EMU plans to launch first branding campaign in September 2007

An effective brand distinguishes who you are, what you stand for and stirs emotions.

BUILDING THE BRAND: Billboards like this one along 1-94 have helped increase projected attendance many times over for an upcoming Explore Eastern event at Eastern Michigan University. Billboards will be one component of a full-scale brand campaign EMU will undertake this September.

"It's about people, not organizations," said Theodore G. Coutilish, associate vice president, Office of Marketing and Communications. "It's about narrowing and not being everything to everyone. It's about your reason for being. It's about giving a clear voice in a cluttered marketplace. It's about framing every conversation and providing a blueprint of where we are going."

With that purpose in mind, Coutilish is leading extensive research efforts this winter and spring to clarify EMU's image and planning, in September 2007, to launch its first branding campaign.

Brand research includes reviewing current surveys, tracking studies, committee reports, history, mission, core values, other relevant data, and conducting quantitative and qualitative perception studies of — and discussion groups with — high school students and their parents, current undergraduate and graduate students, transfer students, high school and community college counselors, employees, board members, alumni, donors and the general population.

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