EDUCATION

CASE STUDY

Setting a Foundation for Success:  A Truly Collaborative Process in Brand Platform Development

A year before Holy Cross launched its brand platform and unveiled a new visual identity, tagline, and messaging, a highly intentional process was underway. The insights, surprises, and lessons learned from this foundational work helped ensure that a new brand voice would resonate for the 170-year-old Jesuit liberal arts college —and be embraced by internal constituencies. What made this a success?

• In an atypical approach, Holy Cross engaged the Edge team to conduct audience and messaging research after a group of marketing experts — all alumni — developed a set of distinguishing themes to test encapsulating the Holy Cross experience.
• Through qualitative and quantitative research among multiple audiences, clear findings emerged around messaging and pride points. The findings gave the College and the creative team rich material to mine in developing the brand voice.
• Key stakeholders were engaged and consulted along the way. The President and senior leadership received early research briefings. A Trustee champion dramatically unveiled the brand platform to the full Board. Holy Cross, along with Edge, held small group meetings with faculty, departments, students, and alumni, deliberately seeking input on how the campus community could incorporate the messaging into their own programming and communications. This approach, while not without challenges, resulted in more integration and alliances across divisions (including Athletics and Advancement), and more opportunities for community members to recognize how they, too, could serve as brand ambassadors.
• The Holy Cross brand platform will publicly launch in mid-August 2014, and the work, excitement, and campus buy-in is proceeding on schedule.