Mindpower presented a new brand, "Healing the world, peace by peace" to Goshen College in February. The marketing plan has continued to evolve, with a campus-wide launch now set for April 20.
On February 25 and 26, a team from the college's public relations along with Lynn Jackson and Will Jones traveled to Mindpower's offices in Atlanta to make improvements to the brand and discuss marketing details. "The point of us going down [to Atlanta] was really to start implementation work and figure out who's doing what," said Lynn Jackson, vice president for enrollment management.
Dates have now been set for both the external and internal launch of the new brand, as well as a release date for the Web site "peacebypeace.com." Goshen College will hold a celebration for the internal launch on reading day, April 20.
The external launch will take place at the Mennonite Church USA Convention 2009 in Columbus, Ohio. Mindpower will help design the college's booth for the convention, as well as release the aforementioned Web site just before the convention, which takes place the last week of June.
The Web site "peacebypeace.com," will not replace Goshen College's primary Web site. "It will be a back door to Goshen College," said Will Jones, vice president for institutional advancement.
Rather than focusing on additional admissions and donations, the Web site's purpose is to give people a place to identify and interact with the new brand, "Healing the world peace by peace."
"It's a platform to share ideas," Jones said. "What tools are we using to create peace and state issues?"
The site will include a landing page with general information about the college, with a link directly to Goshen College's homepage.
Other continuing marketing techniques include print advertisements in magazines such as The Mennonite, as well as regional television and radio advertisements. New banners designed by Mindpower will be released at the April celebration, and a photographer from Mindpower will be on campus in early May to collect photos for future print media.
Also on the Atlanta meeting's agenda was evaluating feedback from students and faculty and developing external and internal aspirations for the project. According to Jones, feedback was overwhelmingly positive (60 percent), but there was a percentage of voices that expressed the need for corrections or improvements (20 percent) and a small percentage that did not support the brand (1o percent).
Suggestions to improve the brand included adjusting the color palette of the logo, making sure the "peace" brand is faith-based and highlighting peacemaking in all its forms.
According to Jones, the team also articulated a set of aspirations for the project that move the brand beyond just an admission effort. Jones expressed some long term goals: increasing the donations of alumni and friends, receiving additional donors and improving community perception of Goshen College are among the many long term goals.
Since the team from the college has returned from Atlanta, a series of meetings have been held this week to allow students and faculty to ask questions and discuss the current plans and changes that have been made to the brand.
The campaign team from Goshen College anticipates another visit to Atlanta this fall. The team includes Jackson and Jones as well as Richard Aguirre, director of public relations; Rachel Campagnoli, graphic designer; Thushan Hemachandra, web designer; and Jodi Beyeler, news bureau director.
Two documents on the Mindpower concept are available to download below:
Feedback heard at the Mindpower presentation in February
What Mindpower heard as the "Goshen essence" through interviews
