Quick. What does the boy scout uniform look like? What about the US army? What were your school colors? This things are ingrained in our memories. As a child growing up in Texas, my friends were all future Aggies or future Longhorns. We longed to have that sticker on our car and wear maroon or burnt orange shirts and caps. They identified you with a group. The colors never changed. Like the scout uniform a boy longs to wear as he sees his older brother going off to camp or the military uniform that sparks pride in the teenager who is eager to enlist, a
consistent image is part of this emotional bond. Imagine if the army uniform changed every year, in color or design. It would no longer be instantly recognizable and you would lose that cohesion that forms a group, an outward sign that needs no explanation. The uniform itself, like a school's colors, like a brand represented on a t-shirt or bumper sticker, is what drives this desire.
These thoughts come to me as I consider my position of incoming president of our school PTA. As with any new position, the first task is to determine what is working well and where you can make a difference. Branding is one of these areas.
Westchester is a young charter school in SBISD with a unique angle -- an international studies program. We are academic focused with very few sports opportunities -- the biggee: no football team -- which is HUGE in Texas. Most schools count on their sports program to carry the brand -- we rally around the teams as they battle our rivals. We wear the colors to pep rallies and games. We display our support on our cars and in the windows of our house. So we face the hurdle of branding a school without a team to rally behind.
We are also looking for our face. Over the years, I have seen a number of designs, fonts, logos and colors on our school shirts. We are trying out our different personalities. But in the meantime, we are building a disjointed student and community relationship. There has been limited consistency. And therefore little to strive for in terms of emotional branding. You can't be part of the team if the team has no central identifying mark.
So that's one of my goals this year. Consistency. In logo, in color, in representation. So that when one of our students wears a school shirt, people will immediately and subconciously think, "Look. There goes someone from Westchester. And they are proud of that."
