McGill wants to “rebrand”? Really?
According to the Montreal Gazette’s Andy Riga McGill University is seeking a branding agency to “reposition how McGill is perceived by key audiences (students, government, donors, public) over a multi-year period.” The new “positioning/messaging must be as effective in French as it is in English” and should “illustrate how we are a true bridge between generations, between research and community, between Quebec and the world.”
I don’t want to sound picky, but as Ken Steele points out in the piece, McGill already has “one of Canada’s strongest brands.”
It may need to reposition. It may need to tailor its message for different audiences. But let’s not call that a rebrand.
Wikipedia defines rebranding as “a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors, competitors, and other stakeholders. Often, this involves radical changes to a brand’s logo, name, legal names, image, marketing strategy, and advertising themes.”
That’s not what McGill needs. It doesn’t need to reinvent itself. It needs to tell its story, to reconnect.
And it’s one heck of a story: from good, to great, to not so great… with the potential to be essential again in everyone’s mind. But only if it remembers what made it matter in the first place.
Harold Simpkins
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