Wilkerson - The Rice MBA

RICE MBA

The admissions recruitment brochure for the Rice MBA program was the flagship piece which set the standard for all subsequent print and web collateral for the school to follow. Cohesive design aesthetics were based on a two-year cycle for an overall look/feel with consistent messaging from all areas of the school.

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CHALLENGE

To increase brand awareness and market share in a growing competitive market, the Rice MBA program needed complete rebranding—from logo identity to all platforms of marketing efforts.

STRATEGY

Redesign the website to represent the school's future goals and consistently reflect all branding and marketing efforts. Create and implement an overall brand and style guide to reinforce core messaging and brand consistency. Through benchmarking, market research, and interviews with all stakeholder groups, we created a new identity to position faculty and students as leaders in a global arena and underscore their expertise in their core concentration.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Primary team lead in strategizing overall image, branding, and identity direction
Effectively presented all benchmarking and marketing research data and responded to concerns from all stakeholder groups
Provide overall strategic plan and leadership direction of website
Gather information and requirements from all stakeholders to ensure scope and deliverables are formalized
Work closely with in-house and external design teams to ensure execution of design and functionality requirements
Ensure that branding/marketing communications follow branding standards
Coordinate and project manage all vendors to assure adherence with contractual and timeline agreements

Major print and web projects included: an annual piece for MBA recruiters, an At-A-Glance (an overview or annual report for the school), and an Action Learning Project whose audience was companies looking to hire teams of MBA students to solve real-world company problems with a hands-on internship. Award-winning, clean, simple, eye-catching, and on-target with prospects have described previous print and web collateral. Benchmarking and marketing research regarding the school's initial perception, to a non-Houstonian, non-Texan prospective student showed that the prospect had a much higher level of information and expectation of Rice based on being touched first by either the school's website and then the viewbook—prior to ever stepping foot on the campus. Accolades include: Art Director's Club-Houston (Merit Award); Houston Advertising Federation (Silver Award); and several CASE awards.

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RICE MBA

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