St. Edwards has a variety of brand signifiers: Logos, specifically used fonts, imagery, objects, and Ideas. St. Edward’s marketing is highly coordinated, run out of the Marketing office, which regulates the use of these signifiers. Most of the materials are publicly available from St. Edward’s marketing’s website.
The most important elements of the St. Edward’s brand are the big ideas. The ideas of “educating the heart and mind” and global education are central to St. Edward’s brand. These are highlighted in both written advertising, and television ads. The tagline “Take on your world” was in service of promoting the global focus of the university.
Voice is critical in building the brand through written communications. The marketing provided communication guidelines specifically describe the university’s style and strategies in writing. Advice like “Tell a story”, “Maintain Warmth”, “Call visitors to action”, are instructive in defining what exactly the St. Edward’s voice is.
Visually, the university has a fairly unified aesthetic. The red roofs of the buildings, as well as the construction style of all the new buildings. However, the look of Main Building and Holy Cross Hall is the visual that is most common, in particular the silhouette of Main Building’s tower. With both older historic buildings like Main Building, and newer buildings like the Munday Library both in play, either can be used to connect with audiences of various kinds.
Beyond the color of the roofs, color in general factors heavily into St. Edward’s branding. The Blue and Gold official colors of the university are used in the look and feel of the website, as well as banners that are unfurled in special occasions, focused around current student activities. The red of the roofs and red doors is focused around the grander feel of the university.
The branding of the university is somewhat limited in scope because of the regional reach of St. Edwards, while the University is globally focused, students from Texas make up the vast majority. More than anything else, the best builders of the brand are the Alumni, Students, and Faculty and Staff of the university. Having suitable marketing materials helps in telling and spreading the stories.
St. Edward’s marketing information:
http://think.stedwards.edu/marketing/