Unleash your institution’s authentic brand.
Members of American University’s Brand Team – Photo by: Jeff Watts
With competition rising for students, faculty and funding, establishing a strong institutional brand identity has never been more critical. Unfortunately, the colleges and universities most in need of a memorable brand often don’t have the funds to hire large, full-service agencies, nor do they have the bandwidth internally to take it on all on their own. And in many cases, they don’t have years of higher ed branding experience under their belts. That’s where Wiltrout Marketing can help.
We work with your in-house team to create your brand from within, bringing in additional creative resources as needed. We’ll coach your team to think like an agency, guide them to create a brand for the university, establish a plan to sell it internally and launch it externally, and then step back and let them run with it. After all, nobody knows your school and audiences like the folks that live it everyday.
Take a powerful, cost-effective approach to institutional branding.
We realize that every college and university is different and could be at a different point in the branding process. And although we believe a comprehensive approach is typically best, we’ll meet (and help) you wherever you are in the process.
Working with you and your team, we’ll help identify your brand’s strengths and weaknesses. Together, we’ll boil your brand attributes down into a single, simple concept designed to resonate with your audience. And when we’re done, your team will have the skills they need to execute campaign elements and concept new ideas on their own.
Based on your needs we can supplement your team with some of the best freelance writers, designers, photographers, videographers, web designers, media buyers and event planners in the industry. With this approach, you pay for only the services you need, saving your budget for the campaign’s deployment.
Access a comprehensive brand strategy for your college or university.
In addition to doing the creative team assessment and developing an integrated brand strategy with creative concepts, we can also help you:
- Build a case for brand development and funding
- Get buy-in across the institution
- Identify the need (and resources) for additional institutional research
- Evaluate and supplement your creative team
- Inspire and coach your creative team
- Raise the profile of your team
- Create and present brand concepts
- Build a base of brand advocates
- Develop a marketing and media plan for your brand launch
- Identify additional resources for deployment
- Offer advice and coaching throughout the launch process
