“They’re all pretty boring.”
“Some people feel like this old style is very basic.”
“If there’s someone from a different background, they just can’t go there”
These are all real quotes, by real high-achieving, high tariff students. And they are describing a collection of Russell Group brands.
You can hear the full quotes and more like them in the video below – but if these quotes are correct, if today’s students are struggling to tell the difference between university brands, let alone get excited by them, then why do Universities keep drawing from the same well.
The aftershocks of Brexit, increased fees, an ongoing cost of living crisis, raised expectations, changed technology and the long tail of COVID – the higher education sector is undergoing revolution after revolution.
Rather than encourage diversity, this revolution, and the accompanying risks it brings, has led to an influx of bland ‘me too’ brands following well-trodden paths with well-used messages.
Through our deep experience with the sector, and the in-depth research each project brings, we can see how university identities are increasingly drifting towards the common themes of crests, change and premium. To address this, most of the Russell Group play on heritage as a shortcut to prestige.
This makes it harder to create the kind of inspirational stand-out that attracts students and helps to recruit and retain staff. During testing for one recent University rebrand, we found that brands across the sector were generating a propensity to apply among just 8% of their potential audience. Heritage alone isn’t enough.
If universities are to avoid drifting into the same centre ground and inject the sense of relative differentiation so urgently needed, then a new paradigm shift is required.
During research into the student decision-making process for another project, we were surprised when prestige, heritage, history and exclusivity didn’t get mentioned once. Instead, the drivers of decisions were much more tangible and much more fixed, such as finance, rankings, distance and course content.
Beyond those criteria it was the kind of support students receive, the type of experience they’ll have and the strength of the community they will join, that were factors referenced by the students as making a difference to their decision making. These are all factors where brand can play a key part in shaping perception.
Universities need to explore beyond their comfort zone, they need to look for the sense of authenticity, inclusion, community, quality and excitement that truly connects with today’s students.
By tapping into the key factors that generate the pride and passion within their internal stakeholders, they can influence the opinions and perceptions of their external audience.
By working harder to connect with the real needs and wants of their students and their community Universities can move from brand bland to brand love. Creating the deep, passionate relationships that will see them through this crisis and the inevitable next.
