Now in its tenth year, in an effort to project a more versatile image of its existence and marketing strategies, the Anguilla Community College has upgraded its marketing brand. This was revealed on Tuesday, June 18th in an official launch, where the new brand was introduced by Ms. Tahirah Banks and Mr. Gino Webster, principals ‘Thoughtful Digital Agency.’
In addressing the modest gathering, ACC’s President Dr. Karl Dawson reflected that after his arrival in Anguilla a year and eight months ago, it was brought to his attention that the Anguilla Community College was deficient in three principal areas: 1. that the matter of visibility had to be addressed where the public at large needed to be more aware of the presence of the institution’s mandate; 2. There needed to be proper generation of operating finances for the college; and 3. There was a need for widening the student base.
Dr. Dawson observed: “I have always kept these three facets in mind, because essentially I realize that fulfilling these is what the Board requires. At this point I can’t say that all three of them have been addressed or that any one in particular has been dealt with fully, but I believe that what we do here today is one of those steps that will put us closer on the road to achieving our goals in these three areas of concern for the ACC.”
He continued: “Over the past few months, we have been trying to raise the visibility of the college. Indeed, we have made some strides in this regard, and our launch today would be a significant move forward. The launch of our new brand will impact upon the number of students that we are able to attract to the Anguilla Community College. It will, in turn, increase the number of persons that we are able to serve, as well as the extent to which we are able to uplift Anguilla in general. Of course, we are committed to doing this in a manner that will not be strenuous on our resources, but in a way that will supplement the support given by Government, so that we can find ways and means of enhancing the finances of our operations.
“In terms of marketing,” Dr. Dawson stressed, “we were fortunate that while conducting the process of bidding for a new brand, the committee settled on the design firm Thoughtful, and today we have Miss Tahirah Banks to be introducing to us our new brand.”
The Minister of Education, the Honourable Mrs. Cora Richardson-Hodge stated that is was befitting for the college, to focus its efforts on rebranding. She also alluded to the fact that is indeed fitting, that after ten years, the ACC would be engaged the following day in a ground breaking ceremony for developing its own technical facilities.
She continued: “The Anguilla Community College must ensure that it remains relevant. It must strive to meet the training needs of the labour force and enable people to function optimally in their chosen field of work, and to progress to higher levels within their organizations. I have been impressed with the work the college has done with sea-fearers and contractors this past year. They have targeted their efforts towards industries that employ significant numbers of Anguillians. I now look forward to the fruit of their work to train managers at all levels in the hospitality sector.”
The Minister commended the ACC for the steps it has taken in developing a new marketing strategy through its innovation branding. “To garner the traction that is needed in moving forward, it is important for the ACC to relook at the marketing and branding approaches with a view to improving the visibility of the College and attracting new students,” she stated.
The Chairman of the Board, Mr. Rodney Rey, gave a brief address in which he mentioned that if the Anguilla Community College continues to do things the same old way, then it will get the same old results. He noted that with the new branding concept, “it can’t be business as usual, but business unusual.”
The Chairman continued: “the Board of Governors and the management of the Anguilla Community College determined that we needed to revamp our public relations and marketing strategy so that we can build on traditional methods…and we could extend our outreach to a potential market locally, regionally and internationally. So, we turned to Thoughtful, a group of enterprising, technically proficient, dedicated and hardworking, young Anguillians. They have designed a strategy for rebranding the Anguilla Community College.”
Mr. Rey placed special emphasis on the fact that the ACC was delighted to draw on local talent and resources for the rebranding exercise. “Hopefully, this would be the beginning of the end of the dependency syndrome on foreign consultants,” he added.
Thoughtful’s Managing Partner, Ms. Tahirah Banks unveiled the new branding concepts for the ACC. She noted that in conducted a preliminary market research programme of the ACC, certain disadvantages were noticed, and it was concluded that the ACC had a lot of work to do in projecting itself.
However, in later developing the branding concept, despite those disadvantages, one of the noted key advantages was that students saw results and they have had positive experiences at ACC. She remarked that this trend showed that at ACC there was a product that could have an impact on persons’ lives, and could help them to grow and realize their goals.
Upon that premise, both Ms. Banks and her co-partner, Mr. Gino Webster, performed an informative walk-through presentation, via screen, to demonstrate the various aspects of Anguilla Community College’s new brand.
Staff Reporter,
James R. Harrigan
