To succeed in today’s competitive educational marketplace, school leaders are required focus on both the external environment and internal environment. The authors propose that two key strategies are required to achieve this. Firstly, in order to address the pressures of the external environment school leaders will need to develop brand management strategies to create a positive image, identity and vision to the school’s constituents. Secondly school leaders will need to build an appropriate organisational culture as a way to shape and manage the internal environment. The authors argue that brand and culture building are two sides of the one coin and that they work synergistically to achieve a better functioning and performing school. This paper builds on previous research by the authors on the relationship between brand management and organisational culture.

The paper draws data from a number of new case studies that were completed in 2014/15 that explored the link between brand management and organisational culture and showed how principals saw their role in shaping both these aspects. It provides further evidence that successful principals attempt to focus on both brand and culture building.

The Research Question: Explore the role of the principal in building a school’s brand and shaping the organisation culture as a strategy for school success.

 Objectives:

What is the relative importance of brand management in the role of the principal?

How important is culture building relative to other aspects of the role of the principal?

How do principals perceive the relationship between brand and culture?

Framework

The paper proposes that in addition to the importance of the principal’s role in shaping the school’s culture, principals also have an equally important role of building the school’s brand to enhance the school’s reputation and image. The literature affirms the importance of organisational culture in building school success and underpins the principal’s role in helping to shape it. The authors argue that responding to the external environment is equally important and that building a brand image and identity is the new challenge for school principals. 

There are numerous definitions of culture, but more commonly it is defined as a system of shared meanings that include a pattern of beliefs, symbols, rituals, myths and practices that have evolved over time (Deal and Kennedy 1982; Schein 1984/5). It is often summed up as ‘the way things are done around here.’ Culture includes both tangible and intangible aspects. Brand is similar to culture is that it is also largely intangible. A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the products or services of one organisation or group of organisations and to differentiate them from those of competitors (Power & Hauge, 2008). In a previous paper (ECER Porto, 2014), the authors argued that culture and brand were two sides of the one coin and that principals needed to focus on both concepts equally in order to lead and manage the internal and external environment. In this paper we explore the notion of brand and culture with twelve principals to determine the relative importance of each and see if they relate the two concepts. 

In our previous research we explored market orientation and found that schools with a strong market orientation were likely to be more successful. Market orientation is defined as a philosophy that put the needs of students and their families at the centre of the organisation and attempts to see how the school perceives products and services from the their point of view ( Drysdale & Gurr 2003). 

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