Although the university was almost 200 years old, it had never had a comprehensive branding program. As a result, the marketing and communications materials coming from our various units and departments lacked cohesion—making it more difficult to establish a strong brand.
It was time to change that. Time to unite everyone under one master brand—and together, make Indiana University an even more recognizable and respected institution.
Creating the brand framework
Because Indiana University is home to hundreds of units and departments with very different needs, our brand needed to have a structured, yet flexible framework.
- Content guidelines that allow each unit to insert its own personality
- Design elements that designers of varying ability can use to create polished materials
- Colors and fonts that can be used to establish either a formal and informal tone
The roll out
We wanted to give our audience all of the tools they needed to master the brand, so that instead of simply using a one-size-fits-all set of tools, they could customize assets and messaging to suit their needs.
In order to do that, we had to start at the beginning. The book and website taught them:
- How to carve out their own niche within the master brand by creating a positioning statement
- How to write a creative brief to ensure their marketing and communications materials are rooted in a sound strategy
- How to use the brand promises to create their own unique messaging
- How to work with the brand fonts and colors to achieve the right voice and tone
- How to make the most of their photography by choosing the right kind of images
- How to make the most of the communication opportunities afforded by the Internet
The website—brand.iu.edu—complemented the book, and offered examples, downloadable templates, and a marketing lockup generator.
We rolled out the new branding guidelines and distributed books to every IU marketing and communications professional in August 2016 at a series of workshops on three campuses.
