The Not Forgotten Association is a charity that provides holidays, leisure and fun activities for ex-service people who have been disabled. We have worked with them over the past couple of years to improve their visual image and the quality of their communications. A new website has been part of that. All built in WordPress for easy updating and management and seamless integration with their Flickr photo albums.
Branding is a much misunderstood and misused term.
Brands are built. They are not designed.
A logo is not a brand. Nor is a visual identity.
Brands are emotional. They are experienced and owned by the participants – children, parents, staff, leadership, governors, the local community.
In the context of an educational establishment, what is a brand?
We talk about two aspects.
Brand promise and brand experience.
People who know the school will value the brand through the educational experience, the staff, the buildings, the facilities. This is brand experience. The logo or visual identity have very little influence. Instead they serve as a reminder for what the person feels about the brand.
Those who have no first-hand knowledge of the school build their perceptions upon intangibles. They talk to people who know the school or, more dangerously, think they do. They will make judgements based on what the school has to say about itself and how it presents itself. Pupils or parents they may know. The look and feel of the place. What the local press say about it. League tables. This is brand promise. Here the visual identity can play a more important role in shaping the perception of the brand. But not on its own.
When brands are evolving, the visual identity is very important in signalling change to those who already know the brand. It won’t change brand perceptions on its own but it can play an important role in making people take stock and reconsider their views.
How do you encourage more referees to get involved in football? That is a question we tackled when producing this ad for the Berks & Bucks FA. With no budget we shot our own photography and wrote the copy for this punchy ad that has had great response from the magazines and programmes that have run it.
