The last couple of weeks I’ve been talking about branding. I explained how we’ve created a brand around NextGen so that our parents and volunteers connected to our strategy. Secondly, I wrote about our plans to brand each age division under our NextGen brand. The branding around our age divisions is what kids will most identify with. It’s what they’ll get excited about. However, I ended my last post saying that there was an exception. Here’s where we’re intentionally ignoring the NextGen and specific age group brands.

Kids and Students.

The first time visitor isn’t going to know what NextGen is. Likewise, they’re not going to understand what ________ (the to be finalized name of our elementary space) is. When someone pulls into our parking lot for the very first time or walks into our courtyard, we want it to be obvious where they go if they have teenagers. When they visit the website, we want to make it very clear that we have something for preschool kids.

Currently, the Garage where our students meet, has a very clear and large wall lettering that says:

STUDENTS
6th Grade – 12th Grade

After we brand our age group areas, we’ll letter the kids building:

KIDS
Infants – 5th Grade

Even our website at this time (click here to see it) divides age groups first by Kids and Students because that is what is most clear.

Yes, I know that if we had branded Gateway Kids and Gateway Students, we could have more clarity within our brand. However, I like having NextGen over four specific age groups that kids can identify with instead of two. High School kids would rather be a part of something different than the Middle School.

So, that’s how we’re rebranding. That’s why we’ve chosen what we have. That’s why we allow clarity to create a small exception to the rule.