Brand Strategy — The Foundation for Success
Step 1 of our 3-Phased Brand Development Process
We can meet you anywhere along the way.
Looking to rebrand your organization or strengthen your school’s brand marketing? Taking a strategic approach is the best way to start. As we guide you through our brand discovery process, you gain clarity on your target audience, your positioning in relation to your competitors and develop a plan for Creative Implementation.
Our Brand Discovery Process
Student & Stakeholder Insights
One-on-one discussions with senior leadership, employees, clients and other key stakeholders i.e. board members, to uncover what differentiates your organization in the eyes of your target audience – and motivates students to enroll and donors to invest in you over their other options.
Hook ‘em with Heart
Getting connected to your why puts emotion into the buying process. Simon Sinek made finding your why famous in his “Start with Why” Ted Talk where he said, “People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.” During this phase, we identify your beliefs and what you stand for which becomes the heart of your brand story and allows for emotional connection with your audience.
Brand Articulation Workshops
With 12-25 stakeholder participants, this half-day, brainstorming workshop features fun, interactive exercises with individual and team participation on topics including your school’s ideal prospective student, competitors, current audience perceptions, brand challenges/successes/failures, and aspirations for the new brand. During this collaborative discovery session, we’ll:
- Uncover unique brand insights (feedback, input and opinions)
- Identify key audience personas and perspectives to guide brand messaging
- Create internal buy-in and boost excitement around the school’s new brand messaging
- Generate an abundance of ideas and leverage the power and perspectives of the group participants
Strategic Brand Messaging Blueprint
Your brand discovery culminates in a foundational messaging document which presents your school’s unique brand narrative with special emphasis on its key points of distinction. This messaging blueprint serves as a guide to inform all projects that km design develops for your school going forward as well as being an insightful resource for future marketing, recruitment and development campaigns.
The foundational blueprint includes:
- Your school’s unique brand story
- Key messaging that clearly communicate your institution’s value
- Brand personality (positioning, promise, persona)
- Talking points to help you, your internal marketing/development teams and the school as a whole tell a consistent story
- Situational Talking Points
- Polished Elevator Pitch
For a more comprehensive blueprint, we also offer:
- Audience/client profiles and accompanying brand messaging strategies
- Sharing your new brand story internally by:
- Integration of brand strategy into your company’s brand guidelines
- Creating brand launch presentations to educate employees and stakeholders
- Detailed marketing communications plan, so you can begin communicating more effectively right away.
We can move your Brand Strategy into Creative Implementation
For clients who need help putting the strategic messaging into action, we offer brand identity development (including logo and brand guidelines design) and turnkey creative Implementation (including concepting, copywriting and design) for targeted student recruitment campaigns, alumni engagement and appeal campaigns, view books, websites, admission/enrollment materials and school or alumni magazines.
Crafting Carolina Day School’s New Brand Story
In 2020, facing the challenge of pandemic-altered learning and marketing, Carolina Day School approached us to help strengthen their brand messaging to better position the independent school in the Asheville, NC market.
After taking them through our brand discovery process and creating their strategic brand messaging blueprint, we wove their new brand story, mission statement and tagline — “Encourage. Empower. Educate.” — through a new ad campaign and viewbook, emphasizing Carolina Day’s commitment to lifelong learning.
More About Carolina Day School’s New Brand Story, Viewbook »
More About Carolina Day School’s New Brand Messaging and Ad Campaign »
Where do I start!? I could genuinely write a book on how essential it has been to have km design working on our projects. We have been using their services since 2020 to help refresh our advertising, strengthen our branding and tagline, develop an incredible view book that tells our school story, and complete some important work to refine the language in our mission statement. They offer innovative ideas and creative custom solutions while never losing sight of our school’s mission and core beliefs. Along with the guidance they provide from start to finish, their response time and their flexibility (yes, these pandemic years have required a lot of flexibility) have provided us with peace of mind in knowing we have a team dedicated to taking care of our needs. Without hesitation, we would recommend km design many times over!
