Four months after the rollout of the brand campaign, which consisted of the words “compelling,” “considerate,” and “uncompromising,” the second stage is set to begin: utilizing the brand protocols.
The protocols, said President Richard O’Hara, “are guidelines to live the brand.” The second half of the brand rollout “relates to learning how we are all expected to live out the brand every day.”
The reason the protocols are so essential is because “if you just have a brand and nobody cares about it or follows it, it’s just kind of worthless,” O’Hara said.
Crucial aspects of the protocol are those that deal with living the brand. O’Hara describes them as “the brand in terms of relationships within the school and the codes that we believe in and we’ve committed to practicing. It’s how do we live the brand.” However, they have the potential to “overlap with the handbook about how people are supposed to treat each other.”
A document shared with employees entitled “Protocols for Brand Adherence” includes guidelines on how to communicate with parents, constituents, the media, and colleagues.
Instructions on how to handle co-curricular activity concerns, positive and negative news, rumors, and relationships with students are also included in the guide.
One communication guideline states that teachers should respond to a parent’s attempt for communication within 24 hours.
In addition, a “Style Guide” was created to create uniformity in the appearance of school documents.
A simple example of a common misuse, said O’Hara, is “How often do you see us referred to as John Carroll School, [when] we’re The John Carroll School.”
12 point Garamond font is to be used in the text of official JC communications, although the font closest to the tagline front is Segoe. Guidelines were established for email signatures, business cards, usage of the Patriot logo, school colors, and letter styles.
O’Hara expressed interest in hearing from students about creative ways to launch the second phase of the brand rollout.
“[The administration] has kicked around a few ideas. One was encouraging students to participate in a contest to help write sections of next year’s admissions materials, from the students’ perspective, with a focus on ‘this is our brand and this is what we stand for,’” said O’Hara.
He added, “It is a very powerful contribution students could make and in thinking about it, anyone who would like to participate would learn a lot about the brand and possibly find out ways to share it around school.”
Another idea was “maybe changing some of the words around the [senior] awards [to relate to brand],” said O’Hara. “It’s very important when we give the awards because they are statements of what we value.”
However, the rollout “is continual. This year was the launch, but the brand remains in flight,” O’Hara said.
“The rollout of the brand never stops because you’re always having new families come in, new teachers coming in, new employees. I was meeting yesterday with two prospective trustees and part of the conversation was about our brand, and that is a form of roll out,” said O’Hara.
The hope is that “we have this brand for a while,” according to O’Hara. “The brand message is the public expression of mission statement. As long as mission statement remains what it is, I think the brand is a very appropriate and strong public expression of what the mission of the school is.”
To allow for this, the Board of Trustees’ marketing committee and the administration will check up on how the brand is being understood and executed throughout the community, asking questions like, “Does our brand distinction have value for our current and prospective families?” according to the “Protocols for Brand Adherence.”
Kate Froehlich can be reached for comment at [email protected].