Expressing our Brand
The Ajman University brand is all about who we are as an institution and the values that we embody. Our mission statement is to ‘fulfil the needs of students, alumni and society by providing high quality education and fostering total community engagement along with academic rigor’.
Our vision is to be the leading university in the world, in terms of Innovative Education, Impactful Research, International Outreach and Community Engagement.
Our vision, mission and values combined is what defines us as a brand.
Ajman University is a leading Arab university proud of its Arab heritage, but highly international in outlook. We are defined by our inclusive approach towards all categories of students regardless of national origin, gender, race, physical ability or economic background. We are innovative in the way we teach, research and operate and are always striving to ‘Make it (Success) Happen’ for our students.
In short, we are a, ‘globally-ranked and highly international Arab University’.
Messaging and Tone of Voice
Our overall tone of voice is guided by our brand personality. The way we represent ourselves to the outside world should reflect our keywords such as ‘Arab’, ‘Leading’, ‘Innovative’, ‘International’, ‘Global outlook’, ‘Inclusive’, ‘Diverse’, ‘globally-ranked’.
Wherever possible in our external communications, we must use the phrase, ‘globally-ranked and highly international Arab University.’ For example, “Ajman University, the globally-ranked and highly international Arab university, today announced…..”
Audience-appropriate Tone
While we looked at our overall tone of voice above, it’s also important to adjust our tone to various categories of our audiences. As a higher education institution, we have the following four categories of audience:
Users: Prospective students, current students, guidance counselors, prospective parents or current parents.
Influencers: Government officials, members of the media, prominent professionals across various sectors and social media influencers who influence how AU is perceived externally.
Providers: Prospective faculty, staff and administration, as well as current faculty, staff and administration are categorised as Providers.
Advocates: Our kind donors and alumni who never fail to be enthusiastic brand ambassadors of their alma mater.
Depending on the category of audience being addressed, we must adopt an appropriate tone of voice. For instance, in an article or communication aimed at current and prospective students, the tone needs to be enthusiastic, informal and friendly instead of overly formal.
On the other hand, while addressing donors, a casual sounding tone is not appropriate.
Headlines
Headlines can make or break an article. It’s the first point of contact with the reader and can often influence them to read further or discourage them from doing so. Therefore, having the most accurate, attractive, meaningful and concise headline is crucial.
Don’t make it too long: As academics, we tend to take an in-depth view of things and would like to cram as much into the headline as we can. This is obviously wrong and often counterproductive. As a rule, headlines must be short enough to retain the reader’s attention and long enough to make sense out of. While there is no set rule on how long a headline should be, a good reference could be to have less than 11 words or 65 characters as recommended by some prominent social networks and websites.
Don’t make it too clever: We all like to be creative and clever at times. However, the meaning can be lost as not everyone comes from the same cultural or linguistic background. Therefore, aim to be simple yet elegant. At the same time, the need to be simple is not a licence to be overly simplistic and ordinary. Express yourself clearly, succinctly but elegantly. Remember you’re representing a leading Arab and global university!