ӰרBrandӰר is one of todayӰרs buzzwords.
One reason: It can have many meanings, depending on how itӰרs used and whoӰרs using it.
Matt Tarver, Ӱר92, Ӱר95, the ӰרӰרs branding manager, says definitions of ӰרbrandӰר range from simple to complex.
ӰרA brand can just be a catchphrase, or a logo or a repeatedly used color combination. But it should be so much more. A strong brand connects with people in a way that evokes an emotional reaction.
ӰרAnd, although a brand can mean many things to various people, an effective brand still carries certain universal associations. Most corporations, for example, want consumers to associate terms such as Ӱרquality,Ӱר ӰרsafetyӰר and ӰרvalueӰר with their products.Ӱר
In higher education, branding is usually intended to set a university apart from its competitors. An effective brand communicates a universityӰרs core principles.
ӰרOur brand expresses who we are. ItӰרs shaped by how we talk about our work, how we treat students and faculty, the impact we have and our history,Ӱר Tarver said.
Although corporations and universities may use the word a little differently, both want their brands to evoke the same emotion: loyalty.
In late 2008, the Ӱר hired Lipman Hearne,
a Chicago-based consulting firm that specializes in higher education branding, to help articulate its brand. Lipman Hearne worked with top UL Lafayette administrators, academic deans, and a 35-member Branding Project Task Force.
It conducted online surveys and face-to-face interviews, tapping into a variety of audiences, such as high school guidance counselors and teachers, prospective students, higher education leaders and the general public. It also analyzed the higher education market in Louisiana.
Lipman HearneӰרs research findings provided insight needed to develop an effective brand positioning strategy.
The next phase of the firmӰרs work focused on expressing the essence of the Ӱר. It began with this question: What does UL Lafayette offer that is distinctive, valuable and worthy of a personal investment? The answers, along with the research findings, would form a brand platform, or foundation, for all Ӱר marketing communication.
Lipman Hearne then crafted, tested and refined specific messages that it recommended the Ӱר should use to convey its brand.
By December 2009, Lipman Hearne had crystallized the brand platform to: ӰרWe are smart, spirited and seeking solutions.Ӱר
It then drafted six key messages to support that position.
- This is our time and weӰרre determined to make the most of it.
- WeӰרre eager to share what weӰרre learning.
- We teach the real meaning of joie de vivre.
- We have a gift for bringing people together.
- We conduct research for a reason.
- Our RaginӰר Cajun® spirit goes beyond athletics.
(See related story, pages 30 - 31)
The Office of Communications and Marketing prepared a digital Ӱרbranding toolkitӰר that includes an overview of branding, a graphic standards manual and UL LafayetteӰרs branding messages. Its staff began talking with groups of Ӱר personnel and giving them the toolkit on jump drives shaped like the ӰרӰרs fleur-de-lis.
ӰרFor a ӰרӰרs branding campaign to be successful, it must first be embraced on campus by administrators, faculty, staff and students. We must speak with one voice,Ӱר said Aaron Martin, Ӱר91, Ӱר95, director of Communications and Marketing. ӰרOur brand has evolved gradually. We have embraced it and are living our brand.Ӱר
One challenge is that the Ӱר has had four names in its almost 115-year history:
Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute, Southwestern Louisiana Institute, the Ӱר of Southwestern Louisiana and, since 1999, the Ӱר.
For almost 20 years, former Ӱר president Dr. Ray Authement and other Ӱר leaders had steadfastly championed changing USLӰרs name. They contended that ӰרSouthwesternӰר gave the impression that the Ӱר was a regional, rather than statewide, institution. ӰרDouble-directionalӰר names, such as Southwestern Louisiana, are more commonly used to identify two-year community colleges than four-year universities in the United States.
And, Authement often noted that the ӰרӰרs name changes were never arbitrary.
ӰרEvery name change has reflected the growth and progression of this institution. The switch to the Ӱר is no different,Ӱר he said in an interview with La Louisiane in 1995. ӰרOur new name, the Ӱר, will better reflect what USL has become Ӱר a nationally competitive university.Ӱר
Branding has captured higher educationӰרs interest primarily in the past 20 years.
But Dr. Edwin Stephens began branding Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute soon after he was hired as its first president on Jan. 3, 1900. He was charged with literally establishing a postsecondary institution to serve south Louisiana.
The 27-year-old former high school chemistry and physics teacher from New Orleans was responsible for almost every aspect of SLIIӰרs development.
Although he might not have described it as branding, his decisions shaped the schoolӰרs identity.
Over the years, Stephens cultivated an environment conducive to the mission of an institution of higher learning.
So, as SLII grew, its campus reflected a classic architectural style often associated with colleges and universities. A Quadrangle was formed by buildings and connected by an arcade, for example.
One of the most meaningful ways that Stephens contributed to SLIIӰרs brand was by planting oak seedlings on campus on New YearӰרs Day in 1901. Of course, he knew that it would take decades for them to become majestic trees.
The gesture showed that he was shaping SLIIӰרs campus strategically. When grown, the oak trees became symbols of the schoolӰרs strength, stability and foresight.
Stephens also influenced the schoolӰרs brand when he helped design Southwestern Louisiana InstituteӰרs seal.
Adopted in 1926, the crest commemorated SLIIӰרs accreditation as a four-year college and dropping ӰרIndustrialӰר from its name.
A traditional higher education symbol, the seal features a wreath of oak leaves and incorporates three fleurs-de-lis to symbolize LouisianaӰרs historical ties to France.
A less obvious, but nonetheless significant, branding element was StephensӰר personal attention to studentsӰר welfare. Almost 10 years after his death in 1938, The Vermilion, SLIӰרs student newspaper, noted that his correspondence Ӱרis filled with letters to anxious parents informing them of the progress of MarieӰרs cold, or JohnӰרs Measles, of HenryӰרs lack of attention in class or ElizabethӰרs weakness in Arithmetic.Ӱר
StephensӰר successors maintained, in their own ways, the campus culture he had carefully crafted. For example, Dr. Lether Frazar, SLIӰרs second president, supervised a construction boom during his two-year term. He maintained the traditional, timeless architectural style of campus. Dr. Joel Lafayette Fletcher Jr., the schoolӰרs third leader, earned a reputation for remembering studentsӰר names and for keeping in touch with students who were serving in the armed forces during World War II.
Dr. Clyde Rougeou and Dr. Ray P. Authement continued to position the school as a place where students received personal attention, even after SLI had become the Ӱר of Southwestern Louisiana, the second-largest public, four-year university in the state.
In 1992, Joseph Savoie, Ӱר76, Ӱר81, was the first to fill a new seat in AuthementӰרs administration: vice president of Advancement.
In higher education circles, ӰרadvancementӰר refers to programs and activities that are intended to help people understand and support a schoolӰרs educational goals. At UL Lafayette, advancement is the umbrella for fundraising; communications and marketing; and alumni affairs.
When he became vice president of Advancement, Savoie was director of USLӰרs Alumni Association for 10 years. Under his leadership, the Association grew from about 350 members to roughly 8,000 members; the number of alumni chapters more than doubled.
With SavoieӰרs guidance, the Alumni Association introduced a licensing program in 1988 to manage and protect the use of USLӰרs name and logos.
In his first year as vice president of Advancement, the Ӱר expanded the Office of News Services to include public relations. Julie Simon-Dronet, Ӱר81,was hired as the first director of Public Relations and News Services. She already had a successful career in the health care industry.
Dronet had not been working for USL long when Savoie handed her a cardboard box with some file folders in it. ӰרNow that we have a PR department, it makes sense for you guys to manage our logos and use of our logos,Ӱר he told her.
One of DronetӰרs first goals was to protect RaginӰר Cajuns, which national media have frequently called the best nickname in collegiate athletics.
The Ӱר began by using the initials TM with RaginӰר Cajuns. By common law, the TM told the public that anyone who wanted to use the name for a commercial purpose would need the ӰרӰרs permission.
Dronet later contracted Dean Domingue, Ӱר80, a patent attorney who is now special counsel in the Jones Walker law firm. He was aware of the growing popularity of the nickname and urged the Ӱר to register it with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Registration defines ownership, so it would assure protection of the nickname.
ӰרOnly two months after the Ӱר began to pursue registration, we learned that an out-of-state company was attempting to register ӰרRaginӰר CajunsӰר for itself,Ӱר she recalled later. That challenge slowed registration a bit. But in 1996, the Ӱר was granted federal registration for RaginӰר Cajuns, which made ownership official and granted legal rights to its use.
In the meantime, Dronet gathered as many samples of printed material as she could find across campus that used the ӰרӰרs name or related graphics or Ӱרmarks.Ӱר She demonstrated that, collectively, it was a visual train wreck.
No representation was consistent. There was no distinction between academics and athletics. Vermilion, one of the official school colors, ran a gamut of shades of red. Typefaces were varied and random.
So Dronet formed a Ӱר committee to brainstorm about an official Ӱר logo. Ultimately, the group settled on a fleur-de-lis icon. She also hired Nancy Pontiff Marcotte, Ӱר83, then a freelance graphic designer, to develop an academic logo. It was the first logo in the schoolӰרs history to combine an image and words.
Critics complained that the New Orleans Saints professional football team had already claimed a fleur-de-lis for its logo. But the ӰרӰרs seal, with its three stylized fleurs-de-lis, had been in use for 41 years before the Saints team was created.
Once the new Ӱר logo was tweaked and approved, Marcotte designed official letterhead, envelopes and business cards that incorporated it. Authement made its use mandatory and Public Relations and News Services produced a graphic standards manual to ensure conformity.
By requiring a uniform ӰרlookӰר for the most basic official documents, the Ӱר announced that it was taking control of its graphic identity and expressing pride in its heritage.
With registration of RaginӰר Cajuns and creation of an academic logo checked off its to do list, the Ӱר turned its attention to developing a brand identity for RaginӰר Cajuns.
The Ӱר had established a strong relationship with Collegiate Licensing Company, which works with about 200 of the nationӰרs top universities to protect, promote and expand their brands.
Savoie recommended that Dronet contact Sean Michael Edwards Design in New York City. That firm had created logos for the NFL, NBA, NHL and many major universities, such as the Ӱר of Florida, Penn State, the Ӱר of Georgia and the Ӱר of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
She formed a 13-member Visual Identity Committee to work with Sean Michael Edwards. Members represented key Ӱר personnel, alumni and student-athletes.
That committee determined that RaginӰר Cajun is not an animal or person. Instead, it describes a culture and feeling. ӰרIt means hot and spicy food. It means zydeco and Cajun French music. ItӰרs festivals. ItӰרs people who work hard, play hard and spend Sundays with their families,Ӱר Dronet said in a 1998 interview. ӰרWhen you add ӰרRaginӰר Ӱר in front of ӰרCajun,Ӱר you get athletic teams that are hot, exciting and on the move.Ӱר
Timing was key. When USL introduced its athletics mark in 1998, it was preparing to change its name to the Ӱר. It had launched a fundraising campaign in conjunction with the ӰרӰרs Centennial Celebration that culminated in 2000.
ӰרEverybody wanted the new RaginӰר Cajun marks. When USLӰרs name changed to the Ӱר in 1999, fans wanted the new marks with the new name. That really helped to grow our program and got people more excited about wearing our merchandise,Ӱר Dronet said.
In 2000, the RaginӰר CajunsӰר athletics marks got national media exposure when the ӰרӰרs baseball team competed in the College World Series for the first time in school history.
The sale of baseball caps with the RaginӰר CajunsӰר logo is one anecdotal indication of the success of the athletics marks. In 2008, Lids was one of the largest collegiate retailers of caps in the United States. It sold 38 styles of UL Lafayette caps in markets as far away as Montana, Arizona and Colorado.