BrandED aims for education branding, succeeds a little bit

Education is sales. In an ideal situation, if they have children, people move to a new residence because of the school’s reputation. Better schools retain their teachers, have higher achieving students and are a more integral part of the community. BrandED is the story of schools and how they can create their own brand. The book centers on eight chapters that break down situations and results that can provide educators with insight about the benefits of controlling, rather than reacting.

BrandED also incorporates many business examples to illustrate the success of the businesses that are thinking outside of the box. One such case is Taco Bell, who has hammered home their marketing efforts and embraced technology to where they one of the go-to fast food restaurants for Generation Z. It also acknowledges that there is a difference between branding for schools and branding for business.

I will give this to BrandED, it walks the walk. You’ll see that phrase on almost every page so much so that you’ll start to think of it as a process, rather than just the title to a book. And perhaps that’s the point, those in education who may not think about branding, PR or their school as a sales tool, might need to think of it as a ‘process’. Schools that are not doing it will need to evaluate their situations.

Do a SWOT analysis; proactively reach out to the local and regional businesses that are a good fit or other things that would benefit the students of school. BrandED has many good ideas for schools that are not doing these things.

Having said that, the book would have benefited from more examples of schools that actually used social media, corporate outreach or other real world situations that schools could relate to. There are a couple, but for a book entitled BrandED I expected more stories about school improving aspects of their facility, test scores or teacher retention.

For educators that don’t have much PR or brand experience they will learn lots from BrandED. Otherwise, if they’ve had more than a couple meetings with a PR parent who has a child in the school it’ll be redundant.

It appears that the schools used in the book are public schools, which are that needs the most help when it comes to being BrandED. People know the Ron Clark Academy. They do a fabulous job of storytelling, reap incredible students and have a line of applicants that far outpace the number of students that can attend. That school is also outside of the public school governance.

Is it because they’re not in the public school system that they excel or simply something that they are doing there? That is the secret sauce that I wanted BrandED to be, but it’s not that book. Instead it’s a branding book with education elements sprinkled on top.