Brand Identity Development

A Case Study in Revitalization

When I joined the Eastern Kentucky University team as the Director of Branding and Marketing just 5 years after I had graduated with my undergraduate degree, I knew my alma mater was in decline.

• EKU's brand identity was stale, boring, and stagnant for nearly ten years

• The market was oversaturated and competitors with far greater resources and brand recognition loomed large

• The brand guide was inaccessible and created more confusion than clarification for campus users

So, I got to work. I conducted preliminary research from primary and secondary sources. Then, I focused on remediating immediate issues like trademark violations, and secured the assistance of an incredibly talented multimedia creative team and art director. We worked for six months.

The result? A revitalized brand guide nearly quadruple the size of its predecessor oriented around consistency, relevancy, cohesion, and high quality complete with

• Primary color refresh and introduction of fresh accent colors (and easy downloads)

• Bold, dynamic new typefaces (and easy downloads)

• Brand architecture for primary, secondary, and auxiliary extensions

• Strategic message map

But faculty, staff, and students were hesitant about changes. They remembered a time when the brand violation remediation approach didn't value campus buy-in; they remembered a severe, humiliating top-down approach to remediation with no transparency from the department responsible.

Under my direction, our department took proactive action to communicate before the launch with leading stakeholders to listen, address concerns, and provide context. Then, we planned and executed an highly individualized internal communications launch campaign, complete with trainings, FAQs, and scholarly research.

Not only did we revitalize the brand identity, my team rebuilt the trust of our most important stakeholders.

Eastern Kentucky University | GameChanger

Now, after a successful internal communications plan and launch, EKU's brand is agile, competitive in the market, and aligned to what prospective students want from an institution.

In working with Admissions and Recruitment, I originated the next university-wide campaign and latest trademark: GameChanger. From copy to visual assets to full-scale implementation, I crafted the strategic direction for the campaign.

The brand voice adopted a confident, informal, and direct approach to evoke emotion and prompt further engagement. It is tailored by audience, but generally follows these hallmarks:

• Conversational – the audience member is getting the scoop on something new/surprising

• Relatable – a confident (almost cocky), suave (almost mysterious) older sibling / uncle

• Dynamic/Punchy/with a bite – direct

The Data Doesn't Lie

During a period of national enrollment decline, EKU has experienced a nearly 30% increase in enrollment since 2020, and retention rates are at all-time highs. Moreover, EKU is capitalizing on a brand identity more closely resembling its aspirational peerset (University of Kentucky or University of Oregon) rather than its functional peerset (such as Western Kentucky University).

In just 35 days, digital advertising campaigns broke records in CPM, CPC, and overall impressions and reach surpassing any of the previous campaigns combined.

But some measures of success aren't quantitative. Campus partners across all walks of life are engaging with the brand and the brand guide at unprecedented levels, largely signifying stakeholder buy-in and loyalty when just one year prior, they expressed frustration, confusion, and even resentment when discussing the EKU brand.