In William Jewell College’s Brand mission, Jewell is that product. This is the third installment in a series highlighting the Brand mission and will focus on the perspectives of current Jewell students.

Dalton Nelson, junior mathematics, Applied Critical Thought and Inquiry and dual-degree biomedical engineering major, thinks that the Brand mission is a constructive means for Jewell to combat decreasing incoming class sizes.

“I think that, as a whole, the Branding mission is good,” said Nelson. “I think that for a while William Jewell has been sort of going downhill, you can see that with admissions getting smaller and smaller every year and something had to be done. So, where do you start? You start with the identity of the campus, you start by getting recognized for something new. If you keep trying to do that same old thing and get a worse result every time, then clearly, it’s not working. I think the Brand mission is rejuvenating, and at first we’re drowning in it because it takes a lot to make a new identity but at the end of the day I think that’s what’s necessary to make an actual change to what Jewell is.”

William Hyde, senior business and political science major, agrees that the Brand mission is generally good but disagrees with some of the methodology used for its implementation.

“I think the whole process of identifying the brand mission statement was good, was admirable,” said Hyde. “I think that the brand mission statement that came out of it is good, I like it, I resonate with it. But, I think the implementation of it from then on was something they very easily could have included the Jewell community in but, from my reading of past articles and my understanding of the whole process, they did not. I do know from firsthand accounts that they did not include any of the business department in general, whether that be faculty or students. That just seems like a really big disconnect to me, it feels like that would’ve been the natural next step. Like, you’re living in community, why not include the Jewell community in this next marketing and rebranding campaign? We have marketing experts, we have brand and business experts. We have all of those people on campus.”

Nelson disagrees with Hyde’s concerns about inclusivity.

“I think that it’s enough to have had the input on finding what the brand mission statement should be, beyond that I don’t think you need to ask a student how to design a flyer or banner,” said Nelson.

Zak Carroll, junior Oxbridge Institutions and Policy major and former Student Senate president, was a member of the Brand Mission Steering Committee along with Freja Ingelstam and Ben Shinogle, graduated former Student Senate cabinet members. Carroll says that this platform allowed them to represent students throughout the decision-making process.

“I was quite impressed by the seriousness with which committee members took each other’s ideas, including those of the three student members,” said Carroll. “There were distinct moments when other committee members would ask us as students if we could share our experiences so that they could understand why students felt a certain way or how students view their time at Jewell. In addition, we were as much a part of the generative process for finding Jewell’s Brand Mission as any other member, including Administration members and Trustee members.”

Carroll emphasized that student representation was a large factor in the decisions made about the Brand mission, but admitted it is difficult for three people to represent an entire student body.

“Even if you intentionally try to represent the views of other students, it is hard to be constantly viewing a problem through the lens of somebody who is very different than yourself. I think the key to this was ensuring that the student representatives on the committee were not homogenous,” said Carroll.  

Despite students having different opinions on the process and implementation of the Brand mission, there has been limited pushback to the newly articulated central Jewell Philosophy: we are critical thinkers in community pursuing meaningful lives.

“I think it’s the meaning and the value behind our education,” said Nelson. “I mean, before they had these values, so you could say, ‘Oh, it’s good to have faith, or promote service,’ any of these different things. All of that is great, but, at the end of the day, what does it mean? Now that this is here, and after now being a part of our community for quite some time, it’s not so much about drowning in it, but more about implementing it. I think that it’s definitely impacting the students and I think that it should. I think students should be trying to reflect [on the Jewell philosophy] because I think that it’s only when we as students embrace it that it’ll actually become true and will have the positive influence that it should on the Jewell community.”

Marketing materials produced throughout the Brand Mission include billboards, posters, a website redesign, a Brand book and email signatures. The intention of these products is to advertise and promote Jewell to the wider Kansas City community.

Throughout this campaign, marketing materials have been designed and managed by Barkley, a large design and marketing firm located in downtown Kansas City.

Jason Parks, Earned Value Professional and Managing Director at Barkley, said that the firm has used the data collected to clarify the Brand Mission message and how best to apply it. This was a multi-step process, including marketing and action oriented phases.

Page from the Brand book

“The first thing we did was we created a brand book that brought to life what this brand is,” said Parks. “Then we’re also creating collateral materials for college fairs and when prospective students tour Jewell. All the collateral that’s provided is sort of bringing the idea to life, so we’ve provided that. The first big activation was the escape room tournament among all the high schools in the area, that was our idea and we executed that. From the social media perspective, we’re partnering with Cara [Dahlor, Director of Communications], and the team there at Jewell. So, we’re providing guidance for that, for the big topic areas. There’s some staff at Jewell that does kind of the daily stuff and we’re working with them on that. Then, we’re also responsible for a complete website redevelopment.”

According to John Dobson, account supervisor at Barkley, the redesign of jewell.edu will be complete this February. Statistics obtained regarding site usage will be used to gauge the response to the new look and identify what appeals to users.

“Information will be gathered from website visitors in a few ways. Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager are two free tools that are often utilized to monitor a number of data points including page views, traffic source, time spent on site, among others. These tools integrate with paid search and display banner ad campaigns, such as student recruitment advertising, in order to track the effectiveness of messaging and targeting,” said Dobson.

While website analysis will allow for the marketing material’s reception to be assessed, the initial materials distributed have been constructed based on data aggregated about Jewell by Kurt Bartolich, Founder and Brand Internalist at Gutsbranding.

Over a period of 12 months, fall 2016 to the present, Bartolich has surveyed approximately 2,500 individuals to assess Jewell’s climate and identify strengths and weaknesses. This process has generated approximately 26,875 pieces of data, which have been used to inform the marketing materials Barkley produced. Of these data points, 1,063 were qualitative and 25,822 were quantitative.

The number of data points collected is calculated by multiplying the number of interviewees by the number of answers they provided.

The most comprehensive piece of marketing material is the Brand book. Initial designs and drafts of this book were created in August and a final version was released to faculty this October. This book is 34 pages long and contains images, key words and slogans, which have been used to inform all subsequent marketing material that Jewell has released. This book also features alumni and their accomplishments, including those of Trevor Nicks, Marqus Moye, Conner Hazelrigg and Daniel Belcher.

Page from the Brand book

Representatives from Barkley are pleased with the reception of the Brand book.

“We’ve only heard very positive things… it’s been a hit with everyone. The feedback we’ve received has been very positive,” said Parks.

“The response to the brand book has been one of excitement and optimism,” said Dobson.

Bartolich has also been pleased with the progress of the Brand Mission. Commenting on the Net Promotor Score (NPS) values, which have had slower than expected growth, he asserted that any positive growth is a good sign and that it is not uncommon for change to occur slowly.

“When we say change we can’t expect revolution, we can only expect evolution,” said Bartolich.

Over the past 12 months the average NPS for Jewell across all student groups has increased from -13 percent to +2 percent.

Bartolich does not believe that these scores are reason for alarm and thinks that they may reflect the critical thinking of Jewell students. He commented this attitude meant gathering data at Jewell was particularly enlightening.

“[The] passion of students, their forthrightness, their candor. I never once felt like I wasn’t getting their truth, about the campus, their environment,” said Bartolich. “Students will tell you what they really think and believe. I think that’s, in part, the kinds of people who go to Jewell, and it’s the way you engage in your classrooms and I think it’s also the expectation to critically think.”

Overall, those involved are pleased with the progress of the Brand Mission and will continue to promote Jewell using Barkley’s marketing materials.

“The goal really is to help make Jewell famous,” said Parks.

Photos by Sofia Arthurs-Schoppe. 

The Brand Mission began with an intensive period of data gathering and analysis. Jewell partnered with Kurt Bartolich, Founder and Brand Internalist at Gutsbranding, who led a series of focus groups and panel sessions to identify fundamental elements of the Jewell experience. Each of these sessions focused on a different constituent group. These included faculty, staff, donors, trustees, students separated by year and roles on campus and employers in the Kansas City area.

These sessions collected qualitative data to identify Jewell’s desirable aspects. Data concerning Jewell’s Net Promotor Scores (NPS), an index ranging from -100 to +100 that measures the willingness of customers to recommend a company’s products or services to others, was analyzed to assess students satisfaction.

This process generated and analyzed 2,500 responses.

The qualitative data obtained was used to identify three pillars of the Jewell experience: critical thinking, community and meaning. These were synthesized to formulate the Jewell Philosophy, “critical thinkers in community pursuing meaningful lives,” a statement intended to encapsulate the Jewell experience and ideology.

The Jewell Philosophy then guided the Branding Mission’s next steps.

In late 2016, Jewell partnered with Jason Parks, 1998 Jewell alumnus and Managing Director at Barkley, a marketing firm based in Kansas City, to design marketing materials and a campaign reflective of the recently established Jewell Philosophy.

Campaign strategies include billboards erected in the Kansas City metropolitan area, a redesign of the Jewell website, paid social media advertisements and a Branding booklet. So far, the cost of this campaign has been $1.1 million, all of which has been fundraised.

However, the remaining costs are expected to be lower than those of the past 12 months as certain expenses, such as the website redesign, are not recurrent. Beginning fall 2018, the expenses will be incorporated into Jewell’s annual budget. To achieve this, MacLeod Walls has adapted the budget structure to include funds specifically allocated for marketing and outreach.

“We had not historically put marketing dollars in our budget, hardly at all, which is something that I changed very quickly after arriving,” said MacLeod Walls.

As well as increased engagement with the external community, the Branding Mission has catalyzed change on campus.

The Mission identified positive and negative aspects of the Jewell experience, and this information has informed recent policy changes.

“You have blind spots and bright spots when you begin to do this work, you begin to see where critical thinking and leading a meaningful life is flourishing on this campus, flourishing with our faculty, our students and our core curriculum,” said MacLeod Walls. “But, I’ll give you an example that resonates with students, it was not working in terms of Student Life policies and it’s still not working, at least I don’t think, in terms of how we value the residential experience. So, those are blind spots for us. It actually was the thing that allowed us to look at the alcohol policy last year. That was a huge win, for students and for us. It’s a beginning, we have other work that we need to do around the blind spots, we also need to keep lifting up the bright spots.”

The Branding Mission is also being used to inform other changes on campus, including residential hall and Mabee Center renovations, access scholarships to increase diversity on campus and endowing the Oxbridge and music programs.

According to MacLeod Walls, no staffing changes have been related to the Brand Mission.

Responses to the Brand Mission have been positive, with faculty and alumni showing the most enthusiasm for the campaign. The one constituent group which has not had an overall positive response is current students, who are generally skeptical about the project.

“The one group that has not responded consistently is current students. Everyone else is saying, ‘Yay, this is great!’ […] but, understandably, and in fact reinforcing our Branding Mission, our students are the ones who, spring of last year, were saying to me, ‘Okay, we get it and we really like this idea. But, Brand Mission seems really corporate, can we talk about how we can get away from that. And, are we really living this out?’” said MacLeod Walls. “There’s a greater amount of skepticism from current students, and a question about language use, which has been great.”

Despite being aware of student skepticism, MacLeod Walls is pleased with the internal community’s response to the Branding Mission.

“This is our philosophy, it’s in our bones; it’s not a brand, it’s who we are,” said MacLeod Walls. “Students have helped in this to say, ‘Okay, cool, love it. But, I’m going to question you, I’m going to ask about this, push on this,’ and it’s gotten better every single time. Keep doing that. I would say that you can’t be a critical thinker unless you’re questioning the efficacy of something. If you take everything at face value then you’re certainly not learning how to think.”

The quantitative data reflects MacLeod Wall’s optimism and shows increased NPSs overall and within constituent groups. Last October, the average NPS across all students was -13 percent, the NPS of student athletes was -16 percent and non-student athletes’ NPS was -12 percent. This October, the average NPS score had increased to +2 percent, that of student athletes increased to -7 percent and that of non-student athletes increased to +7 percent.

MacLeod Walls hopes that eventually the overall NPS will be +10 percent, though there is no established timeline.

“Our goal is to get up to a positive 10. We’re not there,” said MacLeod Walls. “There’s no timeframe. We just, we were hoping we’d be along further this year than we are. But, we’re still glad that we’re in the positive numbers. The student athlete number is still not as high as we’d want it. It’s still in the negatives.”

To monitor progress, Bartolich will continue to survey relevant constituent groups. The next round of surveys will be conducted this winter. Groups to be resurveyed are alumni, business leaders, faculty and staff, including athletics, and leadership.

According to MacLeod Walls, the Brand Mission, particularly marketing, is being implemented through four pillars. These are getting noticed, recruiting, reassuring (staying true to the Brand Mission on campus) and retaining. These apply for both potential students and potential investors.

With these four pillars in mind, the Brand Mission success will be assessed by the level of engagement the external community has with Jewell in the years to come. The results of these assessments will be used to inform future marketing decisions. Regardless of what the outcomes are, current Brand Mission products will remain central to Jewell for the foreseeable future.

“I’ll never say that the Branding Mission has failed because the Jewell Philosophy is the Jewell Philosophy,” said MacLeod Walls.