Novel Student on making happier and healthier student communities

Could you tell us more around the Novel Student brand?

Novel Student’s vision, represented through the branding, is to set a whole new standard of student living globally, with excellent services, well-being as a priority (now more important than ever) and individuality encouraged.

What is so unique with the Novel Student offering?

Health and wellness are at the very heart of what Novel Student offers. Our buildings have been crafted around promoting healthier lifestyles for students, both physically and mentally. We have naturally designed our spaces for calm and peace with the use of plants, natural light, greenery and open spaces.

We even have relaxation and wellness studios, offering students a place to unwind from their hectic lives.

Further to this, Novel Students offer dry bars, cinema rooms, digital gaming rooms, rooftop terraces, karaoke bars and even glam rooms.

Our beautiful interiors and outstanding services are incredibly unique for students, furthermore, our passion for creating happier and healthier communities is what sets us apart.

Additionally, we focus on providing a service that caters for every aspect of our resident’s lives, removing any negative distractions and allowing them the time to focus on themselves.

How are your USPs fed into the branding?

Rather than creating branding messages which may cause students to feel pressured to excel and be perfect, the focus is on being warm-hearted and all inclusive.

The Novel branding and marketing have been designed to encourage students to be themselves. This is highlighted by the language we use to describe the Novel Student experience, with a tone that emphasizes trust, replicating comfortability of being in your own home.

How do you feel students (and parents for that matter) will connect with the brand on an emotional level?

The brand core values not only promote the beautiful buildings and the unique amenities, but also the communities that Novel is creating. For both students and parents, this will be hugely reassuring to know that right from moving in day students will feel connected.

How important do you think content and influencer strategies are with the Gen Z audience and students in particular?

Gen Z are the most digitally savvy target audience so it’s vital our brand personality is brought to life online, such as with our Novel Journal, and over our social media accounts. As our target audience often pay close attention to a brand’s digital activity on these platforms.

For example, we recently interviewed a young entrepreneur Francesca Kennedy Wallbank, founder of H20sqd, water bottles which are flat, reusable, BPA-free and vegan bottles. We don’t just want to focus on talking about student accommodation, we want to talk about everything else that impacts our target audience on a more emotional level.

We want to inspire, motivate and allow students to feel encouraged by our content.

What role does social media play in bringing the Novel Student brand to life and how do you see this expanding?

It plays a huge part in bringing our brand to life especially with the Gen Z audience. As the brand continues to grow, we want to utilise the Novel Student voice even further. Showcasing our communities, providing ‘down-to-earth’ advice, inspiration, furthering good causes and connecting our communities digitally.

Finally, how do you want to make people feel when they think of Novel Student?

We want students to feel excited, motivated, reassured and completely and utterly themselves. For a lot of students, university can be a time of figuring out who you want to be and that’s why the communities we’re creating have student wellness as a top priority. We want our students to feel encouraged to be themselves, whoever it is they want to be, in a comfortable environment built for them to thrive.