Brand Development, Strategies

Brand Development

Brand Strategies

As the Internet continues to be integrated into all facets of everyday life, it is increasingly important for business to differentiate themselves through brand strategies that exhibit clear messages and provide fulfilling user experiences. Today, a prospective customer's first exposure to your business might well come through an e-mail or web site. Worse, your competitor might be ahead of you. This medium is hectic, random and not easily controlled. A viewer's perception of an organization's identity is formed while perusing the initial pages of a web site.

In a world where first impressions are paramount, it is paramount to
have a quality web site.

As stated by brand guru Rob Frankel branding is not about getting your prospects to choose you over your competition; it's about getting your prospects to see you as the only solution to their problem.

In brand development, the web matters. Even if your customers don't
use the web to discover your enterprise, it is very likely they will
use the web to vailidate you. In today's web-centered culture, a
quality web site helps establish a perception of quality, service and
solid brand. The better your web site, the more success you will have
in running your enterprise.

Strategic Brand Assessment

The purpose of strategic brand assessment is to examine an institution in the contexts of its principal constituents and its actual and aspirational peer cohorts in order to identify its existing strengths and to discover possible new strategic directions. This Strategic Brand Assessment service is managed by Yardley Research Group in partnership with EDU Internet Strategies and Howard Design Group.

approach to strategic brand assessment (brand development) is very
different from that practiced by other companies in the field. Our
focus is on strategic and academic behaviors and attributes that
contribute to the development of a particular image of the University
rather than on graphics and media buying. (We would be much more
likely, for example, to recommend that an institution develop a
research strength in molecular genetics or offer a new graduate
program in Acute Care Nursing than we would be to recommend the
complete redesign of admission materials.)

The Strategic Brand Assessment Process:

Yardley Group staff visit campus for approximately one week for the
initial Strategic Brand Assessment. At that time, we conduct
interviews with University officers, deans, Enrollment Management and
Admissions, University Advancement, University Relations, senior
faculty, faculty hired within the previous three years, students (new
freshmen and transfers, upperclassmen, master's students, and doctoral
students), and selected staff from various student services functions.
Separately, we conduct phone interviews with selected alumni (new,
five-years-out and twenty-five-years out), key employers of the
University's graduates, and parents of current new undergraduates and
transfers.

In the context developed by these interviews, we conduct assessments
of the University's top-level web sites (one click down from the home
page) and official printed materials from Admissions, Advancement,
University Relations, and Financial Aid. We also compare key strategic
indicators among the University and a defined institutional cohort.
Finally, we interview selected officers and deans at peer institutions
to learn their perceptions of the client institution.

Strategic Brand Assessment Results

The resulting strategic brand assessment report assesses the client
institution's brand identity (strategic imaging) among its key
constituents - faculty, staff, and administrators; current and
prospective students and their parents; alumni; employers, and other
institutions. In addition to suggesting specific actions for further
strategic brand development, the report addresses: how strategic brand
assessment (brand identity) is conveyed in official publications and
web sites; how institutional image compares with the images of peer
institutions; and how key members of the University community are
aligned around institutional strategies. The report also provides a
set of strategic recommendations on image and how to build it and
makes specific recommendations for the creation of materials and
sites. The final section of the report gives detailed suggestions
related to the distribution of materials to particular audiences.

Work is performed by a team of strategic brand assessment experts,
including the principals and design experts from Howard Design and
EDU's Internet Strategies Group.