POSITIONING AND COMMUNICATIONS GUIDANCE

Hardwick~Day is not a publications or web firm. We focus on aspects of brand identity that go far deeper than a logo or the pages of a viewbook – on the unique program strengths, position, persona and attitude that underlie these communications vehicles. We’re able to provide an objective assessment of how well an institution’s electronic and print communications convey those fundamentals of its brand.

What is a college brand? This expository workshop for senior administrators and faculty explains the concepts of brand management and marketing as they apply to higher education.

Identifying and clarifying your own brand. A fully facilitated workshop for stakeholders (administrators, faculty students), this session uses a structured process to identify the essence of a school’s brand and the themes and messages that best advance it.

Testing brand, positioning, price/value perceptions, and communication content/creative execution. Working closely with senior administrators to refine objectives, we design, execute and analyze qualitative and/or quantitative research to:

• ascertain the institution’s current image in the marketplace

• assess perceptions of an institution’s educational value relative to its price (tuition)

• measure the effectiveness of current and planned messages and their execution

• evaluate the power of differentiating attributes, such as particular programs or educational approaches

Our clients use these research findings to inform communication models, pricing strategies and program development.

Competitive communications assessments (websites and publications). We analyze clients’ admissions publications and website side-by-side with those of overlap competitors, just as students do, looking at the ways content, tone, design, photography and other elements portray each school’s position, persona and attitude. We also provide an in-depth evaluation of each website’s usability, entropy, and tangibility.