History & Services

Cognitive Marketing Inc. is a brand development and strategic marketing firm dedicated to producing distinct and compelling brand identities for Colleges, Universities, and Preparatory Schools. Our firm was formed in 1993 by Peter Holloran and Josanne DeNatale, two marketing and communications professionals with quite different backgrounds, but very similar ideas about being of service to clients. We joined forces because we share a vision of a better way to provide marketing and communications services, one which measures success in terms of the barriers we overcome and the opportunities we create with our clients. We believe that this is best accomplished with the solid foundation of a brand identity.

We are a team of senior-level professionals whose goal is to advance the specific objectives of our clients by bringing perspective, discipline, creativity and production skill to the marketing and communications process.

 

CLIENT LIST

CURRENT EDUCATIONAL CLIENTS
Carson Long Military Institute

Dartmouth College

Thayer School of Engineering

Emma Willard School

Friends School of Baltimore

Gettysburg College

The Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College

The Leonard Bernstein Center for Learning at Gettysburg College

Harvard Graduate School of Design

Hudson Valley Community College

Millersville University of Pennsylvania

Oak Hill Academy

Rectory School

Rye Country Day School

Smith College

Educational Outreach Programs

Tabor Academy Summer Program

Taft School Summer Program

The College at Brockport

State University of New York

Wells College

ADDITIONAL CLIENTS
Adirondack Woodcraft Camps
Cheley Colorado Camps
Rochester Area Community Foundation
Seacamp
Woods Oviatt Gilman LLP
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SERVICES PROVIDED TO THE EDUCATION MARKET
Brand Assessment Service To know how best to get where you want to go, it's important to know where you stand right now. Cognitive Marketing can help you determine what needs to happen with your institutional brand identity by studying how your brand message is presently being conveyed within and beyond the institution. We examine all the ways your institution communicates, with whom, and what sort of "brand" message is being sent, and provide back to you a preliminary assessment of your brand's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This service is ideal for institutions in the early stages of thinking about institutional identity and positioning. <top of page>

 

Institutional Brand Identity Program Our proprietary Market Voicing brand development process involves research-gathering, including extensive stakeholder interviews, insight identification, competitive set analysis, brand positioning and promise identification, and creative messaging development including a brand signature line. Institutions for whom we have implemented this program find that they have, across all constituent groups, a renewed energy and a singular voice of confidence and pride. <top of page>

 

Brand Development Plan Building brand awareness first requires that all members of the institution's community understand the brand and know what their roles will be in its development. Our strategic planning services identify the overarching goals for the institution and the strategies for reaching them through integrated, multi-media marketing programs. <top of page>

 

Media Advertising Programs Cognitive Marketing provides complete advertising agency of record services, including media evaluation, planning, and placement; and creative development of high quality advertising in all media. <top of page>

 

Web/email Program Design and Development A school's Web program is an increasingly important component of the brand communications toolset. Our services cover the total range of program implementation. Our goal in all of our implementations is to provide the individual departments—the content owners—with a set of tools that allows them to manage a dynamic Web presence with ease and confidence. Integrated Communications for Enrollment Management: ProActiveDialog The strategies and tools available for student recruitment marketing are always evolving, but the focus of the effort must remain unchanged: building relationships and maximizing the efficient use of resources. Our integrated program of printed materials, email messaging, and website development leverages the brand promise of the institution and connects with prospects at each stage of the recruitment cycle. Beyond the design and production of these tools, we work with Admissions staff to provide them with the skills and training they need in order to have independent control over website content, utilize personalized email messaging, and track all site usage statistics. <top of page>

 

Web Program Analysis Many schools, and the individual departments within them, are finding that their initial website implementation has grown stagnant, yet they do not have the processes or resources in place to update the site in support of their goals. Our analysis will evaluate the current state of the website and understand the goals of the individual departmental teams charged with its management against the marketing and communications objectives of the school. Workshop Series for Electronic Communications Management This multi-level series of informational workshops is geared for the non-technical staff members. It explains the basics of setting up websites and email programs, either as part of an institution's IT system or independent of it utilizing outside hosting services, on up to the management of integrated and dynamic web programs. The focus is on the independent control of website development including content updating, utilization of custom email, and monitoring of visitor site usage habits.<top of page>

 

Institutional Graphic Identity Our work for an institutional identity includes interviews with key stakeholders and is based on a review of logotype, symbol, and wordmark designs in use in the education market. We also review the history of the institution's identity and assess the visual aspects of the brand. The initial selection of designs, presented for review and discussion, is followed by a presentation of them in common use. Once selected, a comprehensive graphic standards manual is produced. <top of page>

 

Development Campaign Support Working with the development team, we provide services to support campaign theme ideation and campaign literature design. We also extend campaign outreach to the Web with ecommerce implementations and email communications. <top of page>