Work — Indiana Tech
The power of brand planning — from changing minds to making an impact
Project Scope
With a campus in Fort Wayne that serves traditional undergraduates as well as 18 regional campuses in four states that serve adults continuing their studies, Indiana Tech is hardly limited. IT is a comprehensive university.
Our partnership with the school over the past two years has helped the institution challenge perceptions and extend its reach to those who can benefit from all the school has to offer.
IT had clearly defined strategic goals when we entered into our partnership with them. To understand the best ways to achieve these goals, we engaged internal community members in qualitative discussions across campus. The insights gained from these discussions allowed us to design customized research instruments to dig deeper into IT's core brand elements. We deployed online surveys among a variety of internal and external audiences to capture a holistic view of attitudes and perceptions of IT.
Our research showed that many traditional university prospects considered Indiana Tech to be a trade-focused institution, but were equally likely to describe the university as a college or university. At the same time, a majority could not discern whether IT was a for-profit or not-for-profit institution. These gaps in perception revealed a major opportunity for IT to tailor its messaging so its audiences better understand who IT is and what it has to offer.
To help IT build awareness and update perceptions, SimpsonScarborough created a smart, strategic and authentic positioning framework that underscores the full magnitude of the university’s people and programs.
We developed a brand strategy for Indiana Tech centered around three key pillars:
- Education for one and all – all types of students are welcome and will thrive at IT
- Engagement at the core – interactions with professors like no other school
- Leading-edge mindset – we are agile, cutting-edge and are prepared for what’s next.
We then developed a confident brand identity and a full suite of creative materials — from videos to programmatic ads to environmental messaging to viewbooks — that tie our insights together and spread the word across Fort Wayne and the Midwest. Go For IT
The Go for IT campaign created by our partners at SimpsonScarborough not only captures this idea perfectly, it also helps us reach prospective students, partners, and community members to make sure these audiences are aware of — and inspired by — our Indiana Tech story.
