Creating a Brand

I believe every student has great learning potential, and it my job to foster that potential using every skill and talent I have. In order to promote that believe I have to make a brand and this brand has reach the stakeholders. First, stakeholders want to know the academic success rate of the school. This can be seen through student achievement on standardized test scores, second, a highly qualified teaching staff and administration is going to improve the intrinsic and motivational factors of the students and create word of mouth traffic within our community and district (Sheninger & Zhao, 2014). A great brand has to offer something unique, and in our case, that is a unique blend of course offerings, technology integration and innovative instructional practices. Our stakeholders want to foster the talents and gifts of their students and give them a lot of opportunities to try new things. Our brand will include the offering of extracurricular activities, such as sports, art, dance, robotics and advanced technology training. Other natural ways of branding include a logo and a mascot for visibility, however, according to Chiu, Hsieh & Kuo (2012) a great brand brings together interconnected relationships and creates emotional connections from within. This can be done by sharing student success stories that are categorized on a social media platform such as facebook for current and future and alumni stakeholders to access.

Branding anything of value calls for sacrificial efforts. Just as we believe that Jesus sacrificed himself for us, we must also be willing to make a sacrifice to the students by offering scholarship and grants to further their academic careers (Rennstam, 2013). We don’t just make sacrifices to the strong, we make sacrifices to the students who are making progress from hard work and dedication.

Communication is the key to any success, and the brand must communicate to our stakeholders exactly who we are, both morally and ethically. We believe we cannot be someone we are not, thus, our published brand must be met with authenticity. This means, we pour out our time, energy and money to pave the way for student success, not the growth and reputation of the school. Students will brand the school if they are motivated, encouraged, and challenged.

References:

Chiu, H., Hsieh, Y., & Kuo, Y. (2012). How to Align your Brand Stories with Your Products. Journal of Retailing, 88(2), 262-275. doi:10.1016/j.jretai.2012.02.001

Rennstam, J. (2013). Branding in the sacrificial mode – A study of the consumptive side of brand value production. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 29(2), 123-134. doi:10.1016/j.scaman.2013.03.002

Sheninger, E., & Zhao, Y. (2014). Digital leadership: changing paradigms for changing times. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, A SAGE Company.