СAPPBrandСAPP is one of todayСAPPs buzzwords.
One reason: It can have many meanings, depending on how itСAPPs used and whoСAPPs using it.
Matt Tarver, СAPP92, СAPP95, the СAPPСAPPs branding manager, says definitions of СAPPbrandСAPP range from simple to complex.
СAPPA 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.
СAPPAnd, 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 СAPPquality,СAPP СAPPsafetyСAPP and СAPPvalueСAPP with their products.СAPP
In higher education, branding is usually intended to set a university apart from its competitors. An effective brand communicates a universityСAPPs core principles.
СAPPOur brand expresses who we are. ItСAPPs shaped by how we talk about our work, how we treat students and faculty, the impact we have and our history,СAPP 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 СAPP 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 HearneСAPPs research findings provided insight needed to develop an effective brand positioning strategy.
The next phase of the firmСAPPs work focused on expressing the essence of the СAPP. 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 СAPP marketing communication.
Lipman Hearne then crafted, tested and refined specific messages that it recommended the СAPP should use to convey its brand.
By December 2009, Lipman Hearne had crystallized the brand platform to: СAPPWe are smart, spirited and seeking solutions.СAPP
It then drafted six key messages to support that position.
- This is our time and weСAPPre determined to make the most of it.
- WeСAPPre eager to share what weСAPPre 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 RaginСAPP Cajun® spirit goes beyond athletics.
(See related story, pages 30 - 31)
The Office of Communications and Marketing prepared a digital СAPPbranding toolkitСAPP that includes an overview of branding, a graphic standards manual and UL LafayetteСAPPs branding messages. Its staff began talking with groups of СAPP personnel and giving them the toolkit on jump drives shaped like the СAPPСAPPs fleur-de-lis.
СAPPFor a СAPPСAPPs branding campaign to be successful, it must first be embraced on campus by administrators, faculty, staff and students. We must speak with one voice,СAPP said Aaron Martin, СAPP91, СAPP95, director of Communications and Marketing. СAPPOur brand has evolved gradually. We have embraced it and are living our brand.СAPP
One challenge is that the СAPP has had four names in its almost 115-year history:
Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute, Southwestern Louisiana Institute, the СAPP of Southwestern Louisiana and, since 1999, the СAPP.
For almost 20 years, former СAPP president Dr. Ray Authement and other СAPP leaders had steadfastly championed changing USLСAPPs name. They contended that СAPPSouthwesternСAPP gave the impression that the СAPP was a regional, rather than statewide, institution. СAPPDouble-directionalСAPP 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 СAPPСAPPs name changes were never arbitrary.
СAPPEvery name change has reflected the growth and progression of this institution. The switch to the СAPP is no different,СAPP he said in an interview with La Louisiane in 1995. СAPPOur new name, the СAPP, will better reflect what USL has become СAPP a nationally competitive university.СAPP
Branding has captured higher educationСAPPs 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 SLIIСAPPs development.
Although he might not have described it as branding, his decisions shaped the schoolСAPPs 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 SLIIСAPPs brand was by planting oak seedlings on campus on New YearСAPPs 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 SLIIСAPPs campus strategically. When grown, the oak trees became symbols of the schoolСAPPs strength, stability and foresight.
Stephens also influenced the schoolСAPPs brand when he helped design Southwestern Louisiana InstituteСAPPs seal.
Adopted in 1926, the crest commemorated SLIIСAPPs accreditation as a four-year college and dropping СAPPIndustrialСAPP from its name.
A traditional higher education symbol, the seal features a wreath of oak leaves and incorporates three fleurs-de-lis to symbolize LouisianaСAPPs historical ties to France.
A less obvious, but nonetheless significant, branding element was StephensСAPP personal attention to studentsСAPP welfare. Almost 10 years after his death in 1938, The Vermilion, SLIСAPPs student newspaper, noted that his correspondence СAPPis filled with letters to anxious parents informing them of the progress of MarieСAPPs cold, or JohnСAPPs Measles, of HenryСAPPs lack of attention in class or ElizabethСAPPs weakness in Arithmetic.СAPP
StephensСAPP successors maintained, in their own ways, the campus culture he had carefully crafted. For example, Dr. Lether Frazar, SLIСAPPs 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 schoolСAPPs third leader, earned a reputation for remembering studentsСAPP 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 СAPP of Southwestern Louisiana, the second-largest public, four-year university in the state.
In 1992, Joseph Savoie, СAPP76, СAPP81, was the first to fill a new seat in AuthementСAPPs administration: vice president of Advancement.
In higher education circles, СAPPadvancementСAPP refers to programs and activities that are intended to help people understand and support a schoolСAPPs 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 USLСAPPs 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 SavoieСAPPs guidance, the Alumni Association introduced a licensing program in 1988 to manage and protect the use of USLСAPPs name and logos.
In his first year as vice president of Advancement, the СAPP expanded the Office of News Services to include public relations. Julie Simon-Dronet, СAPP81,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. СAPPNow that we have a PR department, it makes sense for you guys to manage our logos and use of our logos,СAPP he told her.
One of DronetСAPPs first goals was to protect RaginСAPP Cajuns, which national media have frequently called the best nickname in collegiate athletics.
The СAPP began by using the initials TM with RaginСAPP Cajuns. By common law, the TM told the public that anyone who wanted to use the name for a commercial purpose would need the СAPPСAPPs permission.
Dronet later contracted Dean Domingue, СAPP80, 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 СAPP to register it with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Registration defines ownership, so it would assure protection of the nickname.
СAPPOnly two months after the СAPP began to pursue registration, we learned that an out-of-state company was attempting to register СAPPRaginСAPP CajunsСAPP for itself,СAPP she recalled later. That challenge slowed registration a bit. But in 1996, the СAPP was granted federal registration for RaginСAPP 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 СAPPСAPPs name or related graphics or СAPPmarks.СAPP 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 СAPP committee to brainstorm about an official СAPP logo. Ultimately, the group settled on a fleur-de-lis icon. She also hired Nancy Pontiff Marcotte, СAPP83, then a freelance graphic designer, to develop an academic logo. It was the first logo in the schoolСAPPs 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 СAPPСAPPs seal, with its three stylized fleurs-de-lis, had been in use for 41 years before the Saints team was created.
Once the new СAPP 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 СAPPlookСAPP for the most basic official documents, the СAPP announced that it was taking control of its graphic identity and expressing pride in its heritage.
With registration of RaginСAPP Cajuns and creation of an academic logo checked off its to do list, the СAPP turned its attention to developing a brand identity for RaginСAPP Cajuns.
The СAPP had established a strong relationship with Collegiate Licensing Company, which works with about 200 of the nationСAPPs 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 СAPP of Florida, Penn State, the СAPP of Georgia and the СAPP of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
She formed a 13-member Visual Identity Committee to work with Sean Michael Edwards. Members represented key СAPP personnel, alumni and student-athletes.
That committee determined that RaginСAPP Cajun is not an animal or person. Instead, it describes a culture and feeling. СAPPIt means hot and spicy food. It means zydeco and Cajun French music. ItСAPPs festivals. ItСAPPs people who work hard, play hard and spend Sundays with their families,СAPP Dronet said in a 1998 interview. СAPPWhen you add СAPPRaginСAPP СAPP in front of СAPPCajun,СAPP you get athletic teams that are hot, exciting and on the move.СAPP
Timing was key. When USL introduced its athletics mark in 1998, it was preparing to change its name to the СAPP. It had launched a fundraising campaign in conjunction with the СAPPСAPPs Centennial Celebration that culminated in 2000.
СAPPEverybody wanted the new RaginСAPP Cajun marks. When USLСAPPs name changed to the СAPP 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,СAPP Dronet said.
In 2000, the RaginСAPP CajunsСAPP athletics marks got national media exposure when the СAPPСAPPs baseball team competed in the College World Series for the first time in school history.
The sale of baseball caps with the RaginСAPP CajunsСAPP 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.