How can universities build their brands?

University marketers are in the spotlight more than ever before. Increasingly, their organisations rely on them to drive higher numbers of student applications – especially to MBAs and business-oriented courses – as well as attracting research funding, joint venture investment and corporate partnerships.
A key element in achieving that is a strong brand identity. Yet it can be hard to explain to colleagues in senior management and finance why they should invest in this rather than another ad campaign or event. They produce demonstrable return, while the commercial benefits of a strong brand are far more difficult to articulate. But as funds become ever scarcer and competition increases, good marketing will become more critical. Here are five ideas to help universities build their brand.

Check out the numbers

Brand identity is a nebulous concept, but there are quantifiable success stories. In the past two years we have been working closely with Imperial College Business School, helping position it as the academic institution that means intelligent business. We did this through the creation of a new visual identity, which draws heavily from the contemporary world of business and using it across a range of marketing materials.

Since introducing the new branding to the website in September 2015, it has played a key role in driving student applications and securing new corporate partnerships. Applications for the full-time MBA were more than double those for 2014-15 and student numbers grew by 20% across all programmes. The school has also signed several new corporate partnerships, including its largest ever – a 10-year, £2.3m agreement with Edwardian Hotels London.

Look at examples

Whether it is Apple or Airbnb, there are no shortage of examples of clear and relevant brand identities to use. The Airbnb “A” logo is fast becoming as recognisable as the Apple mark has been for decades. We see them so often we can forget just how much work has gone into the creation of that familiarity.Imperial College Business School’s positioning relies on the school’s combination of business and technology. The brand identity we created is intended to reinforce the school’s key attributes – dynamic and data-driven – through the tagline Imperial means Intelligent Business.

Understand the role of brand mark

You only have to compare the typical corporate brand mark with the overly ornate, often heraldic brand marks that we tend to see in higher education to get some sense of how much work there is to be done in this sector.

A brand mark that is high impact, distinctive and relevant to your audience can communicate your core message, but also support other marketing campaigns.

Go multichannel

In a digital-first world a visual identity must do more than simply distinguish a brand from competitors – it has to be flexible enough to function across a variety of on and offline channels. Consumers are increasingly viewing digital media on far smaller screens, so designers need to consider the images, copy, colours, fonts and so on that will work in that environment. They cannot assume what works offline will work online.

In our work for Imperial College Business School, we took a digital-first approach to the brand identity. Colours were chosen to work on screen. We developed a simple visual language that could perform seamlessly across multiple platforms, from website icons to video animation.

Reassure the traditionalists

For any major brand identity project like this, it’s important to have senior management on board. This is particularly true in the often traditional world of higher education. At Imperial College Business School, we were fortunate to have the enthusiastic advocacy of the dean, but we needed to invest time in ensuring other staff were equally enthusiastic.

This involved direct, face-to-face conversations with students, staff and alumni, talking them through the thinking behind the brand mark and showing them how it would be used. Get all of this this right and thereare real opportunities for universities. A survey carried out by CBI and Pearson Education found that 48% of businesses are looking to grow their university ties in the future. The key question is: which university will they choose to partner with? And equally, which university will students choose to apply to?

To some extent for both audiences this will be about location and academic focus. But there is also a vital third factor: positioning. This is about how effectively a university presents itself – and brand identity is central to this.

Frances Jackson is chief executive at OPX, a branding agency with university clients