Aligning Your Brand Requires Much More Than Marketing

By Christian Ponce

Your brand is the vehicle for your college or university to move forward.

I was at a car dealership having some work done on my car when it occurred to me: brands, people, and cars share more in common than we might think. Just as people need vehicles to move from point A to point B, organizations also need a way to move forward—and in many ways, the brand becomes that vehicle.

For practical purposes, a vehicle typically has four wheels and a spare. Similarly, a brand needs structure and alignment to operate smoothly. A car out of alignment pulls in different directions, slows down, and wears itself out. A misaligned brand does the same.

People also have personalities—distinct traits that make them who they are. The Cambridge Dictionary defines personality as “the special combination of qualities in a person that makes that person different from others, as shown by the way the person behaves, feels, and thinks.” The American Marketing Association defines a brand as any distinctive feature—name, term, design, or symbol—that identifies a product or service, shaped by identity, values, and perception.

We marketers are taught to create brands with personality, aiming to win consumer preference through distinction. But this got me thinking: how are personalities formed in the first place?

I used to think personality was formed mainly during childhood. While that’s partly true, I’ve learned that personality is shaped continuously throughout life, both naturally and through intentional effort. In her article "The Psychology of Personality Development," Kendra Cherry, MSEd, explains that internal and external factors—genetics, upbringing, social environments, and life experiences—all influence how we develop. What stood out to me most was the idea that we can intentionally shape who we become.

The same is true of branding. Just as people grow and refine themselves through different stages, your branding must also mature, moving from idea to execution to alignment. Over the past five years, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about brand alignment. For a long time, I saw it primarily through a marketing and communications lens. I focused on business goals, messaging, KPIs, and tactics. I was wrong

Brand Alignment Goes Beyond Marketing

Brand alignment is not the sole domain of marketing. It’s a campus-wide, institution-wide endeavor. That doesn't mean it should become the work of a committee—that would only slow you down. However, branding is a living organism within the complex ecosystem that is higher education. To build a cohesive brand, you must engage colleagues across functions and levels.

Back to the dealership: when my car was ready, a technician told me, “Mr. Ponce, your alignment is done. You’re ready to go.” That stuck with me. It made me wonder—if a brand were a car, what would the four wheels be?

Here’s how I see it:

Wheel 1: Relationships

Strong cross-functional relationships are crucial to a brand's success. Trust and collaboration across departments allow your team to work more effectively. Everyone—from copywriters to creative leads to university leaders—should regularly connect with campus stakeholders. Your directors should be building relationships with deans and department heads. As a CMO, your partnership with the university president or chancellor is crucial.

I also encourage marketing teams to use the term “campus partners” rather than “clients.” A partner is someone you work with; a client is someone you do work for. Building these partnerships not only strengthens your marketing outcomes, but it also embeds your team with other departments in favor of the university’s long-term success.

Wheel 2: Research

“Knowledge is power,” the old saying goes. I’d go further: knowledge is the lifeline of your brand. Without it, you’re flying blind in the dark, with no avionics and no moon. You don’t know if you’re going up or down, and that’s dangerous. 

Fortunately, you don’t need a multimillion-dollar research budget to find your bearings. Much of what you need already exists within your institution. At one university, we partnered with enrollment management to access rich data—from program demand and student behavior to market analytics—that helped shape our first academic marketing campaign.

And of course, there’s nothing more illuminating than primary research. Focus groups, surveys, and direct feedback from students and stakeholders will give you the insight to refine and align your brand with real needs and expectations. And I found this to be some of the most rewarding work I've done with my teams.

Wheel 3: Execution

Once you’ve built partnerships and gathered insight, it’s time to act. Here’s where the exciting work happens—strategy, creative, messaging, digital, and media coming together under one shared vision.

Execution is where silos must come down. Your internal teams—creative, PR, digital, content—need to function as one. At the same time, your external partners across campus should be looped in before campaigns go live. That visibility builds trust, respect and, buy-in. Who knows, eventually you may have some champions for your brand work.

At this stage, you’re aligning university strategy with marketing goals. You understand your audiences, business needs, and communication objectives. And your team is finally pulling in one direction.

Wheel 4: Measurement

Recently, while visiting my sister in Missouri, she mentioned her car was acting up—shaking, burning oil, making strange noises. The mechanic’s first move? Change the oil and check it in a couple of days. That simple check saved the engine from severe damage.

It’s the same with brand execution: you have to measure performance to avoid breakdowns. Some things are easy to assess, like A/B testing, email open rates, or ad performance with CTRs and other KPIs. Others—like enrollment growth or reputation—take time. But if in the short term, one version of your message or one ad photo is not working well, pivot. Don’t wait for the engine to blow.

The Spare Tire: Iteration

I like to think of iteration as the spare tire. When something breaks, you need to be ready to replace it. And not just once, again and again if necessary.

Some of the most respected marketing firms I’ve worked with have said in meetings, “We initially recommended this, but we should pivot based on the results.” That’s not a mistake. That’s how real brand evolution works.

We can’t afford to become so attached to our ideas that we ignore the data—or the people around us. Listening to your team, your campus partners, and your audience is critical. A great idea can come from anywhere or anyone! Sometimes it confirms you're on the right path. Sometimes it tells you it’s time for a change.

Just like people’s personalities evolve over time, so do brands. Today’s high school students don’t think or act like those from the 1980s or ’90s. That’s not a problem—it’s a reality. People change. So should your brand. What matters is that your brand remains aligned as it evolves.