Students create branding plans for agencies in need of an upgrade
SLIPPERY ROCK — After at least a semester of working with community organizations, students in Slippery Rock University’s Communication, Media & Sport Management program presented their branding ideas to those organizations Thursday, May 1.
Students in the class split into three groups, which each collaborated with an organization on a new marketing strategy that would update their outward-facing branding and messaging. The three organizations were the Institute for Learning in Retirement — which was also a partner last year — the Butler Musical Theatre Guild and the university’s own Curriculum, Instruction and Educational Leadership department.
John Hicks, an associate professor in the curriculum department, said the students’ help in rebranding the department was needed, because it recently formed through the merging of two departments.
Additionally, the students’ creation of social media pages for the institution were helpful in getting its message out there to the main demographic the department is trying to reach: students and prospective students. Hicks said the department probably would not have the same options for outreach if not for the students’ input over the course of the semester.
“We want to reach young people the way they want to be reached,” Hicks said. “We needed new tools for doing that.”
Doug Strahler, associate professor in the Department of Communication, Media & Sport Management at Slippery Rock University, led the class that presented May 1. He explained that the groups of students met with their respective organizations regularly throughout the semester to gather information on what they are and how they could share that information externally.
The students in each group came up with some similar branding plans — they crafted new logos that fit better into social media posts, created YouTube channels for the organization and even videos providing information about the organization to populate those channels.
Strahler said representatives from each organization were accommodating in meeting consistently with students, which he and the students agreed was paramount to creating successful new marketing strategies for them.
“This class would not be possible without your collaboration,” Strahler said to the organizations’ representatives present at the presentation May 1.
