During your first couple of weeks back on the campus grounds, you might have noticed the various “What Great Minds Can Do” signs placed all around, and you may have wondered about the significance or purpose of the signs.
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In hopes of attracting more undergraduate and graduate students who are driven and excel academically, while competing with other universities nationwide, the Office of Public Relations and Marketing has developed the ‘Great Minds’ University Branding Campaign on campus.
When executed correctly, marketing and branding campaigns can help institutions, like Seton Hall University, distinguish themselves, and as a result, draw students in to take a second look at what the institution has to offer them.
Effective and consistent branding campaigns can help a university not only achieve its student enrollment goals but also enhance its national reputation, engage alumni students and increase donor support.
You may have also noticed that the signs are a lighter shade of blue compared to our signature dark blue university color. Some students even went on to question if this signaled an alteration in our signature university colors.
Mr. Dan Kalmanson, the Associate Vice President for Public Relations and Marketing, explains how and why the colors involved in the campaign diverge from the university colors.
“The official University colors—dark blue and white—have not changed and are still the official colors. However, as part of the new branding campaign we have added two accent colors—light blue and orange—to our University color palette to give us more options when designing print and digital publications,” said Kalmanson. “The light blue banners you see on campus are part of this effort but will not replace the official colors. They were designed to complement the official University colors.”
The varied color spectrum also illustrates the wide-range of students that make up our campus community, and our goal of diversifying our community even further.
“The new ‘Great Minds’ tagline directly supports one of the University’s top strategic goals of highlighting our distinctive academics and scholarly research,” added Kalmanson. “The new branding campaign will allow us to showcase the high-level research and scholarship being conducted by our students and faculty as well as the success of our alumni. This is our opportunity to show the world how great Seton Hall really is.”
The University’s website will serve as a platform for the campaign, as it will now feature a different student, faculty or alumni “Great Mind” each week on its homepage.
Additionally, all the undergraduate admissions communication’s pieces have been redesigned to reflect the new branding strategy. The branding campaign will also be included in the University’s brochures, flyers, stationery, business cards, email signatures, PowerPoint presentations, etc.
With the help of the Office working closely with its campus partners to align their marketing communications with the University’s new brand strategy, the goal of attracting more high-achieving students will be attained.
Alyssa Hawkins can be reached at alyssa.hawkins@student.shu.edu.
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