evoke an emotion, whether that’s admiration, indifference, or something else, depending on the reputation of your school or MAT, and how well you have marketed yourself.
Competition is fierce in the education sector and many schools offer high-quality education. Your brand is the means for your school to stand out from the competition, and it should reflect how you would like your school to be perceived.
Your branding is the most identifiable feature of your marketing and will be the first thing that parents recognise, which is why it is vital that you get it right.
Branding creates identity
For anyone unfamiliar with your school or MAT, your branding will help develop a personality that aligns with your core values and help to build trust with your organisation. Prospective parents will likely select a school for their child that matches their own values and will cater to their child’s needs.
But without an effective branding strategy in place, it makes it difficult for these parents to find a connection with your school that is necessary to help persuade them to begin the admission process.
Branding is your first impression
You never get a second chance to make a good first impression on prospective parents, so it is important that your branding represents your school or MAT in a way that helps to convey your values and prestige.
Consistency is key, and your newly established logo and motto need to appear on all your school’s marketing materials, both in print and digital, in the prospectuses and promotional material sent out to parents while recruiting to emails and social media, to ensure the same message is being conveyed on and offline.
This consistency will help to drive a strong school brand, and help your organisation feel established and one that is easier to trust.
Effective branding builds trust
Regardless of the industry, customers will always trust strong brands. The education sector is no different, and schools and MATs with a reputation for excellence in education will inherently be trusted by both parents and students.
This does not mean that you’re in trouble if your school is not particularly well-known, only that it shows the importance of developing and establishing your brand.
A strong brand will help significantly with recruitment, particularly if your brand is stronger than that of the competition, as you will steal a share of the market. Conversely, if there is no strong brand affiliation with your school, it could become detrimental to your organisation, and no reputation at all is as bad as a poor reputation.
Strong branding will sell your MAT or school
There are many obvious benefits to establishing your brand, such as greater exposure and increased admissions, but your branding can also help to identify the uniqueness of what your school offers.
Differentiate your brand from the competition by incorporating your USP (Unique Selling Point) into your branding and marketing, whether that’s your school’s history, the grounds and campus, academic prowess, or anything else that sets you apart. Building your brand around these key attributes will always help to sell your school to prospective parents looking for these features.
Take time to analyse what it is that sets your school apart from the competition, find out what it does best, and compare that to what your target parent demographic is looking for in a school. Combine these into your branding, and ensure that your styling, tonality, on and offline marketing, and outbound communications are consistent.
Branding brings a sense of belonging
Successful branding will help your community develop an emotional connection with your school or MAT. A clear identity and unified message, particularly in MATs, will help create a sense of belonging for students, who will then feel proud to be part of your school.
This sense of unity and belonging will also extend to staff, and if teachers and support staff feel they understand your vision, voice, and values, they will also feel they are part of it and want to help tell its story.
It will also bring a sense of belonging to the parents of students, who will then talk proudly about your school or MAT to others. There is still no better marketing than word of mouth.
Your brand is your identity
Branding is important because it is your identifiable feature and the way that people will recognise your school. It will help to cement relationships and loyalty with the community and parents, in the same way they trust established brands.
It will help boost recruitment as it helps to differentiate your school from the competition, and increases exposure as parents and students begin to identify your particular colour scheme and logo with your school or MAT.
Before you get started on any marketing strategy development, make sure that you have strong and effective branding in place, as it will serve as the framework for what you have to say, how you say it, and what it will look like.
At Glove, we have over 20 years of experience in the education sector and know how important it is to have strong branding. If you’re looking for help with logo design, branding, website development, prospectus design, or any other aspect of marketing for your school or organisation, then get in touch today!