Prospective students accepted to Ball State aren’t receiving the decade-old “Education Redefined” tagline on letters like students before them.
Instead, they are getting the words “Student-Centered Learning” along with a university logo next to it that shows Beneficence and Ball State University.
Joan Todd, a university spokesperson, said in an email “Student-Centered Learning” is not the new tagline of the university. She said nothing has been decided.
Every year, the Office of Admissions at Ball State sends a set of letters to admitted students from the Office of the President, Office of the Dean and an existing student. These letters are official university correspondence featuring Ball State’s brand and logo.
This year, however, the university is using a new template as they begin to refocus the university’s message and brand, Todd said.
President Paul W. Ferguson expressed an interest in expanding immersive learning into the broader Ball State curriculum through the idea of an “Entrepreneurial Learner" during his State of the University Address in February. He focused on the idea of "student-centered learning."
Todd said the university is going through an evolution. The university has not hired an outside firm to help with the university's brand refresh and there are no plans to do so at this time.
The university's transition away from Education Redefined makes sense, Michael Hanley, an associate professor of journalism, said.
“So you are moving [the university] away from what it has been and perceived and defined in the past decade towards the strategic vision that [Ferguson] and the Board of [Trustees] has,” Hanley said. “It’s the perfect time to do that. It’s a very logical thing because he has a different vision.”
Hanley said he would guess the university would unveil its refresh in four or six months, the typical time span.
“The brand is well-known out there for Education Redefined,” Hanley said. “They have to put that to bed, or put that in what we call a dark period, long enough to be able to develop the new position as well as give the target segments to accept a new position for the same organization. In the long run, that’s the biggest challenge when you do this kind of repositioning.”
Refocusing a university's brand
Sam Waterson, executive vice-president and creative director of RHB Management Consulting, said there are five general questions an institution should look at when refocusing its brand.
RHB Management Consulting is an Indianapolis-based marketing agency specializing in education.
1. What does a university want to be known for?
“After you get through that initial phase of understanding what you'd like to change, what you'd like to be known for that you aren't currently known for, you identify how your experience is going to change, which is what immersive learning and all those initiatives were doing, supporting the tagline Education Redefined.”
2. Will the university fill a needed role or niche in the marketplace?
“If we are going to become something different than we are, are there sufficient customers out there to sustain us and is it okay with our current customers, alumni, faculty and staff, et cetera?”
3. What parts of the university’s experience are going to change?
“Instead of thinking, 'We are going to get a new tagline' or 'We are going to remove education redefined,' we need to ask, 'What about this experience is going to change? What is going to change [in] what we offer that is going influence our new brand position?'”
4. How is the university going to communicate changes in its brand?
“Who are we are going to speak to? How are we going to tell that story? How often, what channels, et cetera.”
5. How is the university going to measure effectiveness of changes to its brand?
“What changes have occurred and how are we going to measure that? Is that by measuring the number of incoming students? Is that going to be a learning outcome? A fundraising goal? Is it going to be an alumni engagement goal? Is it going to be in research dollars? We have to find the metrics by which we measure our change.”
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