PS&L Blog

Recently, I got caught up in a branding conversation with a college. They wanted to “re-brand themselves in the market” with a new logo and tagline. When I hear this from an established institution of higher ed, I feel the hair on the back of my neck raising.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a firm supporter of branding, positioning, and imaging plans and how they can support enrollment development. It’s what we do at Paskill Stapleton & Lord day in and day out. What raises my hairs is the assumption that little from the past “brand identity” should be salvaged, as though it’s easy to remove the existing brand from the consciousness of the market. It can be done, but there are costs, many of them hidden.

My take on rebranding and new taglines is this. Most colleges and universities already have an established brand and are already positioned in the market. So work it. Refine the messages. Be more consistent. Reveal it in your communications flows; on your web pages. Share it internally and externally. Think beyond the logo and tagline.

But most importantly, LIVE THE BRAND. Demonstrate it in your academic programming, in the classroom and in residence life. Reflect it in who and how you recruit. Integrate it into your co-curricular activities, first-year experience program, career planning and how you interact with alumni.

All the great marketing and planning in the world won’t be nearly as effective as the brand lived by your students. Give students the experience you promised and you’ll have the beginnings of a thunderous grass roots marketing effort. It will show up in the social media students dwell in and you wish you could control. In the end they will tell you if you need to rebrand, and what they may be asking for is more that just changing your logo and tagline.