Branding Ideas For Universities To Attract Target Audience

09 Sep Branding Ideas For Universities To Attract Target Audience

To understand what branding is, it is important to know what brands are. A brand is an image or idea behind any specific product or service, with which the consumers connect by identifying the logo, name or slogan. Branding comes into the picture when the idea or image marketed is identified by more and more people.

Now this branding is equally important to education industry just like any other. Few administrators and critics might argue that branding an educational institution takes away from its academic mission. But, with the increasing of backlash against tuition, the mobility of students and the explosion of online education, competition is going to become more of a fact of life than ever before in higher education.

The challenge of branding lies in living and breathing institution, rather than a product. Since, the lives of students, parents, alumni, faculty and staff are intimately tied to it. That is why branding is serious strategic business;
it’s beyond developing a great advertisement or a tagline. Let us discuss a few key ideas on university branding

BRAND RESEARCH

One of the most important steps in building a brand is the grass root level research. Brand research involves the following;

• Qualitative Research: Do a small focus group or an in-depth interview, telephone or an online campaign, which have open-ended questions and the answers are subjective.
• Quantitative Research: This is the effective one when used to affirm the findings of your university’s qualitative study. It is more objective because of the well-crafted questions deliver un-biased answers. The university can conduct some quantitative researches via online tools like Snapsurveys or Chanimal. The trick comes in getting the right analysis from the data. So make sure your survey has a good sample to get an un-biased analysis.
• Ideation Workshop: These workshops are useful in creating a university’s mission and purpose statements, introducing new courses or course extensions.

BUILD A WEBSITE

Once you have established what you want from your brand, now the time is to make it available to the world online. Universities can always customize the content they want on their website. Cloud-hosted websites are easier to maintain, especially if a university has a small web development staff.

PRINT & DIGITAL COLLATERALS

Whether it is print or digital, collaterals are used to support university’s primary advertising message to students. E-brochures, pamphlets, annual reports and many more help universities promote their services including online programs. Collaterals also help to generate solid leads that are more likely to convert into enrollments.

MULTIPLE CHANNELS

Once you have created a brand for your target audience, share your new self on multiple channels with your network. Universities should more look to communicate with students they are likely to be. It is no longer enough to rely on the prospective students automatically visiting your university’s website. Now-a-days students get flooded with messages at the movies, on TV, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn.

MERCHANDISE

Merchandise is one of the most gratifying and effective way of communicating the brand’s value. When students receive merchandise from the university, they tend to keep them for a long period of time. This increases the brand awareness of not only the person using it, but also those who are in contact with the student. There is a huge variety of merchandise available like pens, mugs, T-shirts, travel bags and so the list goes on. Few prefer to use recycle/eco-friendly products for their universities.

Today, universities are globally looking for marcom services that not only provide quality but also affordable solutions. Usually, these marcom costs are high for universities where they have to hire multiple people for several jobs of website designing, print & digital collaterals and much more. With years of experience in university marcom services, we provide solutions in design, print and distribution.