Branding Essentials and Practical Guidance on Brand-Building

By Malenah Hunter, Associate Director of Membership and Awards, AACRAO, Live from #SEM2026

Robert Alexander, Vice Provost and University Dean of Enrollment, University of Rochester, based his session, “Brand Management for Enrollment Leaders: Addressing Higher Education’s Image Problem,” on a more extensive standalone report of guidance on marketing leadership and brand management, and broke it down into two main parts: branding essentials and practical guidance on brand-building. The higher ed image problem is also the problem of those who work in higher ed, and the numbers don’t lie.

23% of bachelor’s programs have negative ROI; there are 7 million people with very late student loan payments, and a quarter of college graduates regret having enrolled at all. These facts add credence to popular critiques of academia, asking why college even matters anymore (What is it good for? Absolutely nothing). And it only gets harder to combat the negative perceptions with social media, where anyone with a megaphone can leave a bad taste in your mouth. However, it’s not all to blame. In the end, it comes down to playing the long game. Over time, positive brand recognition is important to move the dial, and a strong brand defeats the negative sentiment.

Branding is a remarkable tool under your control for managing perceptions.

And while the facts (and figures) may be true, you have the opportunity to tell the story behind them; the idea is to form strong emotional connections with your internal and external stakeholders. Mix what you’re demonstrably great at that actually matters to students with your unique expression of your strengths that resonates with students. This is your “Truth well told.” Often, when people hear facts, they think they’re in a debate and shut down. You can’t change their minds with information alone, but by engaging them emotionally. Much like a dinner party, it’s your chance to bring them into the conversation and make a real connection without all the pressure to perform. You need to find the balance between authenticity and relevancy.

Branding and recruitment should reinforce each other in a cycle.

Well-executed marketing strengthens your brand, and a strong brand enhances your efforts. It’s a virtuous circle. While larger schools may have the funds to have entire marketing teams dedicated explicitly to their brand, a good place to start for those with fewer resources and support is to establish a marketing council with departments throughout campus represented. If your VPEMs can’t partner with CMOs to benefit each other, there should at least be enrollment cohesion with the broader campus community. The council’s main goals should be to:

• Advise: Make recommendations on questions of strategy and expenditure.
• Coordinate: Ensure orchestration of activities across all departments.
• Inform: Facilitate access to information for effective marketing-related decision-making.
• Monitor: Track impact of efforts, report findings, and course-correct if necessary.
• Catalyze: Help drive change within the functional areas represented.

A marketing council puts together the links in the chain. Your institution is already spending money on some kind of marketing, even if they slash budgets overall, so it should at least align with desired outcomes. Increasing your positive presence is an investment that will have real impact. 

Your stakeholders can be separated into those you want to learn from and those you want to influence. These two groups are imperative and should span all your brand-building activities. You want to engage prospective students and current students by asking them exactly what you want to know, then get those who influence your students in on it. These are their allies, parents, school personnel, employment partners, and the larger community. Key considerations for effective stakeholder engagement are: what you aim to accomplish, when you should engage, what you should do with them, and the best way to gain their support. And in the world of AI, don’t be afraid to prompt the very things students and their parents will be asking and seeing what the results are (Remember: The facts may be wrong).

The Five Phases of Brand-Building should ideally fit nicely into your institution’s broader strategy and current strategic planning efforts.

1. Research (gather meaningful information)
2. Analysis (break it down and map your landscape)
3. Messaging strategy (frame your key attributes and payoff to students)
4. Brand deployment (introduce your brand expression to the world)
5. Brand management (ongoing routine maintenance)

Three Final Takeaways

1. A strong brand helps overcome negative public perceptions of higher ed and helps transform your institution for the better.
2. Branding is not only about your image; it’s about understanding who you are and how best to serve the audiences that matter most to you.
3. Successful branding requires the cooperation and active engagement of all members of your campus community; you need them to live your brand.