Garden city college - strategy and Creative presentation

1. Garden City College
Brand & Communication Strategy Recommendation
Presentation by Percept IBD on 1st April 2011

2. • We had expressed our keen interest to partner GCC in all the brand
communication requirements
• During our earlier interaction, we had showcased our credentials and our expertise
in handling brands across categories and consumer segments
• While discussing about the communications done in the past and plans for the
future, we as an agency had suggested to come up with proactive creative and
brand strategy
• The reason being, we didn’t want to constraint our thought flow at this point of
time and felt it may add a new perspective to the ongoing communication process
• So post this presentation, the challenge would be to integrate the existing and new
thoughts for better brand saliency
Background

3. Product Brief
• Established in 1997
• Offers Bachelor’s & Master degree courses in Computers, Fashion, Life Sciences,
Tourism, Management, Commerce, Law, Media Studies & Medical Faculty etc.
• Approved by Bangalore University, AICTE,NAAC & many more reputed institutions
• An ISO 9001:2008 certified institution.
• Students from all over the country and 68 foreign countries as well.

4. • Varied professional courses
• Best of Infrastructure
• Well equipped library
• Well maintained hostel & canteen facilities
• Medical support
• Transportation facilities
• An active placement cell
Product Benefits (students)

5. Market Reality

6. • Largest capitalized space in India with $30 billion of govt. spend (i.e 3.77% of GDP)
• Large network of 1 million schools, 18000 higher education Institute
• India’s education sector currently offers an estimated US$40 billion market, with a
potential 16% five-year CAGR
• About 45,000 Indian students spend a total of US$30 billion on overseas
education( ASSOCHAM’s projections).
• 71% literacy rate
• Govt. spend in the sector has gone up to Rs 34,000 crore
• But still the investments have not seen huge turn around interns of increasing
quality
Current Status of the Market/Sector

7. • CBSE’S class X board exams scrapped
• Govt. plans to get 100 percent FDI to the education sector
• MHRD plans to set up around 14 innovation universities (Ivy League, Yale, Harvard,
MIT will take part)
• India requires $400 billion in the education sector
Current Status…other stories

8. • Huge supply of private universities /colleges
• Quite a few of them like Amity, Rai University, Acharya Institute, CMR Group, SRM
etc are well established
• Unlike earlier times, when just few of them were known for their quality, at
present private universities across the country claim to provide quality education
• The top end institutes have similar fee structure
• While the competition amongst the institutes to attract students was getting
fierce, the news of the entry of the BIG 3!
Current Status… Competition

12. Established (National )Players:
• High brand equity, therefore has bigger pull factor with students & their parents
• They have been around since long and have created strong brand identity
• Consistent advertising helps them generate strong recall
• They bring with them years of trust and heritage, hence better pull
• They will be present across geographies, more importantly in all metro markets
where the concentration of high net worth individuals is more
Competition Analysis

13. Local / Regional Players
• Unlike national institutes of repute, local educational institute provide lesser options vis
a vis course curriculum
• Comparatively lesser priced
• Lesser exposure to the professional world in terms project work/guest faculty from the
industry for students
• Job opportunities after the completion of the graduation again comparatively lower
Competition Analysis

14. How the future looks…
• Demand for qualitative education will continue to grow
• More and more specialization courses will be on offer
• Companies will start looking at hiring graduates rather than going to MBA
institutes to hire manpower at a higher cost
• Established players will continue to push the barrier, will continue expanding to
new markets and also offer industry specific course studies
• More and more international education institutes will establish themselves in India
• Students and parents will have enormous options to choose from

15. Specialist Generalist

16. Business Objective

17. 20% growth in the application numbers during the
next enrollment process

18. Brand Strategy Development

19. SWOT Analysis

20. Strength
• Have been around for all most 15 yrs, hence familiarity
• Lot of options, as students can choose from a large number of course studies
• Best of Infrastructure
• Highly competent professors
• Best visiting faculties from the industry
• Lot of extra curricular activities for personality development
• Students from 68 countries
• International practice/exposure when comes to setting up the curriculum

21. • Not very high visibility compared to some other colleges
• Moderate top–of–mind awareness and hence moderate recall
• Target Group’s unfamiliarity with the Brand and its benefits
Weakness

22. • Demand for qualitative education on rise
• Rise in income level
• Well-informed parents/students looking for the best possible option even beyond
their city/state/country
• Parents/Students looking at a college which helps at an all-round growth and not
only course studies
• A country with 71% literacy rate has a long way to go before achieving its
objective, and getting quality education being most critical
Opportunities

23. • Other well established private institutions
• TG’s own perception/familiarity with a brand
• Friend’s and families recommendation
• Not being pro-active in up selling ourselves
Threats

24. To Sum UP…
• Create strong identity
• To create brand preference and get to the top of the consideration set
• Create exciting Brand / TG interaction

25. Understanding the “Target Audience”

26. Defining TG (Demographic)
• The primary target audience: Parents & Students
- As it concerns the life of their kids, parents play an extremely dominant and
critical role
- As most of these students, by this time have either have not got admission into
professional courses like medicine, engineering or have chosen not to , they do play a
major decision making role as well
• Secondary TG: Relatives, Friends, College Professors etc
• SEC: B+ and above
• Age: Parents-45+, Students-16+
• Annual household income of Rs. 6 lacs & above
• Most cases family with one or two children

27. Psychographic

28. Want to send Kevin to a college where its not only studies but all round development

29. I want to see Clara as a banker,
which college do I send her for
a graduation in commerce

30. Steve didn’t get admission into medicine, I want him to pursue bio-chemistry and have
a great career….what are the best options?

31. Sowmya likes to pursue her graduation In
Bangalore or Mumbai, she believes
completing graduation from these cities help
her get a better job…I am happy with her
decision…now which college, that’s what is on
my mind

32. Sunny, Suhail are doing engineering….Reshma got admission in medicine…I want to do
my BSC in fashion design…where????

33. Suhana wants to do BBM…and she has been a
very shy child. As her mother I just want to
send her to a college where along with her
studies, she gets to work on developing her
personality ….may be a college where
students from all over the country come and
study

34. Want to pursue a career in electronic media…
where do I get an opportunity to do BA Journalism

35. I couldn’t get admission into medicine…
but would like to do my graduation in physiotherapy…

36. My brother works with Microsoft, I also would like to follow his footsteps. Instead of
going for an engineering degree, I would like to do my graduation in BCA and then
would like to pursue MCA…

37. Life Science…Genetics…I want to pursue a career in and want to work in the best of
research institutes of the world

38. Evaluating Options…

40. Evaluation of Options

42. Decision Making Process

44. Mapping Brand “GCC” Vis a Vis Market Place

48. In other words… When they think of colleges…

60. Dipstick Survey

61. • 40% of the students have heard about GCC
• More than half of the interviewed students aspire to join the colleges like
Christ Collge,National College and Vijaya College for their graduation programs
• 10% students expressed their willingness and keenness to join GCC
• 20% students feel that GCC is a good college to graduate and also has good
infrastructure and faculty

62. Brand Challenge

63. • How to create a position/remain on top of the consideration set
• How to create “Brand Saliency” that creates a positive impression among parents
and students alike

64. Defining Brand “GCC”…

66. Defining the way forward…

67. When we define the proposition as “Building ground for
success, we believe it has to be the all round growth of
students and not course studies alone

68. Category Communication Analysis…

90. In a category space where communication is cluttered and
the look and feel very similar, its most critical to create
distinct brand identity…

91. Creative

92. Print…Route 1
Testimonial (Parents)

93. • As parents play the most critical role in decision making, talk to them
and establish emotional connect
• At the same time support our claim with rational benefits
• Make it look different from the regular ads and create its own
identity
• Make it look neat and not cluttered to get noticed & create an
international appeal
• Let the curiosity factor sets in
Rationale

96. Testimonial(Students)

97. • Bring in the student angle to connect emotionally with prospective students
• Make it look subtle but still larger than life (as communication works that way)
• Provide opportunity to generate immediate response
• Create a perception of “international pedigree” and “all-round growth”
Rationale

100. Testimonial(Alumni)

101. • Address the expectation/dream that all the students and their parents carry
• Showcase success in a subtle yet confident tone
• Create an emotional association with the decision makers and decision influencers
as well
• Create interesting stories with certain visual elements which is slice of life/real
• Pull response rather than push
Rationale

104. Out Of Home

109. Online

113. Creative Route-Option 2 (Brand Campaign)

114. • Build GCC brand on the parameters of “finest training”
• Showcase the success brand GCC brings in for the students in their professional
careers in a subtle yet classy way
• Make brand GCC in terms of look, feel and appeal very distinct
Rationale

118. Out Of Home

122. Online

126. Online Campaign for International Students

133. Prospectus

134. BA –LLB(Law)

136. BPT

139. Commerce

143. College Website Home Page-1

144. • Make it look international
• Make it appeal to both the Indian and International students
• As visual media creates the strongest of impression, leverage on it
• Use colors which are subtle ,appealing yet classy and international
Rationale

147. College Homepage-2

151. Branding Ideas

152. External Communication

153. Blogs
An institution of many firsts.
Garden City College, Bangalore continues to be the destination of many firsts along with the best of
facilities, most other institutions of same category have not even thought of. Keeping in mind the
pivotal role the parents play in a child’s impressionable and formative years, GCC introduced web
interaction for parents. Because parents are the fraternity who know what is best for their wards. What
their children are capable of and how to help tap opportunities around them.
We are living in an age where competition is the order of the day. Students are facing immense pressure
from all sides due to this. Parents can assist to reduce this pressure on their children by being pro-active
in their stance. GCC expects this initiative from the side of parents when it made the website
interactive. Parents can visit the web to know their ward’s performance in the subjects.
To make fees payment hassle-free, GCC has come out with E-commerce payment gateway for the first
time in the segment. No more time consuming queues in front of the administrative office for students.
As part of its IT initiatives, GCC has introduced unique email ID for the students and a mailbox space of
5MB for each student. All labs in the college are upgraded with PC’s of the latest configuration.

154. Blog…Continues
With an extensive and rapidly expanding collection of electronic resources including
thousands of electronic journals and materials in audio-visual formats, the GCC Library
situated in a modern state-of-the-art building in the campus comprises a vast
collection of books in all subjects. Apart from this, there are large collections of print
and electronic reference materials. The library aims at tailoring services to the needs
of the users. And for the first time, GCC added professional volumes to the library with
additional facility of department libraries.
Continuous Campus Selection is being conducted by reputed corporate companies
from various sectors. The institution has, in the past decade, brought about
innovations that strengthened and built an incomparable ambience for learning. GCC
has always striven to stand apart, and counted among the trend-setters in the field of
education in the country. At GCC, no stone is left unturned in ensuring that quality
education is imparted with passion.

155. Face Book/You Tube
• On an average college going students spend 40 minutes a day on social networking
site, which is huge vis a vis some other conventional medium
• Use Facebook as a serious brand building tool
• Talk everything positive about the college i.e students performance in board
exams, events, placements etc to the prospective students
• Create a teacher-student team to answer prospective students queries
• Ask students to write blogs on the Facebook page as well
• Similarly, use You Tube for uploading corporate films, events, shows etc

156. Special Features in News Articles
• Extensively use PR as part of the brand building elements
• Tie Up with specialized education supplements like Education Times
• Also tie up with vernaculars at the regional/local level to create a brand entity for
specific column/article
• Implant stories on a fortnightly basis and talk about education sector in india
• Also utilize this vehicle to create a strong GCC brand
• These articles continuously can be used to talk about different courses on offer

157. Student Ambassadors
• No advertising can ever match positive ‘word of mouth marketing’ and who is
better than your own students
• Create a team of students representing the various regions/states of the country
• Train these students and make them visit their schools/colleges when they visit
their hometowns
• For a young student looking to get enrolled for a graduation course, and looking
for a good college to get enrolled, a senior of his college can always be a decision
influencer/a role model
• During this student interaction process, inviting alumni who are successful in their
respective career for an interaction with the prospective students will create a lot
of positivity around the brand

158. Tie-Up with Training Institute
• Training institutes across the country are breeding ground for students
• Students also choose to enroll in training institutes as they believe, those training
institutes are good enough to help them prepare better for the board
exams/future
• Hence, being associated with the training institutes to have the presence of brand
‘GCC’ will help the brand being the top of the consideration set
• To leverage on an opportunity like this, ask the professors of GCC to take classes
for a day on a particular subject
• This not only gives the students an opportunity to learn on the specific subject/s
but will allow them to interact with the brand

159. GCC Scholarship
• GCC-Scholarship would be a long term brand building strategy where the brand
will have an emotional connect with the TG
• All most like a test –marketing initiative, start running this program in a region/the
regions from where GCC gets maximum students
• Conduct a scholarship test in the city calling students over from various schools
• Select top 3 girls and boys students for a scholarship enrollment
• As part of the scholarship programme they can be given different options to
choose from i.e books other than course books/online guide to help them on their
studies
• The scholarship can be given for a year or so
• This scholarship can be conducted for students who are either in 10th or 11 th
standard

160. GCC Ref/Guide Book
• Could be the first of its kind, GCC Guide book to help students prepare better for
their exams
• The guide book to be used by students who follow CBSE/ICSE pattern across the
country
• These guide books not only to simplify the approach to course studies (i.e.
Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry etc.) but also help reduce stress by giving tips on
what to do/not do during or before board exams
• The guide book can also draw a roadmap for students on how to best utilize their
time while preparing for an exam
• A brand building activity like this will imbibe the brand in the minds of the
students for ever

161. Branding Ideas…Internal Communication

162. Intranet-1

165. College Mascot-Name the Bee?

171. Internal Communication-2

173. Knowledge Societies
• The idea is to have all round growth for the students
• So when a student graduates from GCC, he/she not only goes out being
competent academically but in other aspects as well
• Knowledge Societies is all about creating societies with a group of students who
will represent a specific forum/subject i.e. science, information & technology,
history, politics, sports etc.
• Each of these societies will share information with students on new things on the
specific subjects, i.e new innovation in science,new records in sports etc
• To make this more interesting, there can always be competition among two
societies on a generic topic. For ex: competition between the science and
information & technology on sports based topics

180. GCC Comics Book
• More of a fun based exercise, where students can stretch the limits
• Ask students to come up with stories in the form of a cartoon character
• The best 10 stories of the month can be compiled in a book
• The stories could be what's happening in the campus to any other
• Felicitate students whose stories are shortlisted maximum times in a year in the
annual college event

181. GCC Cultural Club
• An initiative to make students from all over the country and different parts of the
world get to know each other
• Cultural club basically will give opportunity to students to present the culture of a
country/region/state to others
• The events can be a dance form to music to sports based activity to traditional
festival related activities
• This not only helps students being aware on various issues but also an initiative to
promote age old culture/tradition which slowly getting erased from the face of the
earth

182. Brand Building through Social Activities

183. GCC Blood Camp
• Tie –Up with a blood bank
• Get them to set up blood donation camps in the campus once in 2 months
• Imbibe the spirit of social service and awareness among the students from a very
young age
• Communicate activities of such nature in the external blogs
• To motivate students to participate, gift them t-shirts, caps etc.
• This activity also can conducted outside the campus for general public where
students can visit residences to spread the message of social service/blood
donation
• To spread awareness, let students wear ‘Blood Donation’ T-Shirts on a particular
day of the week

186. Educating the underprivileged
• The most subtle way of communicating to the world, GCC’s mission to impart
quality education
• And who better than the underprivileged
• Choose volunteers for the job
• Either conduct classes or tie up with an NGO to visit small villages and teach young
students
• Create a fund to supply books and notepads
• Create awareness on this initiative through blogs/Facebook and other social
forums

189. Gardenia Event Identity

190. Since the Gardenia fest is a confluence of young talents from different social and
cultural background, we tried to give it a fresh and contemporary look to the identity.
New Gardenia logo options are packages of creativity, enthusiasm, inspiration and
vibrancy that youth embodies. Apart from these, with carefully placed circles the logo
portrays togetherness that makes one capable of venturing higher targets. Bright
colors in different hues portray liveliness and passion. Overall look and feel exhumes
festivity.
Rationale

193. Print ads

197. New Identity…Few Suggestions

198. GCC is an international brand catering to an audience spread world over. Since
the look and feel of the brand identity has a great role in brand presence and
recall, we suggest a couple of rebranding options. These logos portray a new-age
look and impregnates energy and freshness. They are very contemporary in
design. Great care has been taken to ensure the significance of the product that is
quality education is manifested in the right manner.
Rationale

201. Over to you…
Thank You…