The most challenging part of many brand development programmes isn’t necessarily testing the ‘little grey cells’ during the creative process, but more often than not, it’s ensuring everyone is brought along on the journey and genuinely embraces the new brand.
Not only is it about bringing everyone along on the journey, it’s also making sure everyone is on the same ‘brand wagon’ going in the same direction. If you don’t bring unity, you’re doomed! Rebranding programmes are necessary for a number of reasons: it could be a broadening portfolio, a new line of business, the brand has lost its relevancy or needs to appeal to new audiences, legal issues, negative publicity, or due to a merger or acquisition. It was the merger of two colleges, Yale and Deeside, which was the catalyst for the creation of Coleg Cambria and our involvement in a new and exciting brand development programme. It’s what we love and what we’re good at, plus we have the perfect brand process to deliver.
Getting started
The Welsh name for ‘college’ and the Latin name for ‘Wales’ combined to give us a great start to the brand programme, with the name Coleg Cambria. Working closely with ‘CC’ team, we gained a great understanding of both colleges, their business strategy, their business goals, objectives and ambitions, as well as their audiences and offer – giving a great foundation for developing a strong brand. Coleg Cambria is a great place for education, apprenticeships and training, for learners of all ages.
Getting creative
Once we had a clear view of the world, the creative fun could ensue. Our approach was as collaborative as the new college itself, drawing upon contributions from all quarters of our team, developing some fantastic themes and territories for us to explore. As there’s always more then one way to crack the proverbial ‘nut’, we developed a number of creative solutions to demonstrate how the mark could look and how the implementation could push boundaries and engage on all levels and on all mediums.
Getting involved
The fundamental purpose of the new brand was to bring unity and inclusion, with something for everyone. Therefore, it was appropriate we embarked on a detailed and thorough consultation process in partnership with our good friends and associates Stratia. We visited Deeside, Yale and Llysfasi sites, we talked to students, Governors, teachers, staff and business partners, we got their views on our shortlisted creative work, as well as their opinions on what the college meant to them, what it stands for and what makes it unique.
Getting the right result
The result was a trademarked brand identity that truly reflects the new and unified college, as well as providing the team with great feedback for them to implement and embed their new brand in all areas of the business, inside and out.
Getting a little bit extra
As Coleg Cambria had their own internal resources, unfortunately we weren’t involved in the development of brand guidelines, roll out and implementation. However, we wanted to demonstrate how well it could work, so we we had a little fun ourselves to show how we could make the brand come to life.
