Elizabeth City State University
Table of
CONTENTS Self Portrait ECSU Wood shop Teacher
Letter From Chancellor..................................................................3 Brand Promise...............................................................................4 Current State - Strategic Assessment Plan....................................6 Interview Feedback.......................................................................7 Current State - Conclusions ..........................................................8 Now What?..................................................................................11 Stakeholders and Key Markets....................................................12 Stage One - Immediate Needs...................................................13 Stage Two - Technological Advances..........................................14 Stage Three - Marketing Collateral.............................................15 Stage Four - Engaging Outside Sponsors + Partnership............16
Self Portrait ECSU Typography Teacher
Stage Five - Other Touch-points.................................................17 Key Considerations.....................................................................19 Campaign Time-lines..................................................................20
The ECSU CULTURE is undeniably strong. Our PERSEVERANCE is indisputable. Our Affordable Academic Excellence is Unequivocal. Self Portrait ECSU Art Teacher
We are student centric, Cultivate Prosperous Futures and develop lifelong community agents of change! These are the pillars of our path to prominence.
I am thrilled to present to you the ECSU marketing and rebranding proposed strategy. In this presentation, you will get a glimpse of a high level strategy, an idea of the new look and feel, a timeline and some aggressive goals and objectives I believe we can collectively accomplish. The goals are clearly defined. To re-launch the ECSU branding and marketing strategies and infrastructure to support the existing culture on both a local and a national level that embodies a strong digital and social campaign with the goals to… • • • • • • • • • •
Increase ECSU's enrollment Improve ECSU's image Increase donor participation Engage more external sponsors and raise capital Develop ECSU's overall growth awareness program Higher rankings Larger endowment Higher average starting salary Better grad-school admission rate Greater percentage of alumni who donate
This STRATEGY is inclusionary. Aggressive. Innovative and results oriented. The brand campaign is not fluff. It supports what is already embedded in our institution’s rich heritage. These are the pillars of our path to prominence. This is our breakthrough year. As Chancellor, I’m committed to making ECSU work better by rebranding and rebuilding the trust of all of our key stakeholders. Let’s make this year, our best year of action. That’s what our students deserve. Sincerely,
Stacey F. Jones Chancellor
But have we told this story? Self Portrait ECSU Art Teacher
Dear Board of Trustee Family.
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ECSU has grown from only graduating teachers to offering over 34 baccalaureate degrees and 4 master’s level degrees – experiencing some trials and many successes along the way. Chancellor Jones’ Path to Prominence plan outlines three phases for ECSU to embark upon in an effort to move towards ‘greater prominence and marked self-sufficiency.’ These phases uniquely position the university as: an affordable academic success university in North Carolina (Phase One), a community of scholars in North Carolina (Phase Two), and an interdisciplinary science university in North Carolina (Phase Three). The Path to Prominence’s three phases are all grounded in ECSU’s brand promise, which has never changed despite the timeframe – Elizabeth City State University is an institution focused on providing its students with affordable excellence.
brand
The time is now to launch a multi-stage rebranding and marketing campaign aimed at increasing enrollment, attracting donors and partners, involving alumni, and engaging the Elizabeth City and surrounding 21 counties’ communities.
Promise SINCE ITS INCEPTION IN 1891, AS A NORMAL TEACHING SCHOOL, ELIZABETH CITY STATE UNIVERSITY (ECSU) HAS GRADUATED MORE THAN 20,000 STUDENTS. ECSU
Re-branding + Marketing Initiative
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LET’S SPREAD THE VIKING PRIDE FAR + WIDE MIGHTY VIKINGS!! 5
CURRENT STATE Strategic Assessment Plan Our Approach Visited
Interviewed
Reviewed
Proposed
Visited and conducted site visit
Conducted interviews with Students, Faculty, Staff Members and Alums
Reviewed ECSU’s existing brand imaging + marketing collateral
Proposed a methodology and supporting strategies aimed at target stakeholder groups yielding both shortterm and long-term results.
From left to right: Sophmores Mattison Bond, and Bry'ona Dortch, Seniors Diamonique Gibbs, Brandon Rochelle, Arnice Cottom, and Kikoyta Spencer
Interview
feedback CURRENT STUDENTS:
ALUMNI:
“My teachers show me they care daily.”
“I was the first to graduate in my family, then my two sisters and their two children.”
“My friends wish they would had come to ECSU” “I have a chance to represent the impossible.”
“My class is close knit and still keeps in contact today.”
“We are a school of overcoming obstacles and persevering.”
“The current marketing and branding is not reflective of the ECSU Culture”
“If a club doesn’t exist, I have the opportunity to invent it.”
Community:
“For a school to recieve so little in funds/support, we really produce more than expected.”
ECSU
Re-branding + Marketing Initiative
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Left to right: Barbara B. Sutton, Director of Alumni Relations; Dr. Jeanette H. Evans, ECSU NAA President, Clay Mercer, Broadcast & Media Specialist
(Chancellor Jones) “Your positioning of Elizabeth City in your speech at SAS was right on. “The most affordable academic-success university in North Carolina,” was a great way to put it, and it helps clear away a lot of the clutter that has attached to ECSU in recent years.” - E. Johnson, Assistant Director for Communications, Scholarships and Student Aid, UNC Chapel Hill
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CURRENT STATE Conclusions
Enrollment Steady State and/or decline in recent years
Decline in Alumni Participation’
ECSU is uniquely positioned (to be) a national model. Our country needs a “royal” blueprint for producing graduates without charging a fortune.
Increased Need for Donor Awareness and Contribution
- CHANCELLOR JONES
Inconsistent brand messaging
Over-production of materials
Unclear, sometimes undesirable, marketplace image
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Elizabeth City State University
It’s location is in a waterfront community along the narrows of the Pasquotank River near the world-renowned Outer Banks beaches. Also nearby is the Hampton Roads area of southeastern Virginia, which includes the resort cities of Virginia Beach, Colonial Williamsburg, and historic Jamestown and Yorktown.
NOW WHAT? Develop a comprehensive, multi-stage plan, supported by bitesize, implementable strategies aimed at key stakeholders, which communicate ECSU’s Brand Promise and differentiate ECSU among its fellow University of North Carolina system counterparts. + ECSU Re-branding Marketing Initiative
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STAKEHOLDERS AND KEY MARKETS
STAGE ONE |Immediate Needs
Foundation Board
Sponsors
Faculty & Staff
The Community of Elizabeth City
Alumni
Focus Area: Increased Enrollment KEY STRATEGIES: Create a multiple touch point marketing campaign for use across email, social media and traditional mail. KEY STAKEHOLDERS: Prospective students and their parents.
Parents/ Visitors
The Greater NC Community and Legislature
GOAL: Connect with prospective students and rebuild ECSU’s Enrollment.
Potential Students
KEY DELIVERABLES: Chancellor’s invitation, social media promotions (3 to 4 per week during critical application period), email newsletter and postcard.
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Focus Area: Increase Donor Participation KEY STRATEGIES: Create a communications strategy that resonates with the target audiences; create an online donation mechanism that ties to both the ECSU website and the alumni association’s website. KEY STAKEHOLDERS: Current students and their families, alumni, potential and existing outside donors and university partners.
DELIVERABLES: Communications strategy work plan, marketing collateral (a minimum of two brochures aimed at the alumni association and potential/existing donors), and design of online donation website.
GOAL: Increase ECSU capital campaign initiative awareness and raise campaign funds.
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STAGE TWO | Technological Advances
STAGE THREE | Marketing Collateral
Elizabeth City State University
University
City State Elizabeth
Focus Area: Website & Social Media KEY STRATEGIES: Enhance the university’s current website aesthetics, create and execute a social media strategy, ensuring mobilefriendly integration.
KEY STAKEHOLDERS: Current and prospective students and their families, alumni, potential and existing outside donors, university partners and all ECSU website and social media visitors.
Focus Area: Marketing Collateral DELIVERABLES: Website design strategy, website liaison, social media platform facelift (Facebook and Twitter), creation of additional social media platforms as approved (e.g., Instagram).
KEY STRATEGY: Create streamlined outgoing marketing collateral.
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KEY STAKEHOLDERS: Prospective students and their families, alumni and donors, community and prospective staff/faculty.
DELIVERABLES: Four brochures aimed at each of the key stakeholder groups, Chancellor collateral, each schools collateral
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STAGE FOUR | Engaging Outside Sponsors and Partnerships
Cross Promotion
Donations/ Partnerships
STAGE FIVE | Other Touch-points
Elizabeth City State
Focus Area: Campus sign-age, community sign-age
University
Internship Corporate Companies
CORPORATE PARTERS + ECSU BRAND = POWERFUL BRAND/ INFLUENCE University
City State Elizabeth
Our goal is to identify all of the strategic partners both locally and globally that share in our common purpose. We will identify the value proposition through the process of sharing resources to increase leads, brand, and influence. Not surprisingly, the Internet has made the option of collaborative marketing easier than ever.
ECSU
Re-branding + Marketing Initiative
When companies come together with a common audience, or goal, or a common mission or interest, they can band together in any number of ways to create an influence and a presence that is greater than the sum of its parts.
KEY STAKEHOLDERS: Steering Committee and Sax, Inc.
Focus Area: Campus Facilities
DELIVERABLES: Sponsorship Deck, Press and Media Kit, Strategic Alliance Partnership Collateral, Print Advertisement.
KEY STRATEGIES: Securing Corporate Sponsorships and Endowments, forming strategic alliances in the local community and nationally.
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KEY STRATEGIES: Create inviting and informative campus signage that fosters the welcoming, family-oriented, academic-driven environment for which ECSU is known.
KEY STAKEHOLDERS: Staff, faculty, students and all other campus visitors.
DELIVERABLES: Campus signage, billboards, community signage and curbside-appeal touch points.
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KEY CONSIDERATIONS Each stage, although critical in the campaign’s success provides ECSU with strategic options to consider… 1. SOCIAL LISTENING IS KEY TO A REBRAND. We must Listen! What is being said about us? We must know where we stand. This is an essential first step. There’s a conversation about every university brand, and in the digital age that conversation is both accessible and pervasive. When we listen, we can react and respond. Listening Channels: • Traditional media. College admissions guidebooks, the press, and even history books.
Elizabeth City State University
Has powerful history established by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1891 in response to a bill calling for the creation of an institution to train African American educators.
• The digital world. Social media networks and blogs. • Our key stakeholders. Asking current students, alums, faculty, the community & administration as well. • We must be aggressive. • This includes connecting. With high school guidance counselors corporate recruiters and graduate school admissions departments. • Every constituency is included. 2. IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT RANKINGS. It is however about understanding the competitive landscape and telling the story
ECSU
Re-branding + Marketing Initiative
of what sets ECSU apart. What are the areas in which we are the best? 3. THE ECSU VALUE PROPOSITION IS MORE THAN SPORTS TEAMS OR STUDENT-TO-FACULTY RATIO. We must Define what we stand for and preserve and embrace those elements. What is ECSU’s definable personality, culture, and experience? A strong brand focuses and appeals to constituents on both a rational and an emotional level. 4. FOCUS MUST EXTEND TO ALL CUSTOMER TOUCH POINTS. The ECSU brand is more than a logo. It’s inextricably linked to the institution’s overall strategy, and it should be present in everything from classes to events to architecture to publications. 5. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: ECSU is a community pillar. ECSU can generate impact and garner support in the community, through a variety of creative universitywide initiatives, such as: • Creating policies and procedures that support ECSU community service needs from students and faculty;
• Developing professional development partnership opportunities for both students and community members; and, • Assembling programs that create financial resources for community initiatives.
WHAT ARE THE MEASURES OF SUCCESS? Higher ranking. A lower acceptance rate, a greater yield, a bigger endowment, a higher average starting salary, a better grad-school admission rate, and a greater percentage of alumni who donate; the student body it attracts initially is integral to any and all results. We must showcase and prove our value to decision makers.
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Campaign
TIMELINE
University
Dec ‘15
Nov ‘15
Oct ‘15
Sept ‘15
Aug ‘15
Jul ‘15
Jun ‘15
May ‘15
Apr ‘15
Mar ‘15
Feb ‘15
Jan ‘15
Dec ‘14
University
Duration Nov ‘14
Elizabeth City State
Elizabeth City State
Stage 1 - Immediate Needs
ECSU does not need to reinvent the wheel or ‘find success’ in its institution. It has produced and continues to produce generations of legacy accomplishments. ECSU needs to tell the story unfailingly found at the brand’s core, which simply put is that OUR university is ‘the most affordable academic success university in North Carolina.’
Stage 2 - Technical Advances Stage 3 - Marketing Collateral
Ongoing
Stage 4 - Sponsors/Partnerships Stage 5 - Other Touch-points Ongoing Marketing Efforts
(Collateral, Updates, Support Needs)
ECSU
Re-branding + Marketing Initiative
Ongoing
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ECSU
Re-branding + Marketing Initiative
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Elizabeth City State University
Questions/ Comments