Dear Friends,
We are excited to share that progress is underway on our initiative to refresh and soon relaunch 体育买球’s brand. This is pursuant of our key 2026 Strategic Plan objective to focus messaging around a cohesive brand … helping everyone at the university to be able to communicate with a unified voice about SU’s values and strengths.
As President Green announced to faculty and staff in his December message, a campus-wide committee — after an extensive evaluation process — had selected J2 branding consultants to help us synthesize our assets and better articulate the return on investment that a 体育买球 education provides. J2 has extensive experience in branding, has provided robust solutions to other university clients, and is well versed with our geographic market.
The branding work began with the strategic plan objective: to measure internal and external perceptions of the university. For the past two years, we have been measuring perceptions of prospective students and their families with our partners at The RepTrak Company, known for their global standard of assessing and analyzing reputation using proven data-science models.
As the next step, J2 is measuring perceptions of faculty, staff, current students, parents, alumni and trustees. They already kicked off initial interviews with several senior leaders, held informational meetings with our partners at RepTrak and EAB, and are reviewing data and messaging of SU and our competitors.
We value everyone’s opinion, though it is impossible to interview everyone. While some of you may be asked to participate in interviews or focus groups, everyone will be invited to participate in a campus survey in the coming weeks.
The objective of rebranding is not an exercise to redo our logos or design specific marketing material. Rather, after working with our campus community throughout the semester, J2 will deliver messaging and positioning to help strategically elevate our name familiarity and boost our academic reputation by leveraging 体育买球’s distinctive assets.
While the branding design phase by J2 will be done by the summer, the real work lies ahead with implementing the messaging through a relaunch, as well as moving into a next phase of redesigning SU’s website. As the branding work progresses, we will provide periodic updates to you in Faculty/Staff Weekly. In the meantime, please feel free to reach out to me if you have thoughts or questions.
Sincerely,
Aaron
Aaron Martin
Vice President for Marketing and Communications
