Branding Your School District for Success · •Branding is a way of identifying your business. It is how your customers recognize and experience your business. A strong brand is

© COPYRIGHT 2018 SCHOOL NUTRITION ASSOCIATION | #ANC18 | LAS VEGAS, NV


Branding Your School District for Success


Speaker Slide

Kern Halls BS, BM

Chief Innovator for Ingenious

Culinary Concepts

Carol Weekly, RDN, SNS

Application Consultant


• Facebook

Ingenious Culinary Concepts

@ingeniouscc

• Twitter

@ingeniouscc.com

• Blog

⎻ www.ingeniouscc.com

• Email

[email protected]

CONTACT INFORMATION


United States Navy

Culinary Specialist

Walt Disney World

Managed $18M in sales

Orange County Public Schools

Senior Manager

Marketing, special projects

Managed 23 High Schools

18 of 19 schools in Red

22 of 23 in Black

BACKGROUND


Practitioners

Awarding winning track recording for increasing participation

Support districts around the nation

Core Services: Professional Development & Capacity Building

(district support visits/coaching)

Our work: Centers on student needs & feedback

BACKGROUND NOW


• Kern Halls

⎻ Owner: Ingenious Culinary Concepts

• Carol Weekly, RDN, SNS

⎻ Employee: Titan School Solutions

Affiliation or Financial Disclosure


What is Branding?


• Define your brand

⎻ What is your company's mission?

⎻ What is your tag line?

⎻ What are the benefits and features of dining with you?

⎻ What do your customers already think of your business?

⎻ What qualities do you want them to associate with your

company?

THE PROCESS


• Create a logo

• Develop social media profiles⎻ Try to get the same handles for all profiles.

⎻ Establish and own all handles even if you do not use them now.

⎻ Focus on your internal and external stakeholders.

• Integrate your plan⎻ Is everyone on board?

⎻ Are you utilizing your logo on all of your assets?

• Develop creative ways to answer the phone

• Email signatures should be consistent.

GET THE WORD OUT


• Menu templates

• Letterheads

• Paper Supplies

• The way you utilize your logo.

MARKETING MATERIALS


BRAND ANY AND EVERYTHING


BRAND ANY AND EVERYTHING


WEBSITE

© CO PY RIG HT 2018 SC HO O L NU TR ITIO N ASS O CIATIO N | #ANC 18 | LAS VEG A S, NV

WEBSITE


DALLAS ISD FOOD FESTIVAL


• Branding your entire cafeteria experience with your school’s identity coupled with a national and wellness message creates a sense of affiliation for all your students, parents, school staff, and local community.

• When your cafeteria’s menus, walls, social media, and website all conform to the image you’ve created for your school foodservice operation, it has a long-lasting impact in the minds of your entire targeted audience.

STAND OUT


• In addition to establishing brand awareness and brand

recall, creative branding incites loyalty.

• Ensuring your cafeteria is the first choice to eat for

most, if not all, of your students.

STAND TALL


ASTHETICS (BEFORE)


ASTHETICS (AFTER)


IDENTIFYING YOUR TARGET MARKET

Elementary School

(Typically ages 5-10)

Middle School


High School

(Typically Ages 14-18)

Toddlers/preschool



WHICH ONE IS MORE RELATABLE?


IDENTIFYING YOUR TARGET MARKET

Elementary School


Middle School


High School

(Typically Ages 14-18)


• Participation:⎻ Of the three common educational levels, student meal

consumption is typically highest at the elementary level

• Common Barriers:⎻ Many elementary students are brown-baggers and

parents drive the decision to pack their school lunch.

⎻ Getting elementary students to consume a variety of both cooked and fresh vegetables can be challenging.

⎻ Pre-cut, washed, and “ready to eat” fruit is preferred over whole fruit options.

ELEMENTARY CONSUMER


• Participation:⎻ At the middle school level, students begin to

form stronger opinions and perceptions about the products and services available in their school cafeterias.

• Common Barriers:⎻ Socializing is top priority and middle

schoolers will forgo lunch to spend time with friends.

⎻ Eating breakfast is often the last item on a middle schooler’s daily morning to-do list.

MIDDLE SCHOOL CONSUMER


• Participation:⎻ High school students are the most challenging of the

three educational levels

⎻ High schoolers often sleep in and only leave enough time in the morning to arrive at school before the tardy/first bell.

• Common Barriers:⎻ The lunch period for high school is often in the early

afternoon; therefore, some high schoolers opt to skip breakfast since lunch is typically served before the new day’s initial hunger pains arrive.

⎻ Many high school students refuse to wait in long lines for and/or purchase products they feel are mediocre or of lower quality

HIGH SCHOOL CONSUMER


• Branding is a way of identifying your business. It is

how your customers recognize and experience

your business. A strong brand is more than just a logo;

it's reflected in everything from your customer service

style, staff uniforms, business cards and premises to

your marketing materials and advertising.

Why do you want to brand your department?


• Make the decision to create a logo

and start branding your

department.

• Cost parameters

• Time parameters

My experience


• What message do you want to deliver about your program/services?

• Does your district already have a logo that you want to work off of?

• Who do you want involved in the decision making?

• Resources

⎻ Who do you know?

⎻ What resources does your

district already utilize?

⎻ Do you have access to

students in your district or

nearby colleges?

⎻ Do you have interns?

Starting point


• Come up with 2-3 options

⎻ Tag line

⎻ Graphic

• Make sure to be absolutely sure of your tag line and

logo, this is going to be your brand!

Never settle


• Business cards

• Department vehicles

⎻ Especially your delivery trucks

• Uniforms

• Social Media accounts

Use your brand on everything


Additional examples


• Once you have your brand you need to start to look at

your program…

⎻ What message do you want to send your customers?

⎻ What do you want outsiders to see?

⎻ What do you want staff to think/feel?

⎻ What look/theme are you going for?

Branding & Marketing


• What changes, big or small, would make a difference in

your cafeteria?

⎻ Paint

⎻ Graphics

⎻ Menu boards

⎻ Signage

What do your cafeteria environments say about the program?


• Paint can make a huge difference in the look and feel of the cafeteria. Cost can be minimal, but the impact is huge!

Paint


Additional Paint Transformations


• You can work with a professional graphic artist, with your high school advanced graphic students or even with college students trying to build their portfolio.

Graphics can also transform your cafeteria


Middle School #1


Middle School #2

• High school graphic arts students created the cafeteria name and graphic, the school principal chose the moto.


Line Graphics – match the school mascot theme


• Same yellow wall, transformed to support school spirit.

High School – wall transformation


• You have what it takes to get it done!

• It doesn’t always have to cost a fortune.

• Be willing to get dirty or ask for help.

Don’t wait, just do it!


• This session provides one (1) CEU

⎻ Key Area: Communications & Marketing-4120

⎻ Key Topic: Branding Your School District for Success

Professional Standards Code

EARN

CONTINUING

EDUCATION

CREDITS

Documents

Branding Your School District for Success · •Branding is a way of identifying your business. It is how your customers recognize and experience your business. A strong brand is