Welcome from Integrated Marketing & Communications
February 2010
Since early 2007, the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh campus community has undergone an ambitious, collaborative exercise to develop and implement an integrated marketing and communications plan. The goals of the plan, as outlined in the Chancellor's charge, were to increase public awareness, accessibility and appreciation of the University; to support recruitment, retention and outreach; to focus and enhance the University's image/ brand in an ethical and honest way; and to enhance its financial condition.
A critical part of the undertaking has been to establish a strong and meaningful brand for the University that would enhance the institution's reputation. To that end, a comprehensive brand development initiative was begun.
Now, after extensive research, followed by creative development and audience testing in partnership with the administration, the academy and the entire University community, UW Oshkosh has issued its first-ever comprehensive, integrated brand guidelines.
The guidelines presented here detail a robust — yet user-friendly — "brand platform" for the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, expressing the University's promise to our students, alumni, faculty and staff, partners, region and environment. The guidelines also define our brand attributes (the qualities that make the University distinctive), our brand personality (the qualities that reflect the University's image, identity and reputation) and the creative expression of our brand (tagline, key words, wordmark, logo and visual system).
Helping to present the guidelines are our "brand champions" — representatives from throughout our campus community who serve to remind us of the important role each of us can play in building, supporting and communicating our brand.
This is an exciting time for UW Oshkosh as we all work to become thoughtful, consistent stewards of our brand. We know much has been communicated in recent years about the importance of an integrated approach to marketing the University in order to fulfill our mission. Without belaboring the point, we'll just offer this quick reminder from Aristotle: "The whole is more than the sum of its parts ." As we all work together as brand champions, our brand will continue to grow in value and will powerfully declare the excellence of our University.
