“When customers or
employees look at your website, logo, pamphlet or store front, what do they
see? Every aspect of your company says something about who you are and what you
have to offer.”
He goes
on to make this point:
“Without a good
branding strategy, companies are not going to be able to express their nature
to their customer base...Good branding focuses on “why” a company does what it
does.”
This has been on my mind lately as we are about to conclude a
two-year process that has examined every aspect of the School’s interaction
with the public – from the look of our stationery to signage and, especially,
messaging. As readers of this column know, I regularly point out that Pasadena
and its nearest suburbs are home to the largest concentration of private
schools per capita anywhere in the
nation. At the secondary level, La Salle competes with ten private and/or
Catholic high schools within a twenty-mile radius. Each is distinctive in its
own right – leading me to tell parents that no teenager should be unhappy at
the end of a school day – there are plenty of options to match adolescent
interests. That having been said, with such a large concentration of private high
schools within shouting distance of each other, it can be difficult to be heard
above the noise when one is attempting to articulate a distinctive and
compelling message. As we entered our 60th year, we knew that it was
time to look at the School’s marvelous story and to ensure that a clear,
compelling articulation of the “La Salle Difference” would stand out in a
crowded marketplace over the course of the next forty years.
We know what the
central elements of the “La Salle Difference” are:
Catholic * College
Preparatory * Co-educational * Diverse
And we recognize that the combination of these four elements
distinguishes La Salle from every one of our competitors in the greater
Pasadena area. Now, we believe it is time to “shout from the rooftops” and celebrate
the benefits of the “La Salle Difference.”
Thanks to the good
offices of alum, Joe Olender, we were able to enter into a consulting
arrangement with Innovation Protocol,
a brand management firm who has served clients such as: eBay, the University of Notre Dame,USC and Homeboy Industries.
Even the most casual of observers would recognize these entities
and the values they stand for. We wanted to make sure that, in the Los Angeles
Basin, La Salle would enjoy an equally powerful name recognition. But first, we
had to return to the basics: we needed to make sure that we could clearly
articulate who we are, what we do and why we matter. After 60 years of touching
the hearts and minds of the students entrusted to our care, it was easier than
we realized:
La Salle College
Preparatory is where young adults discover their path to excellence in high
school and beyond.
We also understood that this path to excellence is rooted in the
nearly 400-year-old educational path launched by our Founder, Saint John
Baptist de La Salle which has led us to unapologetically advocate for a
Catholic, co-educational and diverse student community. And because we
recognized that these essential elements of our educational mission define the
“La Salle Difference,” we knew that we could position the School in such a way
as to ensure that those who may be unfamiliar with our approach to college
preparation would encounter informational materials that are fresh, easy to
understand and bold in their assertion of who we are and why we matter.
Chief among those
elements is a fresh take on the School’s 60-year-old crest. We wanted to make
sure that its elements would be familiar to our more than 14,000 alumni while,
at the same time, communicating to future alumni that La Salle is embracing the
educational challenges of the 21st century. To that end, we knew
that its main elements needed to be fresh and easy to identify, while at the
same time, echoing a 400-year-old educational enterprise:
Honoring our centuries-old tradition of educational innovation
can be found in the lower left quadrant, where the broken chevrons (taken from
the De La Salle family crest) reference the Saint’s regal family history in
support of the French monarchy. In the upper right quadrant are five stars. The
star has been a symbol of the Christian Brothers’ commitment to passing on the
faith for almost 400 years. It can be found on the earliest representations of
the Brothers’ printed materials, all the way to the present day (check out the
Christian Brothers’ international website: http://www.lasalle.org/en/). That there are five stars, not only reinforces the Lasallian
priority to pass on the faith to future generations, but also highlights the
five core principles of all Lasallian schools:
· Faith in the presence of God
·
Quality education
·
Respect for all persons
·
Concern for the poor and
social justice
· Inclusive community
Lastly, the forward-slanting lines in the upper left and lower
right quadrants not only echo the historic broken chevrons, but also “lean in”
to the future (going forward). And, while the fact that the angle of the
slanting lines is 560 - a nod to the year the School was founded - is,
admittedly, a bit “wonky,” it does give this unapologetic salesman the ability
to talk about the marvelous 60-year history of La Salle.
And, of course, the red cross that creates the four quadrants
acknowledges our unshakeable commitment to the power of Catholic education.
As the new school
year gets under way, you’ll be hearing more from me on this exciting initiative.
In the meantime, Guy Parker’s message is worth another shout out:
“Branding is
important for every company to set itself apart from the competition and define
its mission for both customers and employees. Branding includes images,
content, marketing, logos, website and other materials that might be used to
define a brand in the eyes and minds of its target audiences.”
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