“Your brand is a gateway to your true work… When you create a compelling brand you attract people who want the promise of your brand – which you deliver.” –Coach Dave Buck
After a year of work on Saint Mary’s University’s rebrand effort, we are rolling it out now and want to share how we are launching and provide background and resources for you. Given the summer months and schedules, we are planning education and celebration activities at the start of the new academic year.
As we have noted in past updates in the Cardinal Update and Cardinal Update Live, the project has been a significant undertaking with input from faculty, staff, current and prospective students, alumni, and others in our community.
While the focus of the project is a new visual identity for us, it is important to remember that a brand is the sum total of all of the images and feelings that someone holds about a particular company, organization, or products and services. Each of us are brand ambassadors as we interact with students, visitors, alumni, community members, parents, and more.
What is changing now?
Last Friday, the first step in this rebrand was officially launched: our new logo and color scheme were added to the Saint Mary’s website and the home page was updated. As the web is our top channel of communication with prospective students, it is a critical channel to reinforce our position and value, and to make it easy for visitors to get the information they want and need quickly and seamlessly. The new website will launch in August, by the beginning of the academic year, so consider this current site and updated look as an interim step in the process.
Our advertising is also changing to reflect the new brand, and will launch on billboards, search, radio, display, and print in July. This advertising will be brand-focused to raise awareness of Saint Mary’s value among prospective undergraduate students and their parents, as well as prospective adult and graduate students, not to mention partners and benefactors.
The marketing and communication team has also partnered with undergraduate admissions and Liaison, a recruitment marketing partner, to develop newly branded pieces for high school students as part of their inquiry and search campaigns to recruit future classes. We will continue to integrate brand messaging and images in all communications over the next several months.
Banners in Winona are being placed around campus. A total of 89 banners will be up in the coming days. Each banner calls out the heart of our brand promise: Because of You. This statement reflects the essential truth behind our brand story in that we exist to provide a transformative and accessible education to students and those students will make a positive impact on the world because of their transformation, who they are, and who they become over their time with us.
Why rebrand now?
This is an exciting and needed step in Saint Mary’s continued evolution. Yet, with all the changes occurring at the university, you may be wondering, why now?
In today’s highly competitive higher education market, now is the perfect time for Saint Mary’s to tell its story in a clear, consistent, and compelling way through its new branding. The rebrand, which will bring increased visibility to Saint Mary’s, is part of our ongoing commitment to the viability and sustainability of the university. Ever mindful of our financial challenges, this brand rollout will occur in phases.
Resources for you
We have created the first set of resources for you and added them to the Marketing and Communication site (login required). These include:
- Electronic letterhead
- Esignature
- Font packages
- PowerPoint Templates
On the site, you will also find a link to order the following:
- Name badges
- Business cards
- Stationery
Last, but certainly not least, you will find a link to Saint Mary’s Brand Book. The brand book will help you consistently, effectively, and clearly express what Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota brings to the lives of its students every day: personal inspiration, character-building education, and future-ready skills.
As mentioned, we are rolling the brand out intentionally and in phases. Due to budget constraints and our desire to be fiscally responsible, we are not embarking on a global rebrand effort (out with the old and in with the new) but we do want externally-facing and key campus locations to showcase our new branding in a loud and proud way. So over the next weeks, we will add additional resources to the MarComm site, update signage and banners on all our campuses, and launch new brand advertising.
Thank you for all you have done and continue to do to bring the Saint Mary’s brand to life!