Schools and Branding

At Dahle Communications, Travis examines the Disney's magical branding skills.  Today, we had scores of students miss class to attend a music contest, so I had a bit of down time.  I asked my seniors what school could have done differently, and I asked a class of juniors what could be done to make them give a damn.  I some of the expected answers, fewer worksheets and the ever popular "make it fun," but for the most part, I got serious answers.

Reflecting on those answers, it seems that schools are taking the wrong lesson from Disney.  We spend hours trying to be relevant or entertaining.  There's no way we can match Disney, Universal, or HBO, and there's no way that schools can match the urgency of full time job, especially for a 15 or 16 year old,

Rather than focusing on entertainment schools need to protect their brand.  The sense of purpose needs to be clear.  Students don't know how classes tie together or what the school's mission is or should be.  Students probably reflect their parents in that regard, but schools bear the blame for not taking care of their brand and taking care of their primary function.  In fact they don't even clearly enunciate what that function is.

Right now, schools seem to be places that have hollow cavities where their souls should be rather than places that are far more magical than Disney's Kingdom.  Maybe they need to learn from Disney and steal the magic back.  Concentrating on developing and maintaining a big picture brand might be a good first step.