Easy as 1, 2, 3: Lessons on branding from a primary school

My eye twitches as another letter drops into my inbox, written in Comic Sans. I sigh as I pull another flyer out of a school bag, with a riot of clip art littering the space. I launder a weekly pile of small-person-sized polo and sweatshirts featuring badly drawn stick children plonked atop block capitals, spelling out the name of my children’s primary school.?

Primary school. Not exactly the place you’d go looking for a lesson in branding, right? Wrong. While Ofsted would absolutely stamp ‘inadequate’ all over their application of a visual identity, when it comes to lessons on brand positioning, our little village school would score ‘outstanding’.

So, bums on (inexplicably tiny) seats, pencils at the ready, eyes on the board. Here’s how a small village school has nailed its brand pillars:

1. They know why they exist, and it’s not about the curriculum.

Teaching the curriculum is what our school does, but their why is something else entirely. The whole staff body knows that they exist to raise class after class of children who feel supported and safe, because that’s the environment where children can take on challenges, succeed, fail and learn. The end result is an annual cohort of 11-year olds, who are confident and ready for secondary school. In brand terms, they’ve identified their purpose.

2. They know how to achieve it: Believing. Achieving. Succeeding.?

Three small words that tell a whole story about the school. In brand speak, this is their proposition. This school has succinctly articulated what they promise to deliver and definitely deserve a ‘Star of the Week’ certificate for it. They’ve underlined their purpose by leading with ‘believing’ - the core value at the heart of their brand. There’s a duality of meaning in that children need to be believed in and develop their own self belief too. Achievement and success follow this and don’t precede it.

3. They’ve articulated their identity so it can be easily adopted by others.

Like many good brands, the school has a list of values. Like many lists of values, it is way too long and relatively uninspiring as a result. However, this brand personality is woven into school life through the ‘Six ways to shine’, a framework for recognising pupils’ achievements. Children are awarded virtual stickers centred on these six behaviours/attitudes, and weekly ‘star’ certificates have them articulated in the teachers’ note of encouragement. Their brand personality is tangible, relevant, easy to replicate and alive as a result. This internal brand work is a weak spot in many organisations, where brand is incorrectly seen as ‘something done by comms and marketing’, and ‘internal branding’ = values pasted on office walls. How does your organisation measure up on this aspect?

And on that note, there goes the bell - school’s out for summer.?