In the constantly changing landscape of higher education, institutions often find themselves at crossroads, compelled to adapt to evolving trends, shifting demographics, and changing societal expectations. In the past few years, Oakton College (formerly Oakton Community College) has found itself at such a crossroad. We embarked on a transformative journey to redefine our relevance and reaffirm our commitment to our community through a comprehensive brand refresh—a journey that proved to involve so much more than updating logos and slogans.

Recognizing the Need for Change

Oakton College is a U.S. community college with campuses in Des Plaines and Skokie, Illinois. It opened in 1969 as Oakton Community College and today serves 9,256 credit-bearing students, offering more than 150 academic degrees and certificate programs. We’ve both served at the college for several years—Katherine as Chief Advancement Officer since 2018 and Andrea as Director of Marketing since 2019.        

Since 2020, a confluence of factors spurred Oakton (then Oakton Community College) toward a brand refresh. For years, we had been grappling with declining enrollment, a persistent stigma associated with community colleges, and mounting questions about the value of higher education. On top of this, a global pandemic, a surging social justice movement, and the ever-evolving needs of our district and workforce partners added to these challenges. 

In 2019, the college celebrated a milestone 50th anniversary, and by 2021, our marketing and communications team was in the thick of a massive website redesign and aligning our work to the college’s new strategic plan and long-term vision. In the midst of this, the college’s governing board voted to remove the word “community” from our name. Committed to helping the college lean into our promising future, college trustees felt that “Oakton College” reflected a more contemporary institutional name.

We aren’t the only community college to make this change in recent years. Other institutions across the U.S. have recently opted to remove “community” from their names in efforts to “modernize their images and boost enrollment,” Inside Higher Ed reported in May 2022. Recent examples include Florida’s Tallahassee Community College, now Tallahassee State as of July 1, 2024; New York’s Niagara County Community College, now SUNY Niagara; or Texas’ Dallas Community College District, now Dallas College.

While it was potentially daunting, we saw this convergence of events as a golden opportunity—the perfect occasion for us to reevaluate our brand identity and our role within the community. With support from leadership, we embarked on a transformative journey toward revitalizing our brand, launching a yearlong endeavor to reflect on why the college matters and to reestablish its relevance.
 

Building the Brand Foundation

When we presented options for our brand refresh approach, college trustees agreed that there was positive equity in our existing brand, especially in our logo and the college’s official green color. We didn’t feel we needed to start with a clean slate. However, changing our name was still a significant shift that offered us the opportunity to reintroduce the institution to the community we serve.

We wanted to do this work right, and the board supported this intention with financial commitments. It invested in the name change with four years of consulting support and brand implementation work, including updating physical assets and supplemental advertising resources. However, having already voted on the name change, leadership also wanted to begin this change as quickly as possible. So we immediately issued a request for proposals to identify external consulting expertise to guide us through the process. We built an aggressive project plan to get us from the board’s vote on the name change to our public launch in just 16 months!

At the heart of our brand refresh was a commitment to involve our faculty, staff, board, students, alumni, the college’s foundation members, and external stakeholders at every stage of the process. We incorporated diverse perspectives from across our campus and community into decision-making processes. Input from our external partners provided us with valuable insights into the institution’s standing within the broader community. 

This collaborative approach laid the foundation for a brand refresh that was authentic and reflective of the institution’s deep-rooted commitment to our community.

INTERNAL LAUNCH: At the heart of Oakton College's brand refresh was a commitment to involve faculty and staff at every stage of the process, and incorporate diverse perspectives from across the campus community into decision-making processes.

Credit: Oakton College

Building Community and Engaging Stakeholders

We assembled a Brand Implementation Leadership team, which included the president, marketing and communications staff and other staff representing various college functions, faculty, students, and board members. This team worked directly with our consultant. Through a series of meetings and listening sessions, we engaged key stakeholders in meaningful dialogue, soliciting input and feedback to create and update key aspects of the brand foundation—our brand’s promise, voice, messaging pillars, visual identity, and implementation strategies that resonated with our audiences. Held during two days, the listening sessions included representation from both campuses with president’s council members; board members; students; and staff representing enrollment and admissions, workforce development, institutional research, equity, athletics, marketing, communications, and advancement. These groups were the first to provide input on the college’s refreshed logo design options before we solicited reactions from the broader community.

This work—using stakeholder feedback to formulate and affirm our new brand foundation, logo refresh, and updated college seal—took place over four to five months. Through survey responses and feedback during the listening sessions, we learned that respondents perceive Oakton positively. However, we also learned that we had a relevance challenge—many of those we surveyed were unclear about why Oakton matters to them. Given that a brand is a lived experience and so much more than our logo, our new messaging pillars became core to how we live our mission, vision, and values and create community and relevance every day, both on campus and off. 

Doubling Down on Community

Once we had the elements of our brand foundation in place and refreshed designs for our logo and seal, we created new Oakton College Brand Guidelines to capture these decisions and establish usage guidelines for our ongoing work. We also transitioned into the project’s implementation phase, assembling a new Asset Implementation Team to join marketing and communications team members with collaborators from across the institution. Your collegeʼs name is everywhere, from your website and internal third-party systems to decals on fleet cars and uniforms. So our implementation team included colleagues from facilities, purchasing, finance, admissions, and athletics. The complete transition of physical assets extended nearly a year beyond our external launch campaign. (It takes time to create bid packages and complete fabrication to change physical signage.)

At the same time and on a more compressed timeline, the marketing and communications team focused on developing a comprehensive brand campaign. We determined how the brand would look in practice and within our creative assets. We had less than six months until our official internal and external launch dates. 

We built and designed new creative for our brand launch, including two TV commercials. Behind the scenes, we were preparing to change our social media channels, institutional website, and other third-party systems (such as our internal portal, applicant tracking system, and online catalog) to reflect our new name.

We created tools and resources for our campus community, including updated name tags, business card templates, stationery, Zoom backgrounds, and institutional PowerPoint templates. We equipped our campus events and scheduling team with new items, including tablecloths, outdoor canopies, backdrops, and retractable banners.

We knew that real Oakton stories would bring our brand to life, so we created and implemented Inclusive Storytelling Guidelines. These guidelines are at the heart of our work from beginning to end. They demonstrate our commitment to equity and centering the voices of our constituents. Our students, employees, alumni, and donors collaborate with us to tell their own stories and approve the use of their narratives and images in our paid advertising. This creates an authentic representation of Oakton College and the communities we serve. (See examples of this work at here.)

THE BRAND'S BIGGEST CHEERLEADERS: Oakton employees embraced the brand refresh and the notion of being "Oakton ambassadors."

Credit: Oakton College

Ready, Set, Launch!

As our announcement date approached, we provided consistent internal communication about the status of the name change and brand refresh, leveraging various internal platforms and channels to create transparency and excitement. Internal branding is just as important as external branding, and we wanted our campus community to see our brand campaign first!  

Our internal launch occurred during our spring 2023 Opening Day event in January, which brings our faculty and staff together. We entered the new year with a new name, creating a pep rally vibe to start the spring semester. The Oakton staff celebrated the progress we had made so far on the college’s strategic plan while showcasing our new brand campaign, Connect to Opportunity, before it was publicly launched the following week. Our brand refresh work and name change implementation are in direct alignment with how we visually demonstrate how we live our mission, vision, and values. A day later, we presented our brand launch creative and plan to our board of trustees to keep them apprised about and engaged in the project while validating their name change decision and brand refresh investment.

Our external campaign launched the following week and included media outreach, broadcast TV commercials (our very first ones!), streaming and audio platform promotions, updated outdoor banners on our campuses, billboards throughout our district, bus tails and bus shelters, digital campaigns, a targeted campaign to our district high schools, an updated website and social media channels, and a districtwide mailer to reintroduce Oakton College. This districtwide mailer has become an annual mailing to stay connected with our community and continue strengthening our relevance.

We also created a “frequently asked questions” page on our website about the name change to address questions such as, “Are you offering bachelor’s degrees?” and “Will the college’s website URL or email addresses change?”

Celebrating Successes and Looking Ahead

This endeavor presented an opportunity for the marketing and communications team to create something impactful together, fostering stronger relationships within our team and valuing our individual strengths and expertise. It also helped elevate our marketing and communications team within the college community, positioning us as a trusted partner valued for our knowledge and contributions.

So what about the results? A year later, we are experiencing many tangible and intangible benefits. Our brand refresh implementation made a positive contribution to our institutional efforts that impact enrollment and student success. In the summer semester of 2023, new student enrollment increased by 16% and continued to have positive momentum, with a 6% increase in fall 2023. In the 12 months since the launch, we’ve experienced a 5% increase in new web visitors and a 22% increase in visitors to the application page. We’re experiencing strong usage of the branded tools we created internally and externally, and the college climate has renewed enthusiasm for and investment in our collective impact.

As we reflect on our brand refresh journey, we do so with pride, determination, and optimism. By embracing change, fostering collaboration, and staying true to our values, we have revitalized our brand and reinforced our commitment to excellence and relevance to our community.

In sharing Oakton’s approach to our brand refresh, we hope that advancement professionals can see that, if you’re navigating the challenges and opportunities of brand shifts, you are not alone! By embracing transparency and collaboration, emphasizing strengths, and centering on community, you can create institutional identities that resonate with stakeholders and drive meaningful change. As higher education continues to evolve, institutions that prioritize community and authenticity will be best positioned to thrive and remain relevant.