Institutional Rebranding

Wheaton College presented CCA with a unique challenge: Leverage two years of discovery and research the College had completed into the development of a compelling and differentiating brand. On the surface, nothing unusual at all for CCA, so why call it a challenge? CCA pitched, won, and successfully executed these deliverables during the global pandemic, and in record time. Moreover, we did this for the first time ever without ever meeting our Wheaton colleagues or members of the College community in person or ever stepping foot on their campus.

Wheaton’s goals for this project were to construct a visual and narrative brand architecture and positioning strategy that would effectively engage its target audiences in order to promote and protect the Wheaton brand and improve key enrollment measures.

These efforts would guide key internal stakeholders in understanding and leveraging the new brand assets in an effort to create a culture of brand clarity, consistency, and ambassadorship.

Following our discovery, we began to frame our strategy—one that positions Wheaton as the thoughtful, culturally significant, and non-partisan voice for thinking Christians. Our strategy was to frame the College’s value proposition as the only college in the world that won’t make you settle, because at Wheaton you can pursue world-class academics and a deep faith journey—at the same time, same place.

Our work for Wheaton included developing a robust brand architecture and messaging platform, a refreshed institutional identity/logo, a new brand style guide, a brand launch and media strategy, and a full suite of supporting enrollment print communications.