Experience-based learning: WSU's new brand marketing campaign launched Experience-based learning: WSU's new brand marketing campaign launched

Wichita State's Office of University Relations rolled out a new advertising campaign on Monday that serves to build WSU's brand identity as a center for experience-based learning. Put simply, experience-based learning is a higher education experience that better equips students to reach their real-world goals. It's a hallmark of Kansas' only urban-serving research university. To learn more about experience-based learning, go to http://www.wichita.edu/more.

The campaign is the result of planning and research over the past year. It uses television, radio and print advertising, as well as event marketing. It is designed to speak to college-bound high school students in Kansas and their parents, because research shows they consider outcomes the most important factor in selecting a college or university. Outcomes are those results (a good job, good salary, rewarding career, etc.) that prospective students expect from an investment in higher education.

WSU's website has been transformed to allow for experience-based learning stories to be told to the prospective students who visit the site each day.

There are no new slogans, but there are several new headlines that help to convey our position:
Do More. Be More.
Bigger Opportunities. Bigger Rewards.
Real-World Made. Real-World Ready.

Advertising campaigns can help reinforce our message, but brands are built of organizational behavior. For this reason, everyone at WSU has a role in reinforcing the brand.

Many things shape WSU's brand, but most important is WSU's location in Wichita and its mission to serve Wichita and Kansas as the state's only urban-serving research university. That mission has been largely the same since our founding as Fairmount College.

A booklet entitled Experience-Based Learning: Understanding WSU's Brand Essence is available to any interested faculty or staff person. It explains branding, WSU's new brand platform, why it is important for recruiting students and how the campaign will be carried out. To request a copy or for more information, or for a presentation about the campaign to your department, contact Barth Hague, barth.hague@wichita.edu, or 978-3051.