Our 50th Year Rebranding
As we enter our 50th year, the Gross Catholic leadership team saw the need to undertake a rebranding effort to kick off a new era and refresh our messaging and logo. How do you come up with a new brand? Is it a group of people sitting around a table, drinking gallons of coffee yelling out random ideas until everyone says, “Yes! That’s it!”? Not so much. Creating a new brand – rebranding – takes time, thought and extensive research with input from our many audiences.
A brand:
- Is not what we aspire to be, but is reflective of who we are.
- Is more than a logo.
- Captures the essence of our school through messages and visuals.
- Is strategic.
Our goal was to maintain fidelity to the history and traditions of our great school. Knowing that this task was of utmost importance to our community and the future of the school, we enlisted the help of EG Integrated, an Omaha-based advertising and marketing agency with broad experience working with Catholic secondary schools and organizations in the Archdiocese of Omaha.
Working alongside the EG Integrated team, we gathered focus groups that included students, alumni, faculty, staff, parents and prospective families. We asked them about their perceptions of Gross Catholic, what differentiated us from other high schools in the area, and what things could attract more students to attend Gross Catholic. These groups helped us identify our school’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats—a SWOT analysis. We also discussed the attributes and personality of our current brand.
As we worked through these exercises, some common themes and words became apparent that truly described our values: community oriented, authentic, Catholic, faithful, leadership (Dux Esto), excellence, compassion and drive.
Out of these attributes, a brand was developed and built on the over-arching and familiar theme – Dux Esto – with a focus on leadership in all we do and the characteristics of a Marianist school. The team at EG Integrated created the new logo as well as a brand platform that we will use in all of our marketing and recruitment materials, letterhead and signage. We are excited about our new brand that will position us for success in the next 50 years and beyond.
Keep watching in the coming days as we unveil our brand-new focus!