To Brand or Not To Brand... Good Question.

More than any other human attribute, I think I value creativity the most. Wisdom is good, if you've got it. Leadership is pretty high on my list. Heck, I think "kind heartedness" would even run a pretty good race for first. But for me, creativity is a commodity that carries a lot of weight in my department, The CORE (Campus Organizations, Resources and Entertainment).

Like most of you, I get a certain "high" from creating (or "borrowing" from another school - ha!) that certain theme, t-shirt, poster or FaceBook invite that just rocks. I get goose bumps when we run out of specialty give-away items because the students thought they were cool, and they're begging for more. I even get a kick out of using inside humor in a poster or flyer, and students stop by to tell me they "get it."

Connecting with students is what makes my world go round.

But now I feel like that connection has been severed.

Our university recently hired a marketing firm to come in and assess our strengths and weaknesses, especially in regard to how the community views us. In other words, we wanted to take a hard look at our image.

One year and tens of thousands of dollars later, I'm told to do away with my departmental logo.

The marketing firm was convinced that our university had too many "brands" and logos floating around the community, and that, in turn, created mixed messages. I agree.

My department, however, does not market to the general community. I market to students who are already on my campus. I am competing for my students' attention, to some degree, with recreational sports, campus religious student centers, career services and programs, residential living, etc. I need a brand. My department, in itself, is like an agency.

So now we (my department) have to set ourselves apart from the pack. We must get even more bodies to our events. We must measure and assess and evaluate and plan strategically and report and compete. With no brand. With no logo. With no measure of creativity in our printed materials, t-shirts and web pages.

I can get mad, throw a fit and bad-mouth the Powers That Be. (I did, and it felt pretty good for a while.) But when the dust settled, I still had a problem I had to deal with.

You know, I've been around since the days of mimeograph (kids, look it up on your desktop dictionary widget). I've seen desktop publishing come on the block. LED boards. Email. Full-color poster printing. Vinyl signs. Blinky nametags. Cell phones and text messages. University cable t.v. channels.

And you know what?

Deep down, I know that my programming board members can get just as many people at an event with a personal invite, a handshake, and a kind word of encouragement.

Maybe we need to ease up on relying on technology, marketing and numbers to get the job done, and get back to what's really important -- building relationships.

I've decided that this academic year, I'm going to spend more time hanging out in the student union and work on building relationships with students than sitting at my laptop, trying to design what's cool.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Comments

[Del Suggs]

We're all looking for that "magic bullet" marketing tool that will generate huge crowds at our events and programs. It used to be big ads in the campus newspaper. Then it was posters and fliers. T-shirts with big promotional graphics came along. Now it's the Facebook flier.

With a contained, "reachable" target population like college students, there is really nothing like that personal touch. Word-of-mouth is always the most effective form of marketing, and for two reasons: First, it's focused on the target audience. You can't get more personal than looking some one in the eye and saying "please come to this event." Second, it's the "endorsement factor." I might not believe an ad in the newspaper or a poster or flier, but if Skip Chisum tells me it's hot band then I will believe it.

I won't be surprised when you have an even larger audience for your events this year. You'll also be marketing harder than ever, because you feel like you've lost your best tool. That extra effort will go a long way, too.

[Sara Hyman]

Did the marketing team consult with you about your logo and why you use it, or did they just one day tell you to cut it?

[Skip Chisum]

Both.

Several of us from Student Affairs met with the marketing team and spent a great deal of time illustrating how we market, how we use our logos, why we use our logos, etc.

Some time later, we (the entire campus) were told to discontinue the use of departmental/program logos.

Not to sound too "doom-and-gloom" -- things have actually eased up in recent weeks. I think our Communication Services department, as well as the webmaster, felt a need to rein in our image. There were a lot of things (images) floating around out there.

[Dawn Vanniman]

I never had a logo in my area, but we're doing the very things you're talking about! Let us know how it goes for you - the personal invite and word of mouth works fairly well for us, but we're always looking for more ways to advertise!