A few years ago my friends and I were all faced with the tough choice of what we wanted to study, and where we wanted to study it. I remember attending the 2008 UCAS convention in Belfast with my year group and spending the entire day looking through a series of prospectus' favouriting and eliminating universities based on their prospectus' alone...
Universities make it their intention to attract as many undergraduates/postgraduates as possible. They do this by producing a prospectus that not only informs you of the courses it has to offer, but emphasizes the benefits of the university in an attempt to compete with all the other universities, particularly throughout the UK.
In order to 'catch the eye' of those who are currently looking for a university education, universities need to know what to include on the front cover of their prospectus and what content they need to incorporate within their prospectus.
To determine how well the 'University of Dundee' is branded, I got together with a friend and carried out a brand audit.
We began by collecting a number of different university resources around the campus including the most recent undergraduate and postgraduate prospectus' and information on student services.
When looking through the resources together we noticed that the University of Dundee logo is present on each resource. The continuity of the logo brings all the information together. As the university campus is located within the city centre, the continuity of the logo throughout the campus also acts as a way of defining the periphery of the university.
When looking at the front cover of the prospectus in more detail, we came to the agreement that it could be better.
The image shows a group of students huddled together which undoubtedly illustrates a sense of community within the group. However it doesn't actually inform the student target audience of what the University of Dundee looks like, nor does it show what Dundee as a city looks like. First impressions are crucial - if a potential student who is unfamiliar with Dundee is not exposed to an image of the university or the city right from the start, their interest may be lost as they may struggle to visualize making a life for them self there.
I personally feel that the front cover of the 2010/2011 postgraduate prospectus had a more appropriate image on the front of it. It at least pin pointed a location.
Within this years prospectus there is a picture that is incredibly eye-catching. It's a pity that the image wasn't used as part of the front cover!
The picture is titled 'the perfect city for student life' and shows a spectacular view of Dundee from the law hill. An image like this has the capability to encourage those seeking a university education to find out more about Dundee and the University of Dundee to discover what it has to offer them.
Something that stood out for us about the brand image of the University was the variety of colour used within the information leaflets and the prospectus. The different colours visually represent everything the university has to offer. The bright colours are appealing and undoubtedly eye-catching.
The prospectus also mentions the V&A project that is planned to be completed in Dundee in 2013. Linking the university to the art and cultural prospects that Dundee will have to offer at this time acts as another incentive to apply to the university -particularly art and design students!
As a whole, we think the university is branded relatively well. It stands out from the crowd in terms of what it has to offer, which makes it one of the success stories of British higher education.
No comments:
Post a Comment