Brand Fabrik. Let s stick together. Creating a more joinedup approach to marketing activity in the further education sector

Transcription

1 Let s stick together Creating a more joinedup approach to marketing activity in the further education sector Brand Fabrik Brand building insight from

2 Page 2 The idea of integrated marketing is nothing new in education circles. We ve all heard the benefits of a 360 degree approach to attracting and retaining students, staff and funding. But, the question is, are we using all the resources available to us to make it happen? There s no doubt it s a tough call. Students have more choice over where to study than ever before and are exercising that choice more discriminately. Funding is harder to come by. An institution s reputation manifested in its brand is critical to that decision. And, although your course guide is undoubtedly important, prospective students, parents, new staff and stakeholders build a view of that brand from many other sources, including (but not limited to) your website, your signage, your communications, your merchandise, your buildings and even the way you answer the phone. So, to build a truly successful brand, you have to plan, execute and evaluate co-ordinated, measurable, persuasive communications programmes. And you need those programmes to reach your target audience whenever and wherever they come into contact with your brand. Phew! It s no wonder true 360 degree marketing is so hard to achieve unless you have an unlimited budget and a small army. But there s one source of help that is often overlooked or underused your creative partner. We are frequently asked by education providers to work on isolated projects, from visual identity to naming and branding new services, to student recruitment campaigns and course guides, says Stephen Peate, creative director of Fabrik, a branding and creative agency with specialist experience of the education sector. Creating the perfect student recruitment campaign is one thing, but we rarely get an insight into the entire marketing mix. We feel that s an opportunity missed both from a business and a consistency point of view.

3 Page 3 The right consistency Consistency is key. Clear, consistent messaging both verbal and visual is more effective and efficient than competing messaging and will do a better job of cutting through an increasingly cluttered commercial landscape. If your marketing comprises fragmented, isolated campaigns, you re probably wasting time and money, missing opportunities to get your message across and not getting the results you need. If they re involved more closely, your creative agency can help you spot where consistency is falling behind, help you put that right and identify gaps where additional, consistently branded material could reinforce your overall offer. Colleges, of course, can have a number of barriers to overcome in achieving truly joined-up marketing. This isn t down to the people: marketing in education is becoming increasingly professionalised and the understanding and appreciation of basic marketing and branding principles is improving across the board. Most people now know that branding goes well beyond a logo. Spend smarter But, in some quarters, there is still a lack of financial commitment to the marketing/branding function. Integrated branding can, in fact, save you money by cutting down on duplication of effort, while employing better metrics will make sure you re spending in the right places. If this is an issue for you, then making more extensive use of a single creative partner can help. By taking a bird s eye view of a whole campaign, we can often find ways of creating economies for our clients, explains Stephen Peate. Organised thinking Another barrier to integration is often organisational structure. The institution s academic, admissions, fundraising and business office functions need to work together to maximise the potential of your external marketing effort. But, all too often, they work in silos. Similarly, you may be grappling with the problems of managing sub-brands. People on your campus may argue that one unified brand doesn t apply to their portion of the institution and that various schools or programmes are too different to support a single core strategy or approach. But this just isn t true. In every institution, there s a single thread that holds all of the pieces together. A good branding agency can help you identify that unifying thought and create a brand hierarchy whereby the sub-brands are clearly defined but operate under, and chime with, the single over-arching brand. And they can also help you apply that brand structure in-house, by creating easyto-apply templates or running design workshops that will help make sure your communications continue to be effectively and consistently branded. Other stumbling blocks are harder to overcome. There may be a belief among in-house marketers, for instance, that a more integrated approach may impact on budgets and staff numbers. Or it may be the need to get buy-in for large numbers of people across the institution that is slowing you down. There s no easy solution to these problems and finding a way forward can be hard. But, again, by making greater use of fewer creative partners, you may be able to achieve cost efficiencies that will ease the pressure on budgets. And your agency s objective, highlevel view and experience-based advice on what does and doesn t work can often help smooth the buy-in process.

4 Page 4 Conduct a communications audit If you recognise that your marketing is not as joined-up as it could be, one of the best first steps you can take is to benchmark your marketing activity both internally and against your peer organisations. It s a quick and effective way to identify strengths, underlying issues and gaps that need addressing. This is one activity your branding agency can really help you with: an objective point of view can be very revealing. Fabrik regularly conducts research for its education clients both visual audits to make sure all your marketing collateral is working seamlessly as a set, and deeper brand audits that can help you get to the heart of your institution s unifying concept and can be the start of a wider brand review. At first, some people were sceptical, but they got behind the project thanks to the insight provided by Fabrik. Now I can confidently say that we have a brand identity that does justice to our employee training services and the investment is already paying off. John Driscoll Marketing Manager, Lewisham College When Lewisham College s Business Development Team came to us, they had a growing reputation for providing bespoke training to business, but their brand identity was too confused with that of the College, explains Peate. A thorough communications audit was our starting point. We renamed them The Skills People and developed an identity that set out a distinctive stall while drawing on all that s great about their association with a respected FE college. It s already proving to be a great success. The point of an audit is to get a clear and objective sense of your institution s identity and value from the perspective of your potential customers. An internal marketing assessment reveals who you think you are and who you think you serve; an external communications audit reveals who they think you are and who they think you serve. Then ask yourself how similar or different those two perspectives are. The messages and themes generated by an image audit can not only help you get your various marketing campaigns back in line, they help you identify which channels are likely to have the biggest impact on your audience whether it s your course guide, your website, communication, welcome packs, guerrilla marketing, posters, merchandise or anything else in the marketing armoury. And then you can make sure your marketing budget is spent as effectively and efficiently as possible. Your audit may even provide you with testimonials you can use in direct mail, printed literature or online. Quantitative surveys are fine, but qualitative research does a better job of revealing factors that drive decisions to enrol. Achieving a truly integrated approach to marketing is never easy. But it is worth it. As studies* have shown, integration can increase efficiency by up to 100% because of the interaction between different and complementary channels. But you don t have to go it alone. Involve your creative agency more in the early stages, make use of their objective advice and consider bringing more individual campaigns under one creative roof, and you ll soon see the benefits. Let s get together! To find out if we re the right fit for your college, why not drop us a line or give us a call? mail@fabrikbrands.com Phone: +44 (0) * Research by DDB Worldwide Communications Group

5 Fabrik Brands Creative Industry Fabrik adds industry to creativity. A hands-on place, where everyone works on the shop floor, we focus on quality and craftsmanship. We make the case for our clients products and services. We build brands. We shape reputations. We craft digital communications and print that efficiently do the job they re designed to do. We re concerned with qualitycontrol and productivity, but we reject mass-production. Each item we produce is made to meet the precise needs of a particular client. Proud of our bias towards making things, rather than talking about things, we welcome visitors to our factory-floor. To arrange a tour, please contact us. Fabrik 98 Central Street London EC1V 8AJ Telephone +44 (0) Facsimile +44 (0) mail@fabrikbrands.com Visit