Brand Narrative
A brand narrative is a concise, streamlined story that acts as the platform for an organization’s marketing and communications.
A brand narrative is a not a script for you to repeat verbatim, but a messaging framework for you to interpret and communicate, as needed, through your own unique lens.
Brandeis’ brand narrative centers on this statement:
Brandeis is a research university shaped by a spirit of rigorous inquiry. And because Brandeis is smaller than other research universities, it is also marked by a particular connectivity. Faculty, students and staff engage with others across departments, disciplines and interests. This results in an academic and social environment that is both deeply curious and collaborative.
Core Themes
There are two concepts here: The first is that Brandeis is a place of intellectual rigor. The second is that because Brandeis is smaller than other similarly rigorous research universities, its culture features a kind of connectedness you don’t find elsewhere.
That connectedness is not hard to find. It exists in the cross-departmental research that occurs at Brandeis, especially in the sciences. It exists in the unusual combinations of majors and courses that students routinely undertake here. And it exists in the way our students freely join many different clubs and move socially across different groups.
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The brand narrative is also supplemented by five supporting points that expand upon the theme of the core narrative and add certain essential information:
- Brandeis produces important, daring and consequential scholarship. It is a proud member of the prestigious Association of American Universities.
- Brandeis students are eager to learn. They cross boundaries to engage seriously with new ideas, approaches and subjects, often in unexpected combinations of different disciplines.
- From its start, Brandeis welcomed students and faculty from all backgrounds and circumstances. Brandeis was founded in 1948 by the American Jewish community at a time when Jews and other groups were denied access to top colleges and universities due to discrimination.
- The Brandeis community possesses a deep commitment to social justice. In the spirit of its Jewish heritage, and inspired by its namesake, Justice Louis Brandeis, Brandeis students, alumni and faculty apply their talents to improve the world.
- Brandeis is a thriving, medium-sized university, ideally located in Waltham, which is a convenient twenty minutes from Boston — a hub of innovation and higher education.
Any brand narrative is more than just a cerebral concept. If you think about the brands that you know and love, the attachment is often more emotional than it is intellectual. That needs to be the case for Brandeis as well. Not only do we need to promote an idea, we need to project a personality. That shouldn’t be difficult, since Brandeis possesses such a distinctive culture. Here are the touch points for communicating Brandeis’ brand personality.
Brandeis is:
- inquisitive
- considerate, genuine and friendly
- embracing of the unconventional and creative
- inviting and open to engaging across difference, even if that requires uncomfortable conversations, with the goal of making Brandeis and the world a better place