A couple of student leaders (myself included) are going to meet with Stamats this week to discuss visions of the UNC Charlotte brand.
Post here if you think of any important points that Stamats should be reminded of.
that we have to have a brand bigger than the region and city of charlotte. with 35,000 students, we need to have a brand that represents the mission and expertise of the university and appeals to state-wide and national audiences.
Why don’t you tell us what the hell a Stamat is first? LOL.
What Stamats has said already: “What is the public’s perception of this university? What do people call you, UNC Charlotte, UNCC, University of Charlotte or what? What is the domain of your website? It’s uncc.edu, what does that tell ‘visitors?’”
This is going to be interesting. Honestly, there is no vision and while trying to be open-minded, I hope they will come up with something good. Let’s make the best of it if you are asked for input.
What Stamats has said already: "What is the public's perception of this university? What do people call you, UNC Charlotte, UNCC, University of Charlotte or what? What is the domain of your website? It's uncc.edu, what does that tell 'visitors?'"
Let’s go through each of the school’s ‘brands’.
CCUNC -
I would tell Stamats that the CCUNC brand that the university once had immediately brings thoughts of a young community college starting out on its own. The CCUNC brand conjures up an image of a black-and-white world with WWII vets attending night school classes. The CCUNC brand represents humble beginnings to me - Even though the ‘CC’ stood for “Charlotte Center”, I immediately (and accurately) think of a community college. The ‘UNC’ does nothing to enhance the brand and almost sounds manipulative.
Charlotte College -
I would tell Stamats that I give high marks for this brand. I consider this to a name of an institution whose priorities are true and whose commitment to the city and to its students to be unquestioned. I consider Charlotte College to be a perfect vessel for any identity to take root.
UNCC
I would tell Stamats that this brand conjures the image of a very retro brand. I associate this brand with the 1970s, with Cornbread Maxwell, and with the disco era. Like CCUNC, it is doomed due to the immediate association with a community college and it is too ‘west coast’ to not sound ridiculous or small time. If someone is talking about the school’s Final Four run, I prefer this ‘brand’ to be used due to the strong sentimental value attached. If it is used today, the brand makes the school sound trapped in the past and unwilling to move forward.
UNC Charlotte
I would tell Stamats that this brand sounds like a satellite campus. The most manipulative sounding of the names, it seems like the school has no confidence of its own merits and has to trick people into believing that the school is closely associated with Chapel Hill. I wonder if the school would appreciate an unnecessary appendage to the front of the school’s name if the ‘UNC’ brand was not so firmly attached to one campus. This brand causes the most amount of confusion - I would show Stamats the stories detailed in the Name Confusion thread and I would relate one of my own: After explaining to my father that I was an alumnus of UNC Charlotte - which is no more affiliated with “THE UNC” than with NC State - he asked me why the school chose to call itself ‘UNC Charlotte’. During the explaination, he paused, looked at the ground, looked up again and asked me “Y-you attended an accredited college, right?” (True story and one that I am VERY ashamed to tell) This brand causes me to lose confidence in the school, as this brand seems to say that the school is satisfied at remaining second-rate.
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
I would tell Stamats that this brand reminds me of an ugly front entrance sign that has caused more than a few U-Turns by prospective students visiting the campus for the first time.
The University of Charlotte
I would tell Stamats that this is the type of brand that I think the school can eventually grow into. It immediately sounds like a “bigger” public university and is more ideally suited for the Southeast (Univ. of Memphis, Univ. of Cincinnati, Univ of Louisville, etc.) I think this brand scares people the most because they don’t believe that the campus is big enough or important enough for such a name. This is a brand that might cause the school to fully connect itself with the large ‘City-State’ of the Charlotte metropolitan area for the first time in its history. A brand like this would make people believe that the university was confident in itself to move beyond the boundaries of the state and become a university with nationwide prominence.
“What do people call you, UNC Charlotte, UNCC, University of Charlotte or what?”
I would tell Stamats that I’ve been called UNC Charlotte, UNC-Charlotte, UNC at Charlotte, NC Charlotte, NC CHAR, UNCC, UNC-C, Charlotte-NC, etc. I would tell Stamats that the above names feel forced and unnatural.
Most importantly, I would tell stamats that the current “brand” limits the school if it truly has an objective of one day creating satellite campuses. It also adds tremendous confusion if UNC Chapel Hill follows through with a satellite medical campus in Charlotte.
Lutz9er - Can you deliver this post to Stamats for your meeting? I’d like to voice how I feel, personally.
[QUOTE=lutz9er;209625]A couple of student leaders (myself included) are going to meet with Stamats this week to discuss visions of the UNC Charlotte brand.
Post here if you think of any important points that Stamats should be reminded of.[/QUOTE]
Since we’ll be keeping UNC CHARLOTTE, you have to play up both of them; the City of Charlotte (power, banking, vibrant, fast paced) and the name recognition (like it or not) of the UNC system. Unccharlotte should not be used together, hence get rid of the current trademark, the one that includes th crown. Crown is good…but it’s the State of North Carolina’s crown jewel. Something like that.
Of all the people i’ve met out here on the west coast the ones that know our school always reffer to us as Charlotte. Why… Probably because they follow college basketball or perhaps there school played us while they were in school.
…Goes to show what a good athletic program and brand can do for the entire school… Its a highly effective means of generating brand awareness.
Too many people think of us as a small satellite school until they see campus. It needs to be sold as a thriving, growing large southern metro university. We’re the only one in the area and yet few in the state know much about us…
[QUOTE=ChevEE;209728]Too many people think of us as a small satellite school until they see campus. It needs to be sold as a thriving, growing large southern metro university. We’re the only one in the area and yet few in the state know much about us…[/QUOTE]
Exactly.
I think this quote needs to be restated to the Stamats group.
[QUOTE=survivor45;209694]Let’s go through each of the school’s ‘brands’.
CCUNC -
I would tell Stamats that the CCUNC brand that the university once had immediately brings thoughts of a young community college starting out on its own. The CCUNC brand conjures up an image of a black-and-white world with WWII vets attending night school classes. The CCUNC brand represents humble beginnings to me - Even though the ‘CC’ stood for “Charlotte Center”, I immediately (and accurately) think of a community college. The ‘UNC’ does nothing to enhance the brand and almost sounds manipulative.
Charlotte College -
I would tell Stamats that I give high marks for this brand. I consider this to a name of an institution whose priorities are true and whose commitment to the city and to its students to be unquestioned. I consider Charlotte College to be a perfect vessel for any identity to take root.
UNCC
I would tell Stamats that this brand conjures the image of a very retro brand. I associate this brand with the 1970s, with Cornbread Maxwell, and with the disco era. Like CCUNC, it is doomed due to the immediate association with a community college and it is too ‘west coast’ to not sound ridiculous or small time. If someone is talking about the school’s Final Four run, I prefer this ‘brand’ to be used due to the strong sentimental value attached. If it is used today, the brand makes the school sound trapped in the past and unwilling to move forward.
UNC Charlotte
I would tell Stamats that this brand sounds like a satellite campus. The most manipulative sounding of the names, it seems like the school has no confidence of its own merits and has to trick people into believing that the school is closely associated with Chapel Hill. I wonder if the school would appreciate an unnecessary appendage to the front of the school’s name if the ‘UNC’ brand was not so firmly attached to one campus. This brand causes the most amount of confusion - I would show Stamats the stories detailed in the Name Confusion thread and I would relate one of my own: After explaining to my father that I was an alumnus of UNC Charlotte - which is no more affiliated with “THE UNC” than with NC State - he asked me why the school chose to call itself ‘UNC Charlotte’. During the explaination, he paused, looked at the ground, looked up again and asked me “Y-you attended an accredited college, right?” (True story and one that I am VERY ashamed to tell) This brand causes me to lose confidence in the school, as this brand seems to say that the school is satisfied at remaining second-rate.
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
I would tell Stamats that this brand reminds me of an ugly front entrance sign that has caused more than a few U-Turns by prospective students visiting the campus for the first time.
The University of Charlotte
I would tell Stamats that this is the type of brand that I think the school can eventually grow into. It immediately sounds like a “bigger” public university and is more ideally suited for the Southeast (Univ. of Memphis, Univ. of Cincinnati, Univ of Louisville, etc.) I think this brand scares people the most because they don’t believe that the campus is big enough or important enough for such a name. This is a brand that might cause the school to fully connect itself with the large ‘City-State’ of the Charlotte metropolitan area for the first time in its history. A brand like this would make people believe that the university was confident in itself to move beyond the boundaries of the state and become a university with nationwide prominence.
“What do people call you, UNC Charlotte, UNCC, University of Charlotte or what?”
I would tell Stamats that I’ve been called UNC Charlotte, UNC-Charlotte, UNC at Charlotte, NC Charlotte, NC CHAR, UNCC, UNC-C, Charlotte-NC, etc. I would tell Stamats that the above names feel forced and unnatural.
Most importantly, I would tell stamats that the current “brand” limits the school if it truly has an objective of one day creating satellite campuses. It also adds tremendous confusion if UNC Chapel Hill follows through with a satellite medical campus in Charlotte.
Lutz9er - Can you deliver this post to Stamats for your meeting? I’d like to voice how I feel, personally.[/QUOTE]
This is an absolutely fantastic post. Screw what they want to hear. This is the truth.
Kudos Survivor!
In order to fully establish a vision for our school separate from the UNC system, the school needs its own identity. Until the school establishes its own identity, it will never be able to have its own vision. I know that the point of this study is to market the school and help it establish its own identity, but naming is everything. When Pittsburgh Plate Glass started making paint, they had to change their name. For them, it was easy to transition to PPG, but the name change was needed because of the product they offered. Is a university the same as paint? No. Does name mean everything? Yes. If our school is going to offer a different product than Chapel Hill, a separate identity must be established. I didn’t go to Chapel Hill because I didn’t want to. Why should I have to spend the rest of my life with people thinking I did?
In my opinion, the most important thing this study can do is tell the administrators what they don’t want to hear. In order to establish an identity for OUR school rather than the SYSTEM, the school needs to be separated from the system. App St has done a wonderful job of this. So has NC State. Until we have a unique identifier, we will remain in the same class as UNC Wilmington, UNC Greensboro, UNC Pembroke, etc. Everyone in our community, our state, and across the nation will look at it as a branch campus.
If the school intends to have its own branch campuses, a unique identifier is completely necessary.
Another problem is that (a hypothesis here, no facts to back it up) most of our national recognition comes from our sports teams. They are called Charlotte. So, if a student in, say, Montana, wants to go to Charlotte because he’s a huge Niner fan, what does he Google? Not UNC Charlotte, I bet. He’ll look for Charlotte 49ers, Charlotte University, University of Charlotte, etc. I cannot think of another school that has sports teams with a different identifier than the school’s name (I didn’t spend much time thinking about it, though).
I personally refer to the school as Charlotte in conversation. As in, Q: “Where did you attend school?” Me: “Charlotte” Q: “Oh, UNC?” Me: “No. Well, sort of, I suppose. {long explanation ensues}”
My $.02.
And, Lefty, I believe the crown logo represents the school’s location in the Queen City.
Some Ideas:
[LIST]
[][B]Website[/B] (uncc.edu) needs to be COMPLETELY revamped. The site [I]is[/I] functional and user-friendly now. However, it LOOKS unprofessional, not prestigious, etc (see community college). See the Belk College of Business sites for what good sites look like.
[]If they are wanting to come up with a slogan, don’t make it lame. It needs to play to our strengths, like UNC Pembroke’s: “Where learning gets personal” (because it’s a small school with few students). Something like “Researching for the Future, Today” or “Excellence… blah da blah”.
[]We need something to remind people just how large of a university UNC Charlotte is. And, how many different programs there are. A lot of people I know are surprised when they hear 21,500 students.
[]I also agree… no regional garbage. We need this to be a national-level, all-encompassing campaign. Everyone in the region already knows about us. Of course, they still think we inhabit 3 buildings because they never come out to campus… which brings me to my next point:
[]In ads, commercials, etc, PLEASE use pictures/video of all of the [B][U]new buildings[/U][/B] on campus. Many people judge our school based on a visit to our campus which they last saw ten years ago. People would be SHOCKED to see the difference. It is completely different now. This improvement should be promoted/depicted to the public.
[]Highlight our strengths: Research, IT, Business, Engineering, and Health. As a matter of fact, we should have one university theme, but allow the different schools in the university to promote themselves within their own markets.
[*][B]UPDATE THE FREAKING ONLINE TOUR THINGY FOR PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS![/B] Those outdated maps w/out pics of new buildings and especially the outdated walking tour are OLD. Looks like six or seven years ago… the place is totally different now.[/LIST]
If the name of the university was changed to The University of Charlotte, all the other problems (lack of alumni support, student support, football, regional perception, etc) would soon solve themselves. Period.
[QUOTE=NinerATL2CHA;209761]Some Ideas:
Many people judge our school based on a visit to our campus which they last saw ten years ago.[/LIST][/QUOTE]
Or based on driving by it on Hwy 49, seeing the lovely sign and 4 giant white condos from the 70’s. Compare that to Robinson Hall. The new front entrance will do wonders.
When were the high-rises built anyways?
Or based on driving by it on Hwy 49, seeing the lovely sign and 4 giant white condos from the 70's. Compare that to Robinson Hall. The new front entrance will do wonders.When were the high-rises built anyways?
I think they might be from the 60’s… I don’t know for sure.
When were the high-rises built anyways?
The last 2 were completed in the early 70’s ('72 & '73, which were their original names before being renamed Scott & Holhauser). I think Moore & Sanford were completed in late 60’s.
They may be an eyesore now, but back then there not that many brand new air conditioned co-ed dorms around the state.
Can we contact this group by email? How are they getting their information, and who are they getting it from?
If the name of the university was changed to The University of Charlotte, all the other problems (lack of alumni support, student support, football, regional perception, etc) would soon solve themselves. Period.ummm...no. they wouldn't. there is no silver bullet for charlotte to all of sudden be seen in the same light as NC State or Chapel Hill. football, a name change, a law school, none of those will single handedly solve the problems we face. that's like saying if i had an engine with a 500 horsepower, i could go win the daytona 500. there are a lot of things between the first part of that sentence and the second that would have to happen to have that outcome. same with our university.
The last 2 were completed in the early 70's ('72 & '73, which were their original names before being renamed Scott & Holhauser). I think Moore & Sanford were completed in late 60's.They may be an eyesore now, but back then there not that many brand new air conditioned co-ed dorms around the state.
I personally don’t think they look bad. Not too many campuses have high-rises, especially that look like that… They’re almost like a unique feature on our campus. I know they had planned to implode them, but I would be sort of sad to see that. The view must be really cool from up there.
I personally don't think they look bad. Not too many campuses have high-rises, especially that look like that... They're almost like a unique feature on our campus. I know they had planned to implode them, but I would be sort of sad to see that. The view must be really cool from up there.
They may look nice from the outside, but when was the last time you were inside? The elevators weren’t in tiptop shape last I knew, either.
Combine the living standards inside with the threat of death by falling, suicide, etc., and they aren’t ideal.