West Chester University has a long, proud history of educating citizen scholars. It is timely, then, that we embark on a brand refresh as we look to celebrate our 150th year of serving the students of Pennsylvania and beyond.
The brand will drive continued growth and both national and international recruitment.
- The University has experienced unprecedented growth thanks in part to:
- 180+ undergraduate and graduate programs
- Small classes
- 19:1 student to faculty ratio
- Personalized attention
- Affordability
- Flexibility
- National rankings
- At the same time, demographics are shifting across the state of Pennsylvania and the nation.
- The rebrand is crucial as the University looks to the future of national and international recruitment at every level
160over90
- Chosen by a multi-division RFP committee with approval from the Unviersity President and Cabinet
- 160over90 is headquartered in Philadelphia with offices 15 offices from Atlanta to
- 50% of the agency’s clients are higher education including Notre Dame, University of Florida, Loyola in Maryland, and University of Virginia
- 50% of the agency’s clients are consumer brands including Under Armor, the Philadelphia Eagles, and Nike Tennis.
- The committee believed 160over90 brought the best diversity of experience paired with higher education experience, and was the best suited to make WCU a national name.
Navigate through ourBrand Standards
Goal
Our goal is to create greater brand awareness in Pennsylvania as well as in the I-95 corridor (specifically Washington, D.C. to the New York City metro area). By creating more opportunity for visibility, WCU looks to increase the number of qualified applications in our region and beyond through:
Creation of an overarching University brand
Additional related sub-brands for undergraduate, graduate, online, and Philadelphia admissions
Identities for individual colleges with possibility of extension to other areas of the University and athletics
Timeline
Phase One: Research & Discovery
Highlights:
- More than 300 individuals interviewed by the agency
- Peer/competitor audit
- Brand perception survey
- Qualitative and Quantitative results tabulated
Phase Two: Development of Strategic Framework and Creative Concepts
Highlights:
- Use qualitative and quantitative research results to drive creative concepts
- Presentation of concepts to RFP committee and cabinet
- Virtual town hall meetings for University consensus building
- Concept testing with current and prospective students
Phase 3 Development and Execution of External Communications Campaign
Highlights:
- Provide brand platform standards guide
- Deliver on-campus training workshops for externally facing offices (admissions, marketing, communications) and other offices and positions that will support the brand (IT, digital media managers, etc.)
- Initial launch of print, Web, digital assets, outdoor, television, radio, etc.
- Establish benchmarks and assist with developing a program to track the effectiveness of efforts.
