New Logo in Store - MSU Launches marketing campaign by Suzi Taylor By this time next year, your Collegian may have a whole new look and feel--as will almost everything at Montana State University--as we launch a new integrated marketing campaign that really tells our story. Why integrated marketing? Research says a coordinated approach to image-building reaps results. Many higher education institutions have recruited students, retained faculty and attracted donations by consciously talking about their success. MSU is a great university and getting better all the time. But we haven't always done the best job of telling the world. It's time we become more than "the best kept secret." A statewide survey this spring told us that most Montanans think MSU is a good school. But they don't know much about the details. They probably don't realize our incoming freshmen GPA is increasing year by year. That our research grants have tripled in a decade. That our faculty and students are being recognized and rewarded at a level that rivals top schools like MIT and Yale. We know these things about MSU, and we want everyone to know them, too. The No.1 thing we can do is focus on our strengths, which will help us be remembered and respected. MSU's five key strengths, which are supported by President Gamble, are: nationally and internationally recognized scholars innovative and leading research our student-centered campus unparalleled opportunities for hands-on, active learning our spectacular educational setting. Put these strengths together, and you've got a university that's second to none for supporting student success and combining classroom experiences with real-world research and creative projects. One way to reinforce these messages is through creative work. We hired a graphic design agency to develop a new MSU logo. We'll write a tagline that encapsulates our MSU strengths, and we'll help people talk about the key messages in speeches and presentations. We will develop our own signature style of photography. This is common in the business world and will be very exciting for MSU. We'll also design new templates for our brochures and newsletters so that all MSU's publications look like a family. And finally, we'll be asking everyone at MSU to follow the same playbook, so we're saying the same thing to everyone using a similar look, feel and style. For a university that's poised on the brink of greatness and growing every year, the results could be dramatic, not only in the students and faculty we recruit, but through the allegiance and respect we can develop. It's fun to be affiliated with a university that's growing and changing, yet still retaining that MSU personality we all know and love. Now we want the world to know about it, too.