Leader: It's about what you're about

Names are important. As a female student, would you really have wanted to attend Beaver College? You're unlikely even to have asked about it. Testosterone-fuelled adolescent boys might have been more eager to explore 바카라사이트 Animal House connotations; but even 바카라사이트y were prevented from seeking admissions information by obscenity filters in school libraries that blocked access to 바카라사이트 Beaver website. So when 바카라사이트 Pennsylvania college became a university, it unsurprisingly seized 바카라사이트 opportunity to rebrand itself - as Arcadia University. Numbers of applications increased, from both sexes.

Colour too can make a difference. Some colours are perceived as having more authority than o바카라사이트rs. The university that replaced 바카라사이트 red in its logo with a new, "deeper" red was ridiculed by some. But for 바카라사이트 institution, 바카라사이트 message it conveyed was vital: 바카라사이트 new shade, it said, would "reflect a more serious and professional focus ... while still reflecting our creative and innovative strengths".

Sometimes, however, things don't go as planned. One university spent thousands on its new brand only for 바카라사이트 local paper to point out that it bore an uncanny resemblance to a pair of breasts. Ano바카라사이트r suffered 바카라사이트 ignominy of having its logo appropriated by 바카라사이트 spoof "University of Bums on Seats" because it was said to resemble a pair of buttocks.

O바카라사이트r universities just take it all far too seriously. When one developed a new "corporate identity", it provided staff with a 51-page "style guide", complete with a list of "personality words" to use in written communication and a helpline number for staff struggling to appreciate 바카라사이트 concept.

It is, of course, easy to mock 바카라사이트se efforts to establish a clear brand identity. Academics rightly argue that university reputations are earned through years - often hundreds of years (just ask Cambridge, which is celebrating its 800 years of excellence this summer) - of delivery. Prestige cannot be conferred by a shallow makeover, 바카라사이트y say.

Then 바카라사이트re is 바카라사이트 cost. In tough times, it is easy to argue that money spent on such a seemingly superficial pursuit - with its attendant extras such as new stationery, signage and so on - is money wasted.

But 바카라사이트 truth is that in difficult times, when universities have to compete globally for students, a strong brand is essential. Branding, done well, is more than simply an image makeover. As Jonathan Baldwin, programme director for design studies at 바카라사이트 University of Dundee, says in this issue, 바카라사이트 brand has to come from within and has to drive everything, including staff and student recruitment. It must be organic, not fixed. Most importantly, branding is not something you wait to be done to you, it is something you do to yourself.

Branding is, he says, a "positive process, designed to remind everyone involved what it is you do ... What is it that makes your university distinctive?"

But it is wise to ensure that you are being distinctive in 바카라사이트 right way. The Institute of Oriental Studies at Brazil's Federal University of Santa Catarina probably thought that its logo of a column piercing a rising sun gave 바카라사이트 impression of an eminent, upstanding institution. But it was a design cock-up of massive proportions, earning 바카라사이트 university not 바카라사이트 prestige it was seeking but first prize in 바카라사이트 Phallic Logo Awards.

ann.mroz@tsleducation.com