Brand New? Not Necessarily. The Impact of a Refreshed Brand Identity…
Philadelphia, PA

Since 1967, Delaware County Community College in Pennsylvania has been providing the residents of the county with exceptional higher education opportunities for both credit and non-credit programs. In 1994, Delaware County Community College began to expand its reach into neighboring Chester County, and the school enjoyed a significant boost in student enrollment along with the proliferation of new locations and campuses throughout the district.

Growth came quickly as the College continued to expand into Chester County and develop its rich academic, outreach, community, recreational and athletic programs. However, as one would expect, student enrollment began to slow down once these major expansions peaked in the early 2000s. In addition, the College was experiencing significant budget increases due to the costs associated with the expansion of the school’s service area, programs and the need to build new, and improve aging, facilities at its main campus.

By this time, the College had become a major player in higher education and realized that the key to its growth was to boost student enrollment by aggressively competing for traditional, degree-seeking students in the marketplace.

However, along with the College’s major expansions over the years came significant marketing challenges. The school’s current brand identity was outdated and inconsistently applied across the expanded college community. There were no strategies in place to ensure that consistent, clear or concise message points and imagery promoting the College were delivered to targeted audiences and constituents. These situations made it difficult to maximize impressions of the school as one of the community’s greatest educational resources.

To help the College improve its competitive edge and support its enrollment goals, Schultz & Williams (S&W) was retained in 2006 to address the current brand identity challenges and develop a strategic plan to saturate its geo-targets with a high profile awareness marketing campaign.

Schultz & Williams was not hired to develop a brand for the College; that was clearly reflected in the school’s mission, vision and goals. Our objective was to refresh the institution’s brand identity and support it with a direct marketing and advertising campaign that is consistent, creative, compelling and competitive.

Within the next 12 months, we reached a milestone. From S&W’s initial branding audit to the development of a communications and graphic platform and the execution of an aggressive marketing campaign, Delaware County Community College has seen significant increases in its student enrollment numbers since the campaign was launched in 2007.

Along with our strategic partners Leapfrog Advancement Services we developed a powerful positioning statement, key messages, a tag line and standards manual, which guide all strategic communications and ensure that clear consistent messaging is utilized across the entire college community.

Driven by this new marketing platform, the College’s logo was refreshed and updated to reflect a highly competitive educational option in the community. All marketing, publicity and advertising efforts utilize the campaign’s creative components to build awareness and support call-to-action communications strategies.

The College’s new brand identity now reflects today’s institution, which provides quality, diverse and value-driven educational options that are competitive, affordable and geared toward students looking to complete a degree, advance their careers or enjoy a wide range of lifelong learning experiences.

In the first full year after introducing the College’s new brand identity campaign, net enrollment revenue increased by almost 9% and student enrollment increased by 4%. Based on the revenue increases in 2008, it also appears that the College is successfully meeting its goal to recruit a larger base of traditional students taking a full roster of courses.

As a result of the school’s tremendous increase in site locations and program offerings over the past 15 years and then seizing the right moment to refresh the brand and execute a strategic marketing plan, the College serves more than 28,000 students annually and boasts its status as the sixth largest student body in a region with more than 85 highly competitive colleges and universities.

To complete our full complement of marketing initiatives with the College, Schultz & Williams is currently working with our technical partner, Allied Pixel, to develop a newly branded website and is developing a College-wide customer service program to ensure that the institution delivers on its promise to serve all residents of Delaware and Chester counties with quality, affordable higher education.