Best of CASE District II Award
 

Institution: Widener University

Title of entry: The Inside Track: Widener's Momentum-Building Brand Shift

About this entry: For years, Widener’s brand centered on the somewhat-nebulous concept of “leadership.” We were challenged to make it meaningful to prospective students, and many of our campus communicators developed their own working definitions of leadership—or dismissed it as irrelevant in their areas.

We have little room for brand confusion: we compete for students—graduate and undergraduate, full- and part-time—in Philadelphia, one of the country’s most crowded and competitive higher education markets.

During our project’s initial research phase, we uncovered numerous examples of and references to student and faculty engagement specifically related to career preparation, faculty connections to industry, and experiential learning opportunities for students. The stories made it clear that even as undergraduates, Widener students have the sense that they are already working “inside” their chosen career paths.

The vision statement we drafted for the brand platform sums up our aspiration: “An institution known for preparing the next generation of professionals—while informing the future of the professions they go on to lead.”

Our brand theme, “The Inside Track,” has been a prompt for related talking points and stories that speak to our attentiveness to our students’ rational, post-collegiate, and career aspirations—and to their expectations for a return on their educational investment.

If “The Inside Track” is the rational, practical thinking part of our brand (its head), “Many Roars. One Pride.,” the companion theme we recently developed to work in tandem with “The Inside Track,” is its “heart,” channeling University spirit, student aspiration, and leadership style.