All advertising for ASU's different colleges and schools could soon be flying under the unified banner of President Michael Crow's New American University.
ASU has hired Stamats, an Iowa-based company known for helping colleges and universities to develop marketing strategies, to conduct a communications audit of ASU's advertising campaigns, said ASU spokeswoman Terri Shafer.
Shafer said she hopes the audit, expected to cost approximately $250,000, helps establish a more unified brand identity across the University.
"A brand identity's like a shorthand for everything that represents the University," Shafer said.
This could help individual schools more easily promote characteristics of Crow's New American University model, she added.
Stamats will review brochures, Web sites and other marketing materials, and interview the deans and media relations staff of each college. The company will then submit recommendations for a new marketing campaign in early 2006, Shafer said.
The creation of a basic template of language, typefaces, color schemes and images the schools can build upon for individual marketing campaigns could make marketing cheaper, Shafer said.
"We can spend money a lot more wisely if we establish a framework within which the schools and colleges can publish their materials," she said.
Individual schools, especially higher-ranked programs, could contribute by using their prestige to boost ASU's entire reputation, said Craig Smith, director of marketing and communications for the W.P. Carey School of Business.
Currently, ASU marketing is very decentralized, he said. Each school has its own public relations arm that operates independently of the University.
Similar efforts to unify advertising helped improve the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering's national rankings. Last year, peer perception of the school improved substantially because faculty and staff were able to more consistently explain what the school was doing, Shafer said.
Karen Klimczak, director of Marketing and Public Affairs for the School of Engineering, said she believes efforts to unify ASU's brand identity could help raise the visibility of the entire University and its individual schools. Schools could better promote the education they're offering students and research projects faculty are conducting, she said.
"Increasing the visibility of ASU will be a halo effect for the other colleges on campus," Klimczak said.
Reach the reporter at grayson.steinberg@asu.edu.
