Branding Educational Services
Branding Educational Services through Innovation
Abstract
The privatization of educational services in our country have led to a mushrooming growth of educational institutions at primary, secondary and higher educational levels. There is thus a cut throat competition amongst various institutions lying around in the same vicinity. It is a strong endeavor on the part of these institutions to customize and differentiate their services. The processes of creatively and innovatively branding the intangibles have begun. The paper tries to identify the different factors which the institutions highlight upon to lure their future customers. It also attempts to throw light on prospects and utilities of branding these educational services.
1. Introduction
Competition among schools for the best students, faculty, staff and donors is fiercer than ever before. At the same time private funding continues to decrease while the market in many parts of the world for secondary students is shrinking. To address these issues, many schools have concentrated on external communications solutions like redesigning their logos, creating taglines and developing advertising campaigns. A growing number of schools are now realizing the need to build their identities through cultural change, like those in the corporate world. Like other industries before them, brand development in higher education derives from the creation of corporate identity standards. Following this strategy, schools integrated their marketing communications. Today, they are frantically trying to determine how best to compete in the noisy marketplace of higher education. They’re redesigning logos, coming up with catchy taglines and spending a fortune on advertising. German brand strategist Klaus Schmidt (2002) calls this “superficial tinkering.” Schmidt also encourages organizations like schools to think holistically by including the entire organization in the brand building process. Research shows that unless
Abstract
The privatization of educational services in our country have led to a mushrooming growth of educational institutions at primary, secondary and higher educational levels. There is thus a cut throat competition amongst various institutions lying around in the same vicinity. It is a strong endeavor on the part of these institutions to customize and differentiate their services. The processes of creatively and innovatively branding the intangibles have begun. The paper tries to identify the different factors which the institutions highlight upon to lure their future customers. It also attempts to throw light on prospects and utilities of branding these educational services.
1. Introduction
Competition among schools for the best students, faculty, staff and donors is fiercer than ever before. At the same time private funding continues to decrease while the market in many parts of the world for secondary students is shrinking. To address these issues, many schools have concentrated on external communications solutions like redesigning their logos, creating taglines and developing advertising campaigns. A growing number of schools are now realizing the need to build their identities through cultural change, like those in the corporate world. Like other industries before them, brand development in higher education derives from the creation of corporate identity standards. Following this strategy, schools integrated their marketing communications. Today, they are frantically trying to determine how best to compete in the noisy marketplace of higher education. They’re redesigning logos, coming up with catchy taglines and spending a fortune on advertising. German brand strategist Klaus Schmidt (2002) calls this “superficial tinkering.” Schmidt also encourages organizations like schools to think holistically by including the entire organization in the brand building process. Research shows that unless