Proper logo could have
branded UH ‘the best’

A reader recently suggested -- with a large dose of sarcasm -- that after spending $142,000 on the divisive and now abandoned search for a new University of Hawaii logo, that the UH symbol should be a dollar sign that "people of Hawaii could look at ... with pride and say, I helped finance that."

From my perspective, it's unfortunate that the people of Hawaii cannot look at a UH logo with pride and say, "I know exactly what the University of Hawaii and its system of 10 campuses stands for."

In 2002, my partner Gloria Garvey and I were contracted to work with the university on a branding strategy for UH's 10 campuses. Our due diligence included visits to the campuses, interviews, research, focus groups with members of the administration, faculty, student body and business community. We also conducted a comprehensive study of best practices in education branding.

And we didn't work alone. We were lucky to work closely with a team of 28 dedicated individuals from across the university system -- including people from UH-Manoa, all campuses on the neighbor islands and each of the community colleges.

These individuals learned that a brand is not merely a logo. It's not the academic seal. It's not a color, a letterhead or what's on a baseball cap or T-shirt.

A brand is "a promise that more and more private schools, colleges and universities are making to alumni, prospective students, the general public and themselves. A promise that, if applied effectively, can work to increase enrollment, boost donations, create awareness and deliver relevance." That quote is from "The Future of Branding in Education," used by our company, The Brand Strategy Group, during outreach meetings on all campuses.

Though we see logos for products, programs and businesses countless times a day, most of us don't stop to reflect on their power to communicate ideas and influence the public.

For instance, had the logo search been successfully concluded, UH could have had a brand that symbolized nothing less than the promise of value that the university system makes to all of its audiences.

That promise -- conveyed in a split-second glimpse of a logo -- would reflect the high values common to each UH program, college and campus. These values are articulated in the System Strategic Plan; where the "identity" of the university can be discovered though it goals, and to which students, faculty and administration members can point and say, "This is who we are when we are at our best."

A brand promise should differentiate UH from every other university system in the world. It should reflect a promise that is valued to the degree that students and parents will pay for it with tuition dollars, donors will support it, faculty and staff will commit their careers to it, alumni will be proud of it and the community will support it.

Just as the corporate world has had to shift its focus from "what we have to sell" to "what people want to buy," universities are making an effort to understand what their "target audiences" want to buy. Increasingly, they have to think like a business in order to stay in business. This is the textbook definition of branding.

UH was in excellent company as it looked to brand itself in an effort to build and implement a strategy for moving forward. Institutions like Penn State, the University of Wisconsin, Smith College, Boston University, the California Community College system and many other schools -- large and small, private and public -- have gone through a branding process similar to the one started by UH.

I understood what I was "buying" when I sent my 18-year-old sons to the university this year. I am aware of the value it offers -- but only because I also am a UH graduate, and I had the good fortune to work on the branding project and saw firsthand the excellence in so many areas in the system and the commitment of the people associated with the university.

So yes, we want people to look at the University of Hawaii's logo with pride, and know exactly what the university stands for: excellence, leadership, award-winning schools, outstanding programs and people, a balance of educational excellence and real world experience in a unique environment that is Hawaii. The university indeed is a place we should be proud of, and a unifying logo can transmit that message in a glance. Perhaps one day, the University of Hawaii will have such a symbol.