What To Consider When Revamping Your School Branding

Revamping your school branding is no small feat.

School branding strategies are aimed at communicating an ethos, and rebranding means telling your story in a fresh, compelling way. Chances are, you haven’t branded your school in a while, and with design trends changing like the seasons, staying relevant is difficult. Unfortunately, most schools don’t have the internal capability with the experience to run a rebranding project. That’s where we come in. A pro agency like Cleverbox can help you move forward with your rebranding. 

Initial conversations of rebranding should discuss why you might need to make a change to your school’s branding strategies, and review any challenges you might be facing with your current approach. This will help direct conversation around strategy and ultimately achieve the best results. 

Acknowledging your motivators for a rebrand is key. There can be a myriad of reasons why your school branding strategies might need revamping, such as:

Dated school branding

Like fashion, design trends are constantly changing. Fonts, colours and graphic styles evolve all the time, and being out-of-touch with current trends can leave your brand feeling sleepy and irrelevant. Regularly evaluating your school’s branding strategies can keep it feeling relevant and thriving.

Inconsistent school branding

Poor branding doesn’t just present an uninspiring image to your viewers, it can also cause countless issues for your marketing team. For example, clunky branding can mean a lot of time spent making it “look right”. Ensuing your school’s branding is designed for easy application across a range of media, saving time and also ensuring consistency. 

A substantial change in direction

If your school is taking a significant change in direction, a carefully timed rebranding campaign can result in considerable gains. If carried out successfully, a revamp in your school’s branding strategy can boost your school community.

New leadership

New leadership often brings an eagerness to establish a new brand. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as it would be a good signifier of change happening within the school. The rebranding process can help a school enhance its vision and core values, and give the new leader a strong platform to rally the school community around a clear vision. 

Lack of distinction between academics and athletics

Establishing a distinction between your school’s academic branding and athletic branding is key. Your academic branding should communicate a level of sophistication and expertise to reassure parents that you know what you are doing and your child will receive the highest quality of education. Your athletic branding should be aligned with your academic branding, but can enjoy some creative freedom. Sports should be a fun activity for students, and your branding can help achieve that.

When going ahead with your school’s rebranding, there are a number of elements to consider, such as:

How your school’s branding can inspire prospective students

When looking at options for schools, parents will have a consumer mentality and be drawn to something that “looks good”. Clear, concise, professional branding will give prospective students and parents the right impression of your school and entice them to find out more.

Rebranding doesn’t have to mean a complete overhaul

Rebranding doesn’t have to mean spending loads of money on all new marketing materials. Lots of content can be repurposed within the revamping of your school’s branding strategies. For example, your promotional video can be used across social media and used on your website. You could also incorporate it as part of a virtual tour. 

Ensure branding is consistent across all marketing channels

There’s that classic phrase, “consistency is key”. Ensuring your branding is cohesive across all channels conveys a sense of professionalism, and shows that you have your brand identity established. Your message conveyed through your school’s branding strategies should be clear, and consistent. 

Do your research and find out what is ‘in’ these days

As we have established, rebranding is not a quick job. It takes time, money and a lot of work! You want your revamped school branding to last as long as possible. Ensuring you are up-to-date on the latest trends will mean your branding will stay relevant for a longer period of time. 

If you are looking to revamp your school’s branding strategies, Cleverbox can help. Whether you are looking to give your school website a spruce up, create a new prospectus with an all new logo and school branding or even create a mobile app for your school, Cleverbox are the UK’s leading school and branding company and ready to help. 

For more information and to see how we can help, get in touch with the Cleverbox team today!