There was no class that mentioned a thing called brand model in my early years’ education. To be honest, I didn’t like school much. Nothing to do with the lack of brand models or the school – it was good, with some exceptional individual teachers. The problem was one of routine day after day, structure, the inability to make my own decisions within a set format (spot the future self-employed). And year after year of it. In the last 2 years my dad spent most of our driving-lesson car journeys to school telling me what % of my school career was done and dusted. He had to tell me as I never quite grasped percentages and fractions and still have not to this day. At least I can tell you this in at least 3 languages.
Conversely, my mother always said how much she enjoyed school. She giggled her way though it apparently, and maintained the nickname ‘Cackles’ throughout her life. I always put her enjoyment down to the view, resting as the school did on the shores of Rose Bay in Sydney, with a view across the breadth of Sydney Harbour towards the Bridge. This, she reported, produced many years of watching the seaplanes land from inside the classroom. Kids, I’m not recommending staring out of the window as a school career, but I’d say with something like 98% certainty that it would alleviate the tedium. My father tells me that’s quite a big probability. Whatever.
Something fascinating (to a brand consultant) arrived in the post yesterday, from my mother’s school. They still communicate with her by email and post and she left school in the early 60s. Bear in mind she has spent much of her life 12,000 miles from said school. Fair to say that over recent years the school has faced some challenges, which have been reported quite regularly and openly via the Old Girls’ communications channels. In a nutshell, it would seem the school have done themselves what I would call a brand model exercise and what they are calling a 5 year Strategic Plan.
Kambala, I salute you. Not only because you produced my mother, but because it takes a bit of bravery to deliver this kind of depth and ambition in the higher education sector. I did a brand model once for an adult education institution in the UK and my it was tough. Mostly because a large proportion of the governing body didn’t believe in it. In this case, the council President and Principal have signed off on a letter to Old Girls introducing the plan and commending it to the school community. Looking at the brand model, laid out clearly, printed beautifully and accompanied by a personalised letter, it has key pillars that will deliver on the vision. These break down in to focus areas, initiatives and strategic programs. I have no idea if you carried out this exercise internally or let fools like me on campus to help unearth it and it doesn’t matter. You have spoken to parents, students and staff along the way. What matters now is how you execute it and how you take the community with you.
Three things about brand model implementation that I think will be important:
- Take your champions with you every step of the way. They are your staff and need to be given responsibility for roll out. They are on the ground living and breathing these values and delivering the initiatives, day in day out. Hire them based on their potential to ooze the values and how they talk about the vision.
- Your ‘clients’ are not your buyers. Again and again, prove the value of this exercise to the parents. They may or may not have paid for it, but actually they care about the value of it to their daughters. Absorb feedback, reiterate, demonstrate, ask them to contribute and lead elements of it. Make them part of the belief system.
- Start doing it all now, if you havn’t already. Momentum and pace count for much. Measure how things are going in 6 months and report to your communities of interest. Then keep on measuring and monitoring and be flexible where you have to (but not with the values). For what it’s worth, from someone who was nothing whatsoever to do with this process, I think your values are great.
Above all, aim for 100% cultural perfection and be reasonably happy with the 80% rule. I have no idea what those numbers mean obviously, but someone taught me branding is rarely perfect.
