Update on marketing for October 2021
Author(s)
Renea Morris
This week, I鈥檓 sharing the latest updates on our marketing, branding, and strategic positioning initiatives and efforts, specifically focusing on the most recent announcement of the Kennedy Mountain Campus and听Visual Identity initiative.听听
Mountain Campus Launch听
All听MarComm听hands were on deck this past month engaging in preparation for supporting a week of activities, including the Chancellor鈥檚 Inauguration and Homecoming, and in collaboration with the Chancellor鈥檚 Office, Advancement and agency听partner听HeavyDoesIt,听last Tuesday鈥檚 Kennedy Mountain Campus acquisition announcement.听In addition to developing recap videos听from and , for the mountain campus announcement, we were听able to realize the power听within the team that we鈥檝e spent the past two seasons cultivating, from developing a teaser video, to a large-scale media event, to preparing for the marketing and environmental branding yet to come. A big thanks to听our campus partners听for your ongoing patience, partnership, and support as we听continue to evolve and grow together. As a听MarComm听team,听we鈥檙e turning a corner, and I鈥檓 excited to see everything that comes next.听听
The mountain campus will be featured in our upcoming听听and over the coming months, we will continue to develop assets and weave the campus into our marketing in the new year.听听听
Visual Identity Initiative听
Last month, I mentioned that the team has started work on developing a robust visual identity system for the University鈥攐ne that will give us flexibility while maintaining focus and creating consistency for the outside world. The ultimate deliverable for this initiative will be an expanded听and听refined visual style guide听for 快活app.听听
The first phase of this foundational work has focused on exploring our primary mark. While our visual identity is much, much more than our logo and the identity system we construct will reflect this, the logo is a cornerstone and necessary place from which we cascade future work. When we did research last fall, we also tested our three primary marks with experts from across the nation. The听results听aligned with many of our other findings鈥攖hat our marks are nice,听don鈥檛 differentiate us in the marketplace, and don鈥檛 reflect who we are. Additionally, we have since heard from our internal audiences with two major themes emerging鈥攐ur current academic logo suite doesn鈥檛 scale well for digital听and听social marketing purposes and the names of our sub brands are minimized.听听
With these notes in mind, the team began to conceptualize what it would look like for the University to have one logo set to raising our visibility and contributing to the goal of a more sustainable future.听Hundreds of concepts were developed in collaboration with Carnegie听Dartlet, our third-party partners in the reputation strategy work. Over time, the concepts were refined (repeatedly) to seven that reflect our personality traits and can be tied directly to the 鈥渨ho鈥 and 鈥渨hy鈥 of our brand and mission statement. It鈥檚 now time to test the results.听听
快活app鈥檚听brand owner groups鈥攅mployees, current students (grad and undergrad), and alumni鈥攚ill have an opportunity to participate in logo testing through focus groups over the next two months and听a quantitative survey sent to听all faculty, staff, alumni, and听athletics听season ticketholders before the end of the fall academic term.听The 快活app is fortunate enough to have housed within the听Daniels College of Business, a听听(CiBiC)听that we are working with for some of the upcoming听focus groups.听听
Our goal with the听reputation strategy work听that is underway听remains to ensure that everyone has a voice and opportunity to be heard.听We are focused on moving the University forward听so that we can听rise听in the rankings,听engage in听new听markets more听meaningfully,听build听a robust student pipeline,听and create听an authentic narrative that resonates with all our audiences.听