Branding
A brand is much more than a name, logo, colors, a tagline, or symbol... A brand is essentially a marketer's promise to deliver a specific set of features, benefits, and services consistently to the buyers.
Philip Kotler (2003)
What is Branding?
Branding helps an organisation differentiate itself to target markets. It helps define an organisation in the mind of its customer. A brand is a promise to deliver a certain set of benefits, both rational and emotional. Rational benefits conveyed through Durham University's brand include reputation, academic excellence, research status, links with industry, and employment record. Emotional benefits include location, quality of life, personality, culture, and empathy.
Branding affects every point of contact with our stakeholders - text and image, printed and online communications, media reports, word of mouth, etc. The way we interact with our audiences and the extent to which we deliver on our promises says a lot about who we are and what we stand for.
Benefits of strong brand management
Strong brand management has a number of university-wide benefits:
- Agreed set of core messages relevant to each of the University's audiences
- Established set of brand guidelines
- Reduced costs through co-ordinated activity
- Improved effectiveness of media relations through more targeted media stories
- Improved regional awareness and perceptions
- Ability to recruit best staff
- Greater loyalty from staff and alumni (hence greater fundraising opportunities).
It is important that the brand is applied consistently by units across the University. This ensures the co-ordinated and sustained growth of the University's identity and reputation. All design partners have full brand guidelines. The CMS has also been constructed in line with brand guidelines.