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Establishing a brand identity for a business school is not about what its students, faculty, and staff can do, say branding experts. It's about how they think. "Your Brand Is Not 'Excellence'" For decades, business schools have banded together to explain the value of the business degree to the public. Now that the MBA and other business degrees are better understood, the drive to differentiate has come once again to the forefront. "Branding will become one of the most prominent drivers table and follow a basic 'we make it, you take it' psychology. They'll decide what their brand will be, then they'll go out into to the marketplace and figure out how to make everyone believe it. That simply doesn't work," says Westerbeck. What a school's culture and brand truly are can come as a of value across the increasing number of business schools in the next decade," says Martin Roll of VentureRepublic, a Singapore-based strategy consulting firm specializing in branding. "The branding strategy and program need to go far beyond the product portfolio and embrace the whole offering from the business school, including products, people, price/value, and place." Even so, when asked what makes their schools special, many deans will point to their "commitment to academic excellence," says Westerbeck. By touting excellence as their main distinguishing characteristic, many business schools have unintentionally mired themselves in a sea of sameness. "There has been a shocking degree of similarity across the surprise, even to those most closely involved with a school's inner workings. "I've done many focus groups to ask people what they thought of a business school. I can't think of a time when school administrators weren't shocked to hear what alumni and corporate leaders think of them," says Westerbeck. "Sometimes they're angry, sometimes they're pleased. Almost always, what people think is very different from what the administrators expected." While it may be nearly impossible to change perceptions board in the way business schools position and market them- selves. I do brand presentations for business schools and say, 'Your brand is not "excellence"—that brand is already taken,'" says Westerbeck. "Nor is it 'global education,' nor is it 'teamwork.' Those buzzwords have already been used." The problem, submits Sopko, is that being classed as "dif- ferent" has not always paid off for business schools in public venues of evaluation, such as the rankings. On the one hand, business schools want to differentiate themselves. On the other, they all want to be part of the same club. "For the most part, business schools want to produce stu- that are based on what the school actually is and on the prod- uct it offers, this doesn't mean that a school is limited by the public's current perception of its culture. Rather, it should base its brand on what it already does well, or alternatively, what it has the resources to change. "Sometimes people believe they can achieve their aspira- tions through marketing alone, by going out and telling peo- ple that we're no longer regional, we're a national player," says Sure Paths to Bad Branding dents who have all the qualifications and expertise that com- panies hiring MBAs want," says Sopko. "Employers aren't looking for 'radical' or 'unique' institutions. Those words scare businesses, at least when they're hiring MBAs." That mindset seems to be changing though, says Sopko, as businesses seek more innovative ways to master their individ- ual markets, while addressing prominent issues such as ethics, entrepreneurship, and competitive strategy. As a result, they're looking for business schools with distinct and identifi- able cultures and brands that best coincide with their own. A Reality Check Because a brand refers to a school's identity, however, it can- not be forced. A brand should be based on the reality of a school's present situation and culture. And above all, says Westerbeck, it must be believable. "Schools are notorious for 'deciding' what the school's brand is. The deans, administrators, and faculty sit around the trap when they try to limit their brand to only one part of the faculty, says George Sopko of Stanton Crenshaw Communications. "Many schools fixate on only one department to the exclusion of others. But all of a school's departments should support the larger brand." To avoid this mistake, Martin Roll of VentureRepublic When developing a brand, business schools often fall into some common psychological traps, experts say. It's impor- tant that a b-school brand be focused enough to represent its true value to the market but flexible enough to grow with the school as the market changes. "Big picture" thinking will help schools avoid creating a brand with a focus that's too narrow. The "one great department" trap. Schools fall into this advises schools to look closely first at what each individual department has accomplished to discover the common thread that holds them all together. "A business school needs to pick one or two of its strongest selling points and build a consistent and unique 'brand package' around them," says Roll. BizEd NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2003 continued >> 25