PORTFOLIO
Newhaven College
Newhaven College is a private primary and secondary school set on 80-acres on Phillip Island, Victoria.
The school hadn’t invested in its brand for a long time. Messaging was ad hoc and confusing. The opening of a competitor school locally added pressure on the school to lift its game.
The Challenge
The school’s leaders recognised what needed to be done and began trying to do the branding work inhouse, but they struggled to zero in on their point of difference.
Steph Thornborrow, Marketing & Communications Manager, Newhaven College explains:
“We were struggling to identify and articulate our point of difference. There’s so much we could say about ourselves, but we didn’t know what messages would align with our target audience’s aspirations.”
So Steph looked for proposals and they chose to work with me, because they felt they would get a more personalised approach than with an agency.
One limitation was that the staff and parents already have a relationship with the school and had an emotional attachment to the old school song, motto and logo. So we had to evolve the messaging while keeping some key elements in place.
The Results
The process helped the school create a fresh modern brand identity with a clear brand voice. The marketing lead had a clear sense of their position in the market.
“We were able to articulate our point of difference and gained a series of invaluable tools we didn’t have before. The process was smooth, we hit all the milestones, and Sara was clear about the deliverables.”
At the end of the process, I introduced the school to a trusted brand designer Nicole Goodman of Brand Books, who worked with the client to revitalise its visual brand.
Having struggled to articulate their brand before this process, they were now able to brief the brand designer. Steph explains, “The messaging we created made it easy to brief a brand designer and rebrand our business to reflect our worth in a more competitive market.”
The school is rolling out a fresh contemporary voice and look and feel to match the modern outdoorsy campus location. A new website for Newhaven College is in the planning stages.
Story Harvest Breakdown
We conducted desktop research, interviews with parents and pupils, staff and leadership workshops to devise a strategic story and define the brand voice.
- Verbal Brand Strategy
- Tagline
- Key Messages
- Tone of Voice and Writing Style Guide
- A rubric for measuring brand voice
- Training for staff on how to write in the brand voice
If you’re lacking clarity about who you are and what you stand for, or wondering what mountain to claim as your own, Sara will give you clarity, articulate your difference, and simplify your message.
Steph Thornborrow, Marketing and Communications Manager, Newhaven College
