Many universities, even those with incredible legacies, don’t see themselves as brands like Nike or Apple do. They may have reputations, even prestigious ones, but brand? That’s something they associate with products, not education. And that’s where they’re missing an opportunity.

Who are you beyond your ranking?

If numbers are your only story don’t be surprised if you are judged solely on them.

But they’re not.

You’ve got so much more to build a brand on.

Imagine this: a university decides it’s time for a rebrand. The excitement is palpable—new logos, fresh messaging, and a chance to redefine how students, staff, and partners see them. But as the project gets underway, cracks start to show. Departments are out of sync, the core messaging feels disjointed, and the new brand struggles to gain traction.

"We rebranded a couple of years ago, but it didn’t quite hit the mark." Sound familiar?

We hear that a lot.

Understandably, the idea of another big, costly overhaul isn’t appealing.

But that doesn’t mean your brand has to stay stuck.

Let’s be honest: many institutions leap into a rebrand, hoping it’ll magically solve their communication challenges. But without some solid groundwork, a rebrand is just a fancy new logo or a glossy new website. If you want it to work, there are three key steps you need to take first.

I spent the summer break thinking about how creativity can support universities to respond to the well-documented challenges. As difficult as these are, tough times inevitably force change – which can be good.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of higher education, a rebrand can be a powerful tool to reposition an institution, attract new students, and better communicate its values and offerings. However, embarking on a rebrand without proper preparation can lead to wasted resources and missed opportunities.

LIVE from Bristol Tech Festival - Watch our talk on how to build a brand for greater research and innovation impact.

Be rejected for the right reasons.

Unless you wrote the rules don't play by them.

Drop differentiation and go for distinction. There's always an opportunity to be more distinct than the competition.

Light+Heat combines empirical evidence from research and data with creativity to diagnose your current state and framework a future state.

Universities are complex organisms by nature, with many internal and external stakeholders requiring different things. So compromise is the order of the day.

But what are you often left with. A box-ticking exercise and not much more?

Done right, defining a clear set of university values can shape your culture, how people interact together, and galvanise them behind a shared vision.

We share a few thoughts on how best to approach the task.

The experience, knowledge and passion of your internal team can be blended with the challenge, broad-sector experience and outsider perspective of an external team.

Creatively that relies on two key elements.

If you want better stakeholder alignment, engagement and effectiveness on your next brand or marketing project, consider assembling a Rocketship team. We explain what it is, why it works and how to go about creating one.

In our experience, the tendency for universities and innovation hubs to delve into details and miss the big story determines whether a brand is actually launched/redefined or not.

This tendency is common in both the commercial and academic worlds.

This might help to get you started.

Your university, faculty or innovation hub may have resolved the important challenges of defining its Purpose, Mission, Vision and Values – and it may have found a way to tell a powerful, engaging story. So you may feel you're done, right?

Unfortunately, this is where things often fall down.

Complex organisations with multiple stakeholders like universities, faculties, and innovation hubs, can lead to equally complicated narratives.

👊 This makes cut-through to your audiences incredibly difficult. So simplifying the complex is critical.

👍 Here's a provocation, a potential solution and some practical examples of how it's been applied.

We’re told that keeping it simple is core to building an accessible brand, but great brands are built from dramatised details rather than abstract generics.