An integrated marketing revolution at Ithaca College

Editor's Notes

1. We originally developed a three-phase implementation plan, which we expected would take one to two years to complete. However, almost everything in this carefully crafted plan—and more—was completed within the first eight months. We tackled projects we thought would take more than a year or two to get to.   We secured a new institutional budget to support a College-wide brand awareness advertising campaign, enabling us to share our platform on much greater scale. We grew to recognize the importance of protecting our assets. We have registered two federal trademarks and are in the process of registering nearly ten more. We established a licensing program for the use of our trademarks and name on merchandise. We overhauled our display systems for admission counselors to take on the road as well as for the programs on campus. We created templates to further support our visual identity for presentations in PowerPoint and Keynote, electronic letterhead in Microsoft Word, email signature standards, digital signage, and more.
2. IC 20/20: a road map for creating a more integrated and robust academic experience by strengthening our academic offerings and support services. The College ’s institutional branding efforts needed to support that plan and present the institution’s message accordingly. Demographics: From 2008 to 2017, New York State alone is expected to see a 16 percent drop in college-bound students.   Net price calculator: While providing greater price transparency for families, these calculators are wrought with challenges and may change the timing of the recruitment process. The traditional recruitment process allowed a college or university to build a relationship with a student and articulate the value of their offerings before much direct discussion of price took place. In the new model, students may never engage in the recruitment process, and instead may be comparing cost estimates to the value of each institution ’s brand.
3. Lacked consistency – no integrated marketing, every school wanted their own identity. Web design in ITS, print design outsourced to several different designers. No one worked together. No visual standards manual. Org challenges: silos galore, we’ll talk about that more in depth later in this presentation Old logo: Only said the word “Ithaca.” When our President would wear a baseball hat or something with our logo on it out of town, he was often approached by people who would said – oh, that’s a great town. Do you work at Cornell?
4. Good problem: People creating their own Ready taglines; A&E gala opening used motown “Get Ready” song as theme
5. 26 positions. 10 people left.
6. Too soon. We’re doing a brand awareness campaign, not a direct response. However, our apps reached a record high this past year, as did our campus visits. Our summer melt was at an all-time low. We can’t attribute marketing as the primary reason for any of these successes, but we do believe it played at least a part.