The client provides homeschooling curriculum, support service and education tools to individuals, families and groups from pre-kindergarten through grade 8. Currently, the home instruction division has an enrollment of approximately 20,000.
The client wanted to create a brand strategy to guide important decisions in marketing, product development, business development and portfolio branding.
Kannon utilized its Brand Academy approach to the project. The Kannon Brand Academy is based upon methodologies outlined in David Aaker’s book Brand Portfolio Strategy and Mike Moser’s United We Brand. The Kannon Brand Academy culminates in a Brand Road Map which documents the consistent and cohesive identity of the company’s brand in a practical, day-to-day guide.
A Branding Team was assembled, including senior Kannon consultants, an outside industry specialist, and core client professionals, which met regularly over five months to develop the company’s brand strategy. The Branding Team identified the four major components of its brand: The Core Brand Values that uniquely define the essence of the company; the Core Brand Message, which reflects the reality of the brand and why it exists; the Brand Personality, which is an accurate representation of the company, and sets the tone and attitude of all communications; and the Brand Icon, something that is unique to the brand and invokes a strong image in the customer’s mind.
The Branding Team also refined and strengthened the company’s Brand Architecture. Brand Architecture provides linkages across a team of brands working together, to create synergy, clarity and leveraging opportunities. Refining the company’s Brand Architecture allowed the client to articulate its existing products and services more fluently and to identify new product opportunities. It also helped bring discipline to the existing business and to differentiate the client in the marketplace.
Through the Kannon Brand Academy initiative, the client defined its core brand, created two new brands, and distinguished the company’s positioning when offering its products and services through the school system.
“Through Kannon’s Brand Academy,” the company’s President commented, “we learned that re-packaging different curriculum under a common brand helped customers translate their positive experiences with one subject into the purchase of another subject under the same brand. Another benefit of Kannon’s approach is that the cross-functional team worked together toward a common goal, building consensus along the way regarding how various products should be branded.”