Brand Strategy
Our strategy celebrates our impact, elevates our strengths, captures our personality and defines what the world can expect from us. It’s the blueprint for building our brand. Additionally, it’s a tool that we should consult as we develop marketing plans, campaigns and initiatives.
What is Brand Strategy?
Everything we say and everything we do as a brand is built on this brand strategy. It’s how we’ll tell the world who we are, why we exist and why it matters. Every element of the strategy is the result of focused decisions to establish the positioning for our brand and a platform for our big idea. This is where it all starts.
Our Brand Strategy is Made of Six Things:
- Audiences
- Brand Personality
- Positioning
- Value Proposition
- Brand Essence
- Brand Narrative
Brand Strategy as a Blueprint
The strategy is…
- A resource for anyone who communicates on behalf of Texas A&M University
- A set of frameworks and tools specifically for building communications
- The core ideas, offers and beliefs that help convey what’s most compelling about Texas A&M
The strategy is not…
- An outward expression — but it influences our outward expressions like headlines, taglines and finished marketing copy
- Everything that we need to say or communicate
- Fixed or static
- Only about communications
Positioning Statement
The clearest, most concise statement of who we are and what we stand for as a university.This statement articulates the conceptual core of our brand and serves as the underpinning for everything we say and do. Through this fundamental statement, all areas of Texas A&M can move forward in their own unique way, because they’ve all started from the same place. This is what sets Texas A&M apart.
Our Brand Positioning Statement
- Who
- Texas A&M University
- What
- is a force for good
- How
- where Aggies stand together and step forward — united by Core Values and shared duty —
- Why
- to build a brighter, safer world for the people of Texas, the nation and beyond.
Brand Essence
Our brand essence distills the positioning statement into a succinct, memorable phrase. This is not meant to be a tagline, a slogan or a headline, but rather an internal expression that we can use as a recall device — a mental prompt as an anchor to our story. It serves as a filter for the decision we make in our storytelling, and it is the spirit of everything we create.
How to Apply the Brand EssenceCore Value Proposition
We begin to shape our story around four pillars that make Texas A&M distinct: integrity, community, action and impact. At the center of the diagram (below), we articulate the core value that we deliver to our stakeholders and why it matters.
Our Core Value Proposition allows us to think about what the “give” — action, community, integrity, impact — and the “get” — respect, belonging, trust, hope.
Brand Personality
How we bring our messages to lifePersonality is what humanizes our brand, bringing our messages to life with greater emotional strength and resonance. Our messages, visuals and stories should embody these traits. These characteristics and qualities define how our brand looks and feels — creating alignment between who we authentically are as a university and how our brand comes to life.
Personality Traits
- Welcoming, like home.
- Inspiring, like everything is possible.
- Confident, but never arrogant.
- Selfless, we over me.
- Spirited, full of positive energy.
- Significant, impact at scale.
Brand Narrative
This brand narrative is the most distilled creative expression of our brand strategy: the messaging, essence, positioning and personality of Texas A&M. It forms the basis of our verbal vocabulary and guides the tone of all our marketing and communications efforts. Use it as a model for style.
Read our Brand NarrativeGetting in Character
As a member of our community, you help shape the world’s perception of Texas A&M. By getting in character, you will help strengthen our greatest asset — our brand.
Logos are the easiest way to unite our identity as Texas A&M. Learn how to correctly use our logo and unit identities that combine the university box logo with unit names.
A brand is brought to life by more than logos and colors — our brand bleeds into every word we write. Learn how to write in our voice, use our names and more through these resources.
Our brand is visually brought to life through typography, colors and other visual elements. Learn how to design within our brand to put our best foot forward as a university.