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Overview

Microcollege, an extension of Honors Pathway, started as a pilot project in 2017 and established itself as a social venture. As a higher education institution, they are committed to helping first-generation college students graduate high school, complete college as a first-generation college student, and prepare them to launch a professional career. They came to us for our brand strategy services to update their marketing strategies and help stimulate their growth.

MicroCollege’s vision is to build brand equity by leading a college pathway program for high school students. Coaching and guidance are provided to students every step of the way! After successfully partnering with a number of high schools in the San Francisco Bay Area, the organization needed to build a higher education branding strategy.

Pace Creative provided them with brand strategy services to develop their higher education marketing strategies and brand strategy framework.

The brand strategy framework was built on getting prospective students to emotionally connect with the brand. Our brand strategy services included brand positioning statement, brand messaging and values, updating the logo, creating the design to include typography and establishing the initial colour palette for the brand.

2000%

increase in leads per month

255%

increase in admissions

1200%

increase in brand recall

Challenge

As a first-of-its-kind program, MicroCollege needed to:

  • Establish a new brand promise
  • Connect with its audience emotionally
  • Demonstrate its brand relationship with the successful Honors Pathway social venture
  • Set up their own institutional model through a social enterprise model

Our brand strategy services team was tasked with:

  • How do you create a new and unique higher education brand promise?
  • How do you develop a higher education brand strategy framework that is aligned with their business growth goals?
  • How do you implement this new brand within higher education marketing strategies?

Solution

Conducting Audience Research

Our team developed a higher education content marketing strategy based on data, research, and information gathered. By creating a marketing persona, we aligned the strategy with the decision-making process of first-generation college students.

We then developed mood boards for MicroCollege to share with its focus group to see if prospective students could connect with the brand emotionally.

This all kept in line with the business growth goals.

Developing the Logo

Based on the audience research, the executive team picked an abstract and minimalist brand theme to represent the unique programs that MicroCollege offers.

The concept mimicked the same hue and tone as the Honors Pathway’s logo to symbolize the relationship. From this initial concept, we developed the colour palette to create the brand ‘look and feel’.

The logo is fresh and young, with a contemporary aesthetic that is attractive to millennials. The circular design represents a strong foundation for students. The overall ‘look and feel’ is minimalistic and clean.

Establishing the Creative Direction

To match the range of assets to the new brand strategy, we curated the photography, iconography and illustration’s creative direction to build a stronger foundation to establish the brand.

Result

  • After the brand strategy services complete, a new logo and brand promise for MicroCollege was launched.
  • We continue to work on the brand evolution by building the foundation forMicroCollege’s tailored higher education content marketing This includes a new lead generating website!
  • Today, MicroCollege’s venture is growing and expanding all over the USA. The website is their #1 marketing tool to get students to sign-up to the program.
  • + 2000% increase in leads per month.
  • + 255% increase in admissions month after month.
  • + 1200% increase in brand recall from audience.

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