My first question for you is, do you have an “office brand”? If the answer is, “no” “sort of” or “i think so”, then you may feel that creating a uniform “brand” for your office is overwhelming or daunting. You may even be asking why? Well for those of us in Residence Life, at some point or another we must sell a product, such as beds, meal plans, or jobs. Ultimately at the end of the day you must make you product desirable to a consumer. Creating a standard office brand that is consistent over multiple mediums (i.e. print, web, in person) will help your office to be more professional and easily marketable to the different populations that may be your consumers.
Here are some standard tips and tricks in creating your brand:
Research
Many colleges have a style guide of fonts and colors that they have chosen to use. Your first step should be touching base with your institutions marketing department to see if there are any guidelines you must follow to be in line with institution policy.
Logo/Colors
Does your office have a logo? If not this is a great place to start. A logo can do a lot of things for you. It can give you that one piece to center your whole marketing scheme around. When getting a logo done you should always ask for it in multiple formats, sizes, and in black and white in addition to the color scheme you are going with.
What is the standard office colors pallet you want to work with. This should be a feature color of your logo, and should be the colors that appear in all of your print publications. If my overall theme is Maroon, I should look at the brochure rack in my office and see variety of Maroon throughout. Color gives a sense of unity amongst your materials.
*tip* Once you have a logo and colors, purchase an office banner. It is great for taking with you and as your brand because strong makes your office distinguishable.
Print Publications
Golden rod paper, black color font, a random piece clip art, and folded into a 3 fold brochure. I’ve done it, I am sure you may have too. My goal has become to never do it again. When looking at what you have for print publications the first question you should ask is what do we not need anymore, because face it I sure you have a publication that is 5+ years old, that is rarely used because it is now up on your website. Get rid of it. Unless you are going to recreate it to fit your brand, it will be the awkward cousin to your marketing drive. Next question what do you really need to keep in print and what can go online. Printing is expensive, and not green (yes I like the environment most days), so ask yourself what do you need in your office or at those info session ready to hand out. When you have figured out what you need, figure out how it will fit into your brand. Do you need a new look for it?
*tip* Add color wherever you can to your print publications. I love to add square colored boxes with white text in them. If color printing is not in your budget try a few black boxes with white text.
*tip* Take your brochures, turn them into a pdf and publish them on Issuu.com it is a great way to see your items in a dynamic online magazine format, and a great way to have a link with your print items to send out to your consumers.
Online
There are two ways I approach online marketing, informing and interacting. Your website should be your informing space. The place residents, parents, and everyone else goes to get information. It’s also the place you probably have the least control over. So when starting with your branding talk to marketing and web development to see what your limitations are on your website.
On the interacting side we have things such as facebook and twitter. Does your office have a facebook page, if not start there. It is a great place that students already are at that will allow your office to share quick content with students. With add on apps such as FBML you can even code your own custom tabs to fit your brand. Such as here WPI Res Services Page (click on “Res Services” and “Meet the Staff”). Twitter is a great place that students will be soon. Unlike Facebook you have the opportunity to get there before the students are. Trends show more and more students heading to twitter, and as an office it is a great place to post announcements and follow interactions with students.
Blogging brings together informing and interacting. A collaborative blog is a great place to post multiple perspectives and get feedback through comments. You can tie your blog to your website, facebook, and twitter as well. Blogging can be a great tool and also give Res Life professionals the ability to easily update and post on the web. Again check to see if your campus has a blogging server available. If not I am a big fan of using WordPress Pro.
This is a lot of info but I am more than willing to chat at any point. Send me an email at marketing@bacha.org
Has your department branded itself, what are some of the things you did or wish have done?
