CASE STUDY – Rusinga Schools
Building schools for future minds.
Rusinga Schools provide an innovative and caring learning environment for the holistic development of students with a goal to nurture, develop, inspire (and impact) generations of society, with values founded on sound Christian faith. ARK worked closely with Rusinga to clarify their essence and core offering, and set a unified course that delivers immense value to students, parents and business.
Brand Strategy
Our brand strategy focussed on what value and experience the Rusinga brand could deliver, aligned to its vision and the needs of the customers. This involved using desk research, interviews and filed observations.
Brand Audit Immersion Exercise
We undertook a brand audit to enable us understand the school’s various offerings and experiences from the outside in, and offer impartial and honest truths back to the school team for consideration and further action.
This helped us to:
• See the school’s offering in one snapshot.
• Engage with our customers and understand what their pain points were.
• Document the existing status of the school before key initiatives were undertaken.
• Inform what remedial measures could have the greatest impact.
Designing for Experience
Quick wins – Enhancing the learning spaces
As schools closed due the COVID19 we took the opportunity to help Rusinga refresh the in-classroom experience in order to usher newness at reopening. This would enlighten and invigorate the pupils coming from the lockdowns. In the kindergarten space, windows were expanded and lowered to allow in more light and enhance spatial awareness for the young learners.
We also expanded/enhanced COVID19 protocols for improved communications on re-opening, communicating precautionary measures in simple and engaging ways for young children.
Rebrand
Refreshing the Brand Identity
Based on feedback from students and parents in our research findings we took the opportunity to refresh the school’s logo using Gestalt principles. There was need to improve visual hierarchy and interplay of the elements thereby achieving optical balance.
Relaunch & Extension
Following our strategy and logo refresh work we proceeded to create a new brand book. This was largely advised by the creative direction derived from the extensive strategy.
Outcomes
Brand & Business Value
Through the Rusinga Brand & Growth Strategy, the school has managed to:
- Build clarity around a coherent foundation of well-articulated values, essence and vision amongst the schools’ leadership, members of staff, partners and key stakeholders.
- Create an on-brand “winning mix” value proposition that anchors what Rusinga has to offer that’s better and differentiated from competing schools.
- Make huge strides in improving the 360° student, teachers and parent experience.
- Increase student enrolment and retention numbers.
- Build frameworks to continuously monitor business KPIs and brand metrics.