Why teach students the importance of branding?

We’ve spoken before about how laser systems contribute to enterprise and entrepreneurial themes in curriculum, but what about branding? Why should we introduce students to brand creation?

One technology teacher was telling me what she does with her junior secondary class. She started by getting the class to rapidly brainstorm random words and write them on the whiteboard. She then assigned two of the words from the board to each student. They then had to come up with a brand name using those two words. Using their digital design skills, the student had to then create a logo. Apparently the creativity was amazing!

Now to bring it to reality! Each student then used the laser system to engrave their new logo onto an acrylic key-tag. The students were so excited to see their own creation come to life. They can further use the laser system to etch their logo to personalise future projects. This will allow the student to express pride in their workmanship.
What a great little exercise to introduce students to the concept of branding.

It’s about getting the students to understand that you become a brand as soon as you put yourself out there on the internet or in person. This is becoming ever more prevalent with the increase of people freely sharing knowledge or being ‘experts’ on social media. It’s important students grasp this and realise where the development of a personal brand can lead them. Although it often leads to a commercial enterprise, personal branding can start with just producing content or projects bearing their brand. This means students can start controlling the narrative about their personality, regardless what career path they choose to follow.

Serendipity can be funny. You never know where the student’s brand carries on after they leave school.