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COVER FEATURE | BRANDING | 17
R A DL E Y COL L E GE
“All the school’s staff and stakeholders – including the
Parents’ Association, governors and external agencies – now have a style guide to refer to when producing any material that represents the school's ethos and brand,” Hadley explains. “This eliminates the chance of inconsistency, and comes with the added benefit of reducing the workload for staff.” “To reinforce a school’s public profile, consistent
implementation of its corporate identity is vital,” concurs Jon Willcocks of JWA, a design consultancy that has worked alongside Berkhamsted School and Radley College, among others. “A school should clearly identify what it is in all that it does. A confused corporate identity will do litle to inspire confidence in our visually articulate society.” We also live in a technologically articulate society,
which is why more and more independent schools are revamping their website as part of their overall facelift – a clever move when you consider that, according to Google, 77 per cent of education-seekers will visit a school’s website before taking action. Queen Margaret’s in York is just one institution that is revitalising its online presence and, like King’s Ely, the school employed the services of an outside agency. “The company I chose had never created a
school website before, but had done high-end web design for other companies, such as jewellers and private-plane manufacturers,” explains Katherine Walker, the school’s Director of Marketing. “I felt that our marketing had to stand up against that of other high-end brands that our parents are using. Sending a child to boarding school is a serious investment, and if we'd come across as haphazard or amateur, that wouldn't have looked good.” “We’ve also produced a new film, which is the first of
its kind for a school,” continues Walker. “A lot of girls' schools are doing the same excellent things that we're doing, and I felt that we needed to look different. The film is akin to the kind of adverts that John Lewis makes – in fact, that was the brief I gave to the film-makers.” Of course, the pupils themselves are walking, talking
adverts for any school, so it's important that they're clothed in a way that will represent that school in a positive light. To ensure that this happens, more and
more institutions are working alongside bespoke uniform designers such as Stevensons. “Schools will typically contact us with a series of
designs of how their uniform and sportswear might look, utilising their own brand as a starting point,” says Stevensons’ Business Development Manager Howard Walker. “We might pick up on one or two key colours in the logo, and these might translate as a flash of colour in a blazer lining, strikingly coloured butons, bespoke designed tabs on waistbands and so forth. “We provide fabric samples initially, then progress to
actual garment samples, so that staff can share them around and everyone can get a feel of how the new garments will work. Stevensons also provides expert advice on what fabrics to use in terms both of ease of manufacture and suitability for parents – care, cost, etcetera.” However schools go about marketing themselves, the
key is to strike the right chord, conveying the school’s core values in a way that’s both accessible and enticing to parents and pupils. Says Felicity Blake at King’s Ely, “Independent schools are multi-million-pound businesses and the competition is fierce. We cannot be complacent and assume that, in education, we are above such things as brand identity and market positioning. It's crucial to ensure that a clear message is reaching our markets, and engaging with them in a way that will draw them to the school.” Achieve that, and you’ll give yourself a much
beter chance of keeping up appearances – and of becoming a prime choice for the next generation of fresh-faced teenagers. iE
Contacts
360 Education W:
www.360education.co.uk The King’s School, Ely W:
www.kingsely.org Solihull School W:
www.solsch.org.uk JWA W:
www.jwaltd.com Stevensons
www.stevensons.co.uk Queen Margaret’s
www.queenmargarets.com
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oiTo6s2ERA
ABOVE: Radley College has worked with design consultancy JWA to gain a consistent identity
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