kor group rebrands Wheelock College New Admissions Materials dramatically increase interest in College

Boston, MA — kor group, a strategic branding firm based in Boston, was hired by Wheelock College to rebrand the institution. “We were looking for a firm that had exceptional design capabilities — especially in developing identity and collateral systems that a client organization could maintain on its own, once developed,” states Mike Akillian, VP of Marketing and Communications. “We also wanted a team that was very seasoned in working with academic institutions, and we wanted a collaborative partner that could work with us to achieve in a period of months what otherwise would take a year or two to implement. Having evaluated several strong firms, kor group was the unanimous choice of everyone on our selection committee.”

The challenge was clear: in recent years Wheelock College had not been receiving the response or recognition they were looking for from prospective students. After reviewing existing research provided by Maguire Associates, kor group conducted extensive focus groups and discovered the school was not necessarily being recommended by high school guidance counselors. It was also determined that more dynamic publications were needed to show prospective students what life was like at Wheelock and to convey how much of a central role the student practicum plays in the curriculum.

Wheelock’s goal was to increase enrollment and raise awareness in the school. kor group began by redeveloping the main identity of the College. The identity was then rolled out across materials for both the undergraduate and graduate programs. For the undergraduate program kor created the viewbook, travel piece, posters, yield brochure, open house invitations, website design standards, and college fair table graphics. To date the graduate program materials included a search piece, postcards, open house invitations, and posters with plans to continue expanding these publications in the future.

“Everyone across the College — trustees, leadership, faculty, staff, students, and alumni — has embraced the new identity system and print materials, and this has reinforced a strong sense of Wheelock’s identity. Outside the College, all key constituent groups — prospective students and their parents, guidance counselors, employers, government officials, partners, etc. — have responded very positively to the materials.

“The bottom line impact has been remarkable. kor’s efforts, linked with other activities, have helped us achieve a 44% increase in undergraduate applications in one year – and have further elevated the image of the College.”

kor group is a strategic branding firm specializing in creative graphic design solutions. We provide our clients with successful branding programs which include: naming, print and web design, advertising, direct mail, and environmental graphic design.

Partners Anne Callahan, Karen Dendy Smith and MB Jarosik co-founded kor group in 1993. kor group is certified as a Women’s Business Enterprise National Council company (WBENC). For more information please call 617 330 1007 or visit www.kor.com