Projecting: Bring the brand to life in communications for advancement, admissions, and alumni relations

BENEFIT TO THE INSTITUTION
Creative, coherent, and effective communications vehicles must serve the long-term interest of the brand while meeting more immediate tactical needs–whether it is in the next generation of admissions brochures, capital campaign materials, a reengineered institutional Web presence, or a full-scale advertising and promotion campaign.

HOW IT HAPPENS
A major goal of any brand identity program is a unified messaging platform. The best way to assure this uniformity is to have a single marketing communications provider handle all communications campuswide, especially those specific to building brand awareness.

Advertising Media Management   The placement of advertising may be a critical part of how an institution builds brand awareness as well as promotes specific programs. Advertising needs to be coordinated with other marketing efforts including direct mail, print collateral, and the website. Understanding how to evaluate each media, negotiating the placement, and creating compelling ads that distinguish an institution are critically important steps in the management of effective and affordable advertising programs. Cognitive Marketing provides comprehensive advertising program management services to independent schools, programs within universities, and various departments at colleges including Smith College, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Oakhill Academy, Nazareth College, The Taft School Summer Program, and more.

A Brand Handbook is also a very useful tool in such circumstances. Similar to a graphic standards guide, the handbook is a point of reference for anyone preparing communications materials or designing programs and activities. It typically contains brand tools such as the Positioning Statement, the Brand Promise, the Brand Signature Line, use of the line with the school’s graphic system, key brand messages, and guidelines for the style and visual treatment of images used to support the brand. It may also contain ideas and suggestions for integrating the brand into departmental planning and can be disseminated electronically.Outgoing content management is the work of the brand management council.

EVIDENCE OF RESULTS
It takes time and focused commitment to see the effects of a unified brand communications effort. For Nazareth College in Rochester, NY, which launched a comprehensive brand identity program in January 2001, the results are proving to be most gratifying. The first articulation of the brand message was a television campaign to raise awareness of the school’s reputation and its impact in the region, which supported an ambitious development campaign.

Following that, student recruitment materials, the website, the campaign materials, and a new graphic identity have been implemented. The third wave of the school’s television campaign is in development. The capital campaign is closing in on its goal, and a recently conducted research study shows that community awareness and opinions of the school have shifted positively.