Establishing A Successful Education Brand

“There are schools who do not focus on branding and yet they are the most reputed schools across India,” said Nirvaan Birla, Founder and MD, Birla Open Minds Education and Birla Brainiacs, while addressing a session on 'Is There a Blueprint to Create a Successful Education Brand' at BW Education Leadership Summit 2023.

The discussion between dignitaries at the event waved through interesting opinions on whether or not an education institution needs branding. Some of the commonalities in the views of panellists stemmed on the principle of trust, institutional values, constructive alignment of strategies, adapting to change, skilled training of teachers and creating a resourceful environment for all students. 

The moderator of the session, Dr Manjula Pooja Shroff, MD & CEO, Kalorex Group inaugurated the discussion by pointing that branding in an education sector is an oxymoron because education is treated like a social responsibility and brand comes with commercialism. The term brand in the education sector is itself contradictory, but a good strategy to take a leap forward to reach the next level. 

“Trust is an important factor in building an educational brand. Every business, every organisation needs to reinvent themselves and needs to adapt to changing times,” stated Roshan Gandhi, Strategy Adviser & Ex-CEO of City Montessori School, Lucknow.

He added, "Some of the established brands faced a setback while resisting change like Kodak in digital photography and Nokia in smartphones. In education, we don’t have to change our core brands. We adapt to new technologies, social activities, respond to the changing needs but the core brand remains the same. This is where brand-building comes in."

Dr Vijay Datta, Principal of Modern School Barakhamba, New Delhi stressed on critical thinking, communication and problem-solving skills for students. He underlined that successful brand needs to make sure that the environment is stress-free. 

Panellists not only emphasised on the virtues which an education institution must possess, but also on the salaries of teachers, proper infrastructure of the campus, along with trained and dedicated faculty.

Reekrit Serai, Managing Director of Satluj Group of Schools, North India added to the discussion by saying that the educational institutions want to be perceived as a legacy and not just a brand. “We have to be really discreet about considering ourselves a brand despite the fact that the platforms are the same. There's a lot of ambiguity in terms of the relevance and also the structure of education in India,” he said. 

The topic of entrepreneurship and microfocus was also brought up by Mukesh Sharma the Chairman and Director of Prometheus School while discussing the unique abilities of every student. 

Teacher training has an important role in the education sector, shares Birla. Skill development, financial literacy, blogging, soul science to counter stress management and develop leadership abilities are also a part of our multiple intelligence curriculum.

The experts briefed that if you get the basic elements right such as principles, ethics, trained staff, resources, upgraded study material, then marketing is just an add-on post the activities, literacy workshops and word-of-mouth.