My favorite article of clothing is a ten-year old red sweatshirt with the name of my alma mater emblazoned on the front. It is incredibly comfortable, but most importantly, it is a conversation starter. I have had fabulous conversations with fellow alums, alums of our rival institutions, students and parents thinking about college, and a host of others. 

I am not alone in publicly advertising a deep connection to my university. In 2022, the revenue for collegiate-licensed apparel industry exceeded $4.6 billion dollars. That is a whole lot of t-shirts, mugs, koozies, onesies, and stuffed mascots.  Our willingness to spend so much money on “merch” is a significant piece of evidence that our love for our institutions of higher education runs deep and wide.

When I rep my alma mater’s brand, it is because I am proud to be associated with what that brand stands for. This pride is an important element in the ongoing work of “friend-raising” in higher education. My alumni pride translates into recruiting, advocacy, and fundraising gains for my institution.

A university’s brand has two component parts:  image and identity. The “image” is what audiences on the outside understand about the organization. Image is influenced by media coverage and advertising campaigns and can change over time. Institutions may see their image wax and wane with successes or failures, but, unless the failure is a catastrophic one, changes are not perceived as existential threats to the institution.

“Identity” is what people closely connected with the university see as its fundamental character. Identity is understood through lived experience and remains relatively unchanged over time. Faculty, staff, students and alums often see a university’s identity as a core part of their own personal identity. Threats to identity are perceived as existential threats to the institution.

Colleges and universities who are considering a significant change in their mission, a wide-ranging partnership or a full-on merger, or even a name or mascot change, are likely to face the fear that an organizational change will undermine or eliminate an identity that is valued by their constituents. If those fears are not managed proactively, they can derail a strategic decision that is in the best interest of all parties. 

Any evaluation of potential partners must include a thoughtful assessment of a partner’s image and identity. It is essential that the images and identities of the respective institutions be brought together in exciting ways that speak to legacy constituencies. Your strategy should include answering the following key questions:

• Do we clearly understand our organization’s current image and identity?
• Do we understand which portions of our image and identity must be preserved in any partnership or merger?
• What is our potential partner’s organizational image and identity?
• How can we design a process so that our constituents stay connected to us as we work through an evolution in our image and identity?

Universities that navigate a change in identity well invest time with their constituents.  In leading the name change at Augusta University, we prioritized engagement of faculty, staff, alumni and students at every stage of the process.  We spent a lot of time uncovering the shared parts of our legacy institutions’ identities and what connected our people to those places.  Those shared values, traditions, images, etc. formed the basis of the new brand. The time spent with our constituents enabled us to roll out a new brand that felt familiar. The new brand was embraced and has served the consolidated institution well.

To learn more about SPH Consulting Group and how we can help your organization, contact office@sphconsultinggroup.com.

Writer: Karla Leeper, Senior Consultant, SPH Consulting Group

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