Marketing and Meaning:
The ISU Brand
Unbounded Possibilities
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Overview
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Office of Communications and Marketing
What is a Brand?
Development of the Brand Messages at ISU
So, What’s UP With That?
Conclusions and Questions
Division of Enrollment Management,
Marketing, and Communications
• ISU Magazine, Marketing, Media Relations,
Photography, University Publications, Web
Services, and Video Production
• Combining EM with MKT/COM is an
emerging organizational model in public
higher education
• Greater and broader understanding of the
importance of enrollment
• Enrollment is Goal One (Job One)
What is a Brand?
http://www.borshoff.biz/video.html
A “brand” is simply the essence
of an organization.
The brand is
• who you serve;
• what you provide; and
• how you deliver it (what is special and
unique about your provision of the product,
service, or need).
Our brand is
• who you serve – students (parents, alumni,
the state, etc.)
• what you provide – education (teaching,
service, and research); and
• how you deliver it – we deliver a quality
education with an emphasis on experiential
learning, community engagement, and
applied research.
The brand is a statement about
what makes an organization,
person, or product special.
What makes ISU special?
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Experiential learning
Community engagement
Research that matters
Challenging educational
opportunities
Positioning Statement
• ISU (who) is the pre-eminent public
institution that integrates teaching and
research (what) for high-achieving, goaloriented students who seek
opportunities for personal, professional
and intellectual growth on a diverse,
civically engaged campus (for whom).
Positioning and Brand Promise
• From their first day, our students are actively
challenged by high-quality, experiential academic
programs and are supported by personal attention from
our dedicated faculty and staff who inspire students to
create and apply knowledge through dynamic
partnerships with the community and the world (what’s
different).
• Our graduates are valued for their demonstrated
knowledge and expertise, active citizenship and
leadership qualities (so what).
• Brand promise: Indiana State University = To Be
Engaged and Challenged
Does It Resonate?
http://www.indstate.edu/classof2014/
• We were up 672 more new first-time
students in the fall 2010 semester than the
year before (2,707 students)
• New transfers were up 3.5% (27 students)
and graduate students were up 8.7% (40
students)
• Headcount was 11,494 (a 9% increase)
What does this mean to your
Unbounded Possibilities proposal?
Define what is special
• We transform lives – impact on first
generation college students (including
minority students)
• Social mobility
• We take people places
• Students learn by doing from their first
semesters at ISU
Questions to Consider
Conclusions and Questions