Wheaton College Graduate School: Clear Strategy, Effective Communcation

A year ago Wheaton College Graduate School discovered through research something that it already knew through practical experience—the prospects most interested in the school were also the exact type of individuals which the school desired to attract. That sounds like a formula for success. The problem was that Wheaton, being as most schools are a bureaucracy, had not been able to capitalize on this in targetted communication until the data convinced all the necessary parties. This year Design Corps had a mandate: to develop both style and content suggestions with the following audience in mind: college-graduate adults who have a passion to serve Christ.
For their 36 page overview booklet, we shed the emphasis on high gloss and bright colors to give their materials the rougher, earthier look of an adventure guide book using parchment backgrounds, hand-drawn graphs, and hand-written text. Object art was used to symbolize finding one’s direction in pursuing one’s calling, such as a sextant, a compass, and a road-sign. We also suggested a greater emphasis on testimonials and inspirational quotes from God’s Word on following one’s calling.


This theme was continued in an advertising campaign that included a general ad stating “Never settle for a job…when you have a calling,” and testimonial ads for individual degrees with the headline “Living Out the Calling.”


Once again a CD was produced to be included in the guidebook or handed out at conferences. It carried over the style of the guide book and had extra pages using the symbolic tools guiding prospects to seek a higher calling, to choose a direction, and to download information to start the application process.


Finally, we also produced several extra elements such as a three banner display for trade shows, and a desktop encourager to be shipped as a polybag insert with Charisma magazine.

Overall the response internally has been fantastic. But that can only be ascribed to the fact that Wheaton College Graduate School had a clear marketing strategy to offer to its primary prospects the very message they were desiring to hear. With a clearly defined message we were able to come up with visual forms that clearly and creatively met their objective goals.

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