Gettysburg College - Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth
Millersville University of Pennsylvania - The College of New Jersey - Wells College
Gettysburg College
Cognitive Marketing has served Gettysburg College since 1998. We are proud of this consistency of service, as we believe it is a testament to the enduring value of the work we do. For Gettysburg we have implemented the following: Market Voicing brand development; brand and identity standards to ensure consistency across communications; design of a new college seal; design of the identity for The College at 175 celebration year; and the design of the identity system for The Eisenhower Institute (the college’s public policy institute). We also introduced The First Year Walk – an annual ceremony that commemorates President Lincoln’s delivery of the Gettysburg Address, which has now become a beloved college tradition. We also worked with Trustees and a committee of Gettysburg faculty and staff to plan the College’s approach to the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and the events that occurred in Gettysburg, especially those involving the College and its people.
Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth
We enjoyed the challenge of establishing a strong and distinguished brand for the Thayer School within the context of the institutional brand of Dartmouth College. In so doing, we provided the Dean, faculty, and staff with an effective way to position Thayer School amid the best of our nation's far larger engineering schools. Market Voicing yielded new language to express the 40-year-old Thayer School concept of an engineering education that does away with the traditional “silos” of engineering. The brand signature, “The box does not exist,” quickly became part of the vernacular of the Thayer community. In addition to the full Market Voicing brand development study, we designed a new graphic identifier and implemented a comprehensive overhaul of their website.
Millersville University
Our multi-year engagement with Millersville University began with a comprehensive institutional identity program that engaged hundreds of representatives of the campus and alumni communities, partnering businesses, and the regional government. The primary goal of the marketing and advertising plan was to “reintroduce” the University to the region it serves and establish Millersville as a major point of pride for the region, particularly among alumni. The multi-year plan has changed perceptions and built awareness of the value of the University at a critical time relative to the public launch of a major capital campaign. Millersville University’s senior leadership has been wholeheartedly committed to this work, and the effect of that commitment has been to energize the entire campus community.
The College of New Jersey
When we began our brand development work for The College of New Jersey (known until 1996 as Trenton State College), the school was relying heavily upon its stellar third-party rankings to make its case to prospective students, parents, and other constituents. Moreover, TCNJ was a largely invisible brand in neighboring states, despite being an exceptionally competitive institution with a distinctive and compelling program to offer. Market Voicing laid the foundation for a much more assertive, sure-footed, and confident marketing program designed to deliver the institution’s brand promise:
“The College of New Jersey readies exceptional students to take up the charge of improving the world.”
We have set upon a course to gather the members of the college community around their shared values and beliefs, raise the visibility of the institution in out-of-state markets, and make sure that the people of New Jersey come to full awareness that TCNJ is “the jewel in the crown” of the state’s public education system.
Wells College
Our work for Wells College began at a time of substantial institutional stress occasioned in large measure by the 2004 decision of the trustees of this venerable women’s college to become a coeducational institution. The brand work was particularly helpful to the administration in positioning the move to coeducation as preserving, rather than extinguishing, the essence of Wells - and in providing assurance that the DNA of the school had not been fundamentally altered by the introduction of men to the student body. Student recruitment has been the number one priority in our service to Wells College. The marketing campaign is designed to consistently portray the essence of Wells in ways that resonate with those future students for whom Wells would be the perfect college experience. Since the start of our engagement, enrollment has increased sixty percent; a quarter of today’s students are men.