Photo taken by Courtnee Cesta / Managing Editor
COURTNEE CESTA
Managing Editor
Fredonia’s rebranding comes with a hefty price tag.
The college’s most recent, and arguably most noticeable, transformation sits on the edge of campus — the slate signs that mark the point at which the village ends and the campus begins. At night, they are backlit with a classic “Fredonia blue” color. The cost: nearly $18,000.
In the worst-case scenario, Fredonia projected a $132,000 price tag on the rebranding efforts that will be spread over a two-year period. Since June, however, the college has spent just under $61,000 — less than half of their original estimation. The amount, however, only encompases efforts that happened in the days directly following the switch and does not include expenses that administration would have spent anyway, such as parking stickers, the alumni magazine and certain advertising items.
Expenses have been split into four categories: stationery, which includes letterhead, business cards and envelopes for the entire campuses; Facilities and University Services, which includes signage such as that on the incubator, the back of the facilities services building, banners, etc; Marketing Needs, which is used primarily by the admission teams, marketing communications and alumni; and Advertising.
Before the campaign started, the estimated cost for stationery was just over $21,500, facilities was just under $77,000 and Marketing just under $22,000. Since the campaign started, the actual cost for stationery items has reached just over $3,500 – a figure that Fredonia’s Director of Marketing and Communications, Mike Barone, attributes to departments not taking full advantage of the items.
This money does not come from tuition or state dollars but from an FSA account that grows as consumers purchase apparel labeled with the Fredonia brand. The Walden Galleria mall, Walmart and the university’s bookstore are among the locations that provide royalties to the fund, which is now being reinvested in the new facade.
According to Barone, efforts took off quickly and are well underway. He says that although there are certain things, such as the Technology Incubator in Dunkirk, that still say “SUNY Fredonia,” his concentration is on pushing the college’s new logo and solidified name outside of the immediate community.
“The folks who live right here in our backyard are still going to call us whatever they want to call us,” Barone said. “We still have people calling us ‘Fredonia State’ and ‘SUNY Fredonia.’ We didn’t make this change with them in mind, because we already have brand recognition in them. But it’s when you get one, two, three, four hours away from here — that’s when people start to think of us as multiple entities. They were openly asking, ‘now, which one are you? Are you SUNY Fredonia, or are you Fredonia state?’”
When it is complete, the incubator’s new sign will cost an estimated $13,000.
The push for the seemingly simple name of “Fredonia,” rather than “SUNY Fredonia,” is not an intention to break away from the SUNY system but is a move for the college to gain higher recognition. There are 64 SUNY colleges that operate under four flagships which make the system the largest of all in the nation. Because of the large number of campuses, however, Fredonia is constantly immersed in unavoidable competition with its SUNY brothers and sisters.
“Evolve, transform, change the world,” Barone said. “That’s our campaign we’re in. And it’s what we want to prove we do as well as any other place. And we laughed out loud when Bill Nye came in and kept saying that because we were already two weeks into this campaign.”
Becoming more contemporary is only a part of the campus’ reason to move toward its new logo. Barone says that aside from modernization, the rebranding is an opportunity to create a complete visual change to support its operational change.
When establishing a new name for the campus, the rebranding committee turned to FSA for help. According to Barone, FSA provided a significant amount of important data, such as statistics that showed apparel with the “SUNY” acronym was not selling nearly as well as apparel that sported “Fredonia State.”
“We didn’t want to get rid of our connection to the system all together,” Barone said. “We just want people to think ‘Fredonia’ first. That’s the dominant thing, and then, ‘oh, by the way, we’re part of the State University of New York, and we’re very happy to be.’”
Before the change, Fredonia was one of the few universities in the SUNY system that was still identified as such in its official title.
To enforce the ‘Fredonia’ name outside the campus, the college has created advertisements beyond its usual radio commercials. When the campaign started in October, it released a handful of billboards in the greater Buffalo metro area, then moved on to include large banners in the Galleria Mall.
Barone appreciates out-of-home media, such as the billboards and banners, for the unavoidable exposure it provides — the audience can’t physically change the channel or fast forward — but says there’s a downside to it as well: the lack of content.
“Now, we had a different riddle that we had to solve because we added a visual component that we had to get across,” said Barone. “It’s just logo, vibe, feeling — something like that. And hope it permeates.”
Barone has confidence that over time the “Fredonia” message will in fact permeate, but meanwhile strives to create something bigger and better. The campaign has now evolved toward its most prominent medium and primary component, as seen during the Country Music Awards last week, a television Spot.
“What we wanted to do is really create something that was dramatic, to have it stand out,” Barone said. “Something that would be a noticeable departure from what we’ve done in recent years. To change the tone of the entire university.”
Throughout the 60 seconds, the audience sees science labs, recording studios and study abroad experience, but no classroom learning — something Barone says was done deliberately, in order to show how much learning at Fredonia happens outside the classroom. But that isn’t the only unusual aspect of the video.
“We also started with the sciences, and that’s very different for this university. Most people think of education and music,” Barone said. “And that’s great. We’re very strong in those areas and we’re not going to give up on them any time ever. But that’s not enough anymore. We’re much more than that.
“And then there’s the crane.”
The paper crane, which can be seen in all of the new ads for Fredonia, was introduced to campus a few years ago by one of Fredonia’s partner universities in Japan. In March 2011, following the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami near Tohoku, Japan, Fredonia students, staff and faculty sent one of the partner universities care packages. In return, Fredonia received a series of origami cranes that the college then hung in University Commons — a symbol of happiness, peace and good luck.
When the rebranding campaign was launched, Barone said he used the crane as inspiration to create an animation where the birds emerged from the “F” of the new logo.
“So we just kept going with it and said ‘you know, this really is that great symbol for that transformation that a Fredonia student experiences while they’re here.’ And it just sort of took off from there,” Barone said.
This year, accepted students will receive a sheet of paper to use to create their own crane.
The campaign in its entirety, including the billboards, posters and television spot, was created to initiate the change in perception of Fredonia, and is spreading far beyond campus. According to Barone, aside from playing in Western New York during the CMA’s, the television Spot is also playing in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and even into Ithaca, at all Regal Cinemas before every single movie. Because TV and outdoor media are expensive, the campaign will soon turn to online ads, such as on YouTube and Twitter.
The university is staggering its resources to develop the campaign, which should come to a close within a two year period.