Brand Launch

Why do Mounties land careers with businesses like PNC Bank, LECOM, Johns Hopkins, and Apple? Why do major health organizations such as UPMC and Penn Highlands Healthcare partner with Mount Aloysius College?

Because Mounties rise to the top.

This doesn’t just happen on its own. Our faculty know our students’ names AND their career goals. They check in and they build our students up. They take the success of our Mounties personally. Our academic advisors, tutors, and Student Success/ Career Development team share a common goal: real and effective care for all students. Our promise is UNMATCHED SUPPORT for ALL students.

While our elevation is the highest of any college in the state, ELEVATED means way more than that. When a student makes the decision to attend Mount Aloysius College, their whole experience is ELEVATED. The result? A life and a career that is ELEVATED.

» The Branding Journey

Our journey to ELEVATED and UNMATCHED SUPPORT was an exciting one. After some external audience research in Fall 2020, we launched a college-wide brand exploration initiative in Fall 2021 with the goal to discover who Mount Aloysius really is, and what makes the Mount such a special place to pursue higher education. Who best to answer those questions? The ones who know us best: our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community. The early process involved a series of online surveys, in-person interviews, focus groups, and informative presentations. The response was incredible. “We decided early on to do this process in-house,” said Sam Wagner, Vice President for Marketing and Communications. “The cost to outsource was astronomical and we felt strongly that we could deliver the best product using our own, great internal teams and really getting the community involved early. With survey responses from nearly 600 students and the incredible response from our faculty and staff, we know we made the right choice.” After concluding the research phase in December 2021, the marketing and admissions teams worked together to review the data and bring the key findings to the front of the project. “A few themes jumped out at us very quickly,” said Jake Yale, Vice President of Enrollment Management at the Mount. “Our whole community described the friendly and caring nature of the College as its top quality, and our students told us overwhelmingly that they came to the Mount because it is a career-focused institution.” In addition, the themes of “support” and “care” came up again and again as defining qualities at the Mount. Whether it was from an academy alum or a brand new freshman, the tangible feeling of support stuck out. Brand pillars, or qualities that support our brand promise, included quality investment, first-choice employability, lifelong community impact, and individualized growth. These are all backed by facts and Mountie stories that prove the brand promise of Mount Aloysius College. » College. Elevated.

With our research findings in-hand, we began the creative process of writing a brand promise, defining brand pillars, and creating and launching a brand theme. Wagner was amazed at how organically the process went. “A brand promise is an experience that everyone can expect every time they interact with an organization,” said Wagner. “For us, the value proposition that jumped off the page was that we are unmatched in terms of student support. It came up in almost every single discussion we had, and it is something that we never really centered on in our marketing efforts.” Yale explained that their early decisions on the process also set the stage for a successful project. “A lot of people are excited about the visual/creative part of branding,” said Yale. “We started with the words, and we got buy-in early. Then when the visual stage began, it was icing on the cake.”

We put out a call for students to participate in a new brand photoshoot, and had over 100 students respond and come out. That led to the creation of the new brand theme: Elevated. “We were really struck by the confidence and pride that came through in the portrait shots that were taken,” said Wagner. “We remarked that our students really flourish in the supportive environment here. The supportive community lifts them up. At the same time, we were interested in choosing a theme that tied into our beautiful, mountainous campus. All of the sudden we landed on ΄Elevated’ and immediately fell in love with it.” The community response has also been extremely positive. “΄Elevated’ really does capture the essence of the caring environment at the Mount,” said psychology student Noah Ports, who graduated in May 2022. “Everyone has their own stories for how they’ve been elevated here, and for how they’ve been supported.” The new branding visuals include the use of some new secondary colors in the style guide, new fonts, and new messaging. It also includes some graphical themes such as contour lines (as you’d see on a topographical map), arrows pointing up, frames, and graduated dots. The tower logo and primary blue color will remain unchanged as they continue to help build visual brand equity for the College. » Launching the New Brand

The long-standing mission and history of Mount Aloysius, combined with this new branding initiative, will lead to a stronger reputation, increased awareness, and the long-term success for the College. The new branding effort includes new and improved visual branding on-campus, new admissions collateral, unified advertising efforts, and a shared sense of understanding and storytelling for the Mount Aloysius community. If you have a story about how you were ELEVATED during your time at Mount Aloysius, please email marketing@mtaloy.edu to share your story!

A LOOK AT Elevated ACROSS CAMPUS

ADDITIONAL CAMPUS UPDATES FOR FALL 2022: In addition to the branding updates happening on campus, there have been plenty of visual updates to campus this summer. New sidewalks have been installed on the north side of Main and from the library to Pierce Hall. The steps in front of Main were repaired and reset, and new steps were poured at the entrance to Main beside Alumni Hall. The first floor of Main has been painted and new lights have been installed. The first-floor hallways in Main, St. Gert’s, and Alumni Hall have been painted, new carpets were installed where necessary, and new lighting has been installed. Both gyms in the ACWC and the multipurpose room in Bertschi Center are now brighter thanks to new LED lighting.