Minnesota State University, Mankato
Building a stronger, more confident brand identity for a regional public university.
Market Research
Brand Strategy
Brand Identity
BACKGROUND
The leader of its system
Minnesota State University, Mankato is a 15,000-student university with an interesting position within the landscape of Minnesota public higher education. Although a distant second in size and national reputation from the state’s flagship university, the University of Minnesota, Minnesota State was also the leader of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system and had successfully maintained a sizable and growing enrollment.
CHALLENGE
What role should we play?
The original ask from Minnesota State was to redesign the University’s logo marks to be more contemporary and aligned with the brand. We quickly learned, however, that more needed to be done to define and articulate Minnesota State’s overall identity and position before we could get to the point of redesigning the logo. This required more extensive analysis of the competitive landscape, Minnesota State’s identity, and the position the University could and should own in its marketplace.
CHARGE
Re-Invigorate the College
Minnesota state asked us to help construct a stronger and more unified sense of brand identity internally and also position the University more competitively for prospective students, employers, and the general public of Minnesota. In the process, we were charged with clearly defining and articulating Minnesota State’s identity and communicating this more clearly to the University’s many audiences.
DATA COLLECTION AND INTERPRETATION
Data leading to a clear positioning goal
Interviews
Surveys
Marketplace Analysis
Our work with Minnesota State included extensive qualitative and quantitative research to understand how the University was viewed internally and externally. We also conducted an in-depth competitor analysis to tease out the differentiating qualities between the state’s regional public universities and clarify the space that Minnesota State owned today and could own in the future.
The research pointed to several significant implications for the Minnesota State brand. We found that while the University community had a strong sense of pride in their institution internally, this pride and confidence was not shared externally.
Prospective students, counselors, and members of the general public did not know enough about Minnesota State to have a strong feeling about the University. Further, although a University’s name seems like a surface-level representation of the institution, the confusion around what to call Minnesota State was a problem both internally and externally (“Minnesota State” vs. “Minnesota State Mankato” vs. “MSU” vs. “MNSU”).
OUTCOMES
Big Ideas. Real-World Thinking. Inspired Action.
Brand Foundation
Brand Campaign
This research led to a revised brand position that would be a bolder, more confident, and more outward-facing expression of Minnesota State. The resulting brand concept was Inspired Action, an extension of Minnesota State’s existing tagline (“Big Ideas. Real-World Thinking.”) and a reflection of the hands-on, active learning the University offered that led to strong outcomes.
This positioning was carried forward in a brand concept that included a brand foundation, concept ethos, editorial tone, full platform elements (promise, pillars, character), and a messaging matrix. The Inspired Action concept was alive with, well, action. This was reflected in the verbs used to communicate the Minnesota State brand, the photography and videography style, and identity elements such as a revised color palette and font package.
We also embraced the findings of the research to elevate Minnesota State’s position. As the second largest university in the state and the flagship of its system, we recommend changes to Minnesota State’s brand identity and naming conventions to present a bolder, more confident positioning.
Since creating the revised brand position, we have developed Minnesota State’s brand campaign elements, provided a full suite of revised logos (including lock-ups), worked with the University team to educate campus community members on the brand, and represented the new brand in an emotive and powerful 1-minute anthem video.
Sara Frederick
Senior Director, Marketing and Communications
"It was absolutely the right decision to work with ADV throughout this rebranding process. They took the time to really get to know our university and distilled our identity beautifully. ADV went well above and beyond in this process to not only bring us and our team along, but really the whole university. Through extensive sessions with faculty, staff, students, and alumni, they incorporated feedback and generated critical buy-in for this process. We needed a strong external partner to carry through this process and ADV was clearly the right choice."
