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University of Montana spending $200K to develop brand
President Royce Engstrom gave a homework assignment to attendees of Tuesday’s University Council meeting: Think about the strengths of the University of Montana. What does the school mean to you?
These answers will help the University define its brand. The plan is to spend around $200,000 to hire an outside consulting firm to work with administrators, faculty and students over the next year to develop a cohesive marketing strategy, said Beth Hammock, vice president for strategic communication and marketing at the UM Foundation. She added that this should help recruit new students and faculty, increase alumni engagement and attract more philanthropic and legislative support.
Hammock said individual departments currently tend to have their own marketing messages. She gave the example of the UM Foundation, which has a different logo than the University.
"We support the University of Montana, so perhaps we should have the same look and feel," she said.
By Amy Sisk
Full Story: http://www.montanakaimin.com/news/um-spending-200k-to-develop-brand-1.2678888#.TrE5oLLiGq0
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UM Works To Refine Its Brand Image
The marketing of higher education is at the forefront of discussion at The University of Montana this week. On Tuesday, Nov. 1, the University Council heard a presentation about the development of a brand strategy at UM.
Beth Hammock, vice president, strategic communications and marketing for the UM Foundation, is assisting UM President Royce Engstrom by managing the project. She told the council how the brand development process will work and the expected outcomes.
“We all know The University of Montana has many outstanding characteristics,” Hammock said. “The first step will be discerning which qualities are uniquely ours. Then, we will define and refine the UM brand in a way that helps the University better meet its goals.”
Hammock says expected outcomes include:
Enhanced faculty, staff and student recruitment and retention;
Increased alumni engagement;
And more philanthropic and legislative support.
A 20-member task force made up of faculty, staff, alumni and a student is advising University leaders on the project. Jakki Mohr, an internationally recognized marketing professor and Regents Professor at UM, serves on the task force. She explains why branding is so important to UM.
“Successful organizations recognize that a strategic branding initiative is a necessity in a competitive environment where people have many choices,” Mohr said. “In fact, most successful companies would not imagine they could be successful without strategic branding.”
Mohr says branding is particularly important to organizations that provide services – including educational institutions – “given the difficulty in evaluating quality and experience.”
The UM branding campaign will include all facets of the University.
“A branding campaign requires a careful blending of programs, quality delivery of those programs, and communication about those programs to the market,” Mohr said.
The University will contract with a higher education marketing firm that has worked with other public universities in developing brand strategies. The firm will collaborate with the task force to listen to representatives of all of the University’s constituencies. The process will include a research and discovery phase, development of a verbal and visual messaging platform, and creation of a plan for integrating the brand strategy into UM marketing and communications. The goal is to complete the work by June 30, 2012.
http://news.umt.edu/2011/11/110111brnd.aspx
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University of Montana working on rebranding itself
The University of Montana http://www.umt.edu is like logo soup.
Over time, each department has developed its own brand, logo and tagline when marketing to wider audiences.
The School of Business Administration’s logo is a side profile of Mount Sentinel with the "M" and the tagline: "The thinking is clearer up here."
The College of Forestry and Conservation’s logo is green with birds that make up the silhouette of a tree.
The Law School and the College of Arts and Sciences both have logos that depict jagged peaks, but one includes a Griz paw and the other does not. In some cases, even the font of UM’s name varies on academic department websites.
It’s time UM presents a clear, consistent and concise message, said President Royce Engstrom, who first announced the university’s intentions of rebranding itself earlier this year during his State of the University address. On Tuesday, Beth Hammock, vice president for strategic communications and marketing for the UM Foundation and who is leading the university’s overall rebranding efforts, addressed the University Council about the project.
By CHELSI MOY of the Missoulian
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