Sarah Shockey
Audience describes the Rowan experience in their own words. - News Editor / Sarah Shockey
Rowan’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) John Veilleux hosted a town hall-style meeting on March 10 to talk about the future of Rowan’s branding. The meeting also served to discuss insight and participation from the audience. The town hall served to gather input from Rowan students, faculty, and workers to understand the landscape of the university.
Joining Veilleux were representatives from Ologie, a firm that specializes in marketing colleges. Rowan recently partnered with Ologie in order to create a “distinct” brand around Rowan’s story.
The Ologie partners in attendance were Tyler Durbin, vice president of account management; Taylor King, creative director; Mike Rehfus, associate copy director; and Doug Edwards, chief strategy officer.
“Branding is what we’re bringing to the table. It’s the process of conveying all of these tangible and intangible things in a way that makes it clear to people what matters most,” said Edwards. “And I think when we do that, well, we’re able to break through the sea of sameness. We’re able to stick in people’s minds and be remembered for the right things.”
The meeting began with an explanation of higher education marketing and its pitfalls, especially in differentiating. Veilleux made his stance on the future of Rowan’s marketing clear.
“I don’t want you [Oologie] to provide us with the same ballerinas turning around…the football player breaking through the whatever,” Veilleux said. “We’ve all seen those commercials, and they don’t work because we’re blind.”
Edwards explained that branding can happen in two ways: by “default” or by “design.”
“Great brands don’t happen by default,” Edwards said. “They are built on a clear positioning and a great story, which is what we’re here to help with.”
In the middle of the session, Edwards prompted the audience to take out their phones and answer prompts using Mentimeter. One of them was to describe the “Rowan experience” in three words, and another was to describe the way the experience was represented.
Important takeaways included the audience’s affinity for Rowan’s qualities such as small classroom sizes and research opportunities, but noted work could be done in telling a Rowan “story” and expanding market reach to places like Philadelphia, north New Jersey, and New York.
It’s a step before conducting market research in the form of surveys and “qualitative” research in the form of group interviews. All of these steps will inform Rowan’s branding and marketing strategy moving forward.
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