The St. Edward’s brand — what people think, feel and expect when they hear our name — is aligned with the vision and strategy of the university. With each interaction, meaning is formed for key audiences about who we are and what we stand for.
Simply, a brand is a non-generic name for a product that identifies the source of the product. It is what someone thinks of when they recognize your institution. More broadly and importantly, a brand is the culmination of experiences, interactions, feelings and sensations surrounding your organization in audiences' minds.
Branded Architecture
Brand architecture is the structure of an organization’s brands, products and/or services. It includes an integrated system of names, symbols, colors and visual vocabulary. A strong brand architecture brings a range of offerings into focus while at the same time portraying a unified position to consumers. In its most common iterations, brand architecture falls into one of four categories: branded house, house of brands, endorsed or hybrid.
Branded House
St. Edward's strives to be a branded house, which includes a strong primary brand with divisions that feature the primary brand name alongside a product or service description (a few examples of branded house frameworks are FedEx and Apple). The branded house architecture capitalizes on established customer loyalty where audiences care less about product features or benefits than they do about the central brand promise they know and love. In contrast, a house of brands framework features a collection of distinct, familiar brands under a parent brand that customers may or may not be aware of (a few examples being Proctor & Gamble or Johnson & Johnson).
Our colleges, divisions, departments, organizations and programs have their own unique traits, attributes and goals but we are united under one common identity. Learn more about our Brand Architecture and specific guidelines to follow when applying the St. Ed's brand.
Brand Ambassadors
At St. Edward's, we are all brand ambassadors and important stewards of our brand. Our brand is far-reaching and derives strength from different groups working together to achieve brand consistency through design, messaging, photography and more.
Our brand is constantly evolving and we're working to improve the guidance and resources to make our brand intuitive and user-friendly. Please encourage colleagues to become involved in our Comms Ambassadors group, a platform to share resources, ask questions, attend trainings and more. Please reach out to us directly with any ideas or questions — we're happy to help!