Branding efforts build school pride

After a months-long process and input from across campus, two slogans were placed on Rhode Island College President Nancy Carriuolo’s desk. It was her choice to decide which would become her school’s new motto.
Carriuolo, who was named as the school’s ninth president May 2008 and was sworn into office officially in November, selected “Reach. Inspire. Connect.”
The winner was the product of a slogan-creating committee she had formed, complete with marketing professors, the director of admissions, faculty, students and staff. “We had focus groups with alumni and students and staff,” said Director of News and Public Relations Jane Fusco, who chairs the committee. “But what we also did was create a dedicated e-mail account so that anyone from the campus community could add their input. We wanted to make this truly a whole-college effort.”
The solicitation brought in more than 150 suggestions – an “overwhelming” amount – that were then narrowed down by Fusco’s office, she said. Words were plucked out. Phrases were combined or cut.
The slogan is the first step in a larger campaign to create a new brand for the college, Fusco said, “so we wanted it to be something that everyone could relate to – our faculty, our alumni, every group.”
Relating to the entire community is what branding a college is all about, University of Rhode Island Director of Marketing and Communication Linda A. Acciardo said in a recent interview. URI’s new – “Think Big. We Do.” – slogan, created with input from the branding firm FORGE Worldwide, is part of a branding effort intended to portray URI as a university with a small campus but global reach.
“That’s where we’ve found our niche,” Acciardo said. “We’re large enough to have a global impact, but small enough that we have a caring and friendly campus community.”
A campaign like that isn’t taken lightly, Acciardo added, because it should only represent the true culture of the school. “You want to be clear about what you are,” Acciardo said.
Higher education institutions historically haven’t been “terribly comfortable” with advanced marketing, Acciardo said. But URI’s current campaign has gained support because many schools “are in survival mode. We’re in a place where we clearly need to be able to declare our strengths to our audiences.” And URI already claims some success for its multiyear branding campaign, which included relaunching the university’s Web site last fall. Traffic to the Web site – “clearly one of the most important vehicles for recruitment these days” – grew 166 percent year over year in October, when it launched. The school had 1.4 million page views in October 2008, with an “average view time of over 5 minutes, which is extraordinary,” Acciardo said.
In the New York and New Jersey area, where many of URI’s students come from, URI sought to bolster its brand with a high-density campaign of “Think Big. We Do.” print and online media, billboards, television and radio, Acciardo said.
With an approximately $400,000 investment in those key recruitment areas, applications there rose by 6.3 percent between 2008 and 2009. That was a greater increase than the total out-of-state application increase of 4.6 percent, Acciardo said.
A survey of potential applicants and their parents in that high-density marketing area showed that 54 percent of respondents were led to consider URI as a “school of choice” because of the campaign and 36 percent were led to apply as a result of the campaign. “All of the testing showed that we were headed in the right direction,” Acciardo added.
URI has committed to a five-year marketing and branding plan. From there, it will continue to “refine” the brand, Acciardo said. “The institution has certainly made an investment in this, and we want to be good stewards of that investment.”
Drawing new students is only one of the reasons for branding an institution.
Vice President for University Advancement Robert Beagle said recently that the school’s new campaign was also meant to resonate among the alumni community, which is much larger than the current student population. Along with bolstering URI graduates’ spirit about their alma mater, a campaign like this can help draw former students into alumni groups and school events. “One of reasons that we went forward with this campaign is that we want to make people more aware of the value of URI and the quality of the institution,” Beagle said. “Obviously, that helps recruit students. But it also makes alumni feel good because the more people perceive the value of the university, the higher they perceive the value of your degree.”
And registering an effective new slogan with alumni could, of course, also lead to increased donor activity, Beagle said. During the coming school year, as part of the “Big Thinkers” speaker series – which gets its name from the “Think Big. We Do.” slogan – President David M. Dooley will tour the country, meeting alumni and talking to alumni groups.
At RIC, alumni support is also being stirred up. Alumnus Arty Goldstein, who owns Warwick’s A Gold Production video company, has signed on to produce video content for this fall’s branding campaign, Fusco said. Production of marketing materials by those who are or have been involved with the school are usually of the highest quality because “we have a vested interest in the school,” she added. “We know our school better than anyone.”
And running a marketing campaign internally also saves money.
“Other schools go to the outside and they spend hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars using a PR or advertising agency,” Fusco said. “We went inside and came up with what was a better exercise, at no cost to the college. ”
The other finalist that had made its way to Carriuolo’s desk was: “Our Mission. Your Success.”
The winning slogan, however, better fit RIC’s mission, because it applies to the entire campus community, Fusco said.
Now, along with putting the slogan on all campus publications, RIC is gearing up for an advertising and promotional campaign. Before school starts again this fall, Fusco’s committee is hoping to finalize a television, Web and print media campaign. &#8226