Sametz Blackstone develops new branding and communications program for MIT Sloan School of Management.

Comprehensive, flexible system for branded communications can be "tuned" for different constituencies, builds awareness, addresses misperceptions, and positions the institution for leadership in the 21st century.

Developed in close collaboration with diverse stakeholders across the organization, and based on detailed qualitative and quantitative research, the new branding program aims to position MIT Sloan as global leader in shaping tomorrow's business, technology, and social innovators.

Boston, MA, 13 June 2006—Sametz Blackstone Associates, a leading brand-focused Boston communications practice, has developed and launched a comprehensive brand-building communications program for MIT Sloan School of Management, one of the nation’s top ten management education institutions.

"MIT Sloan, the nation's only top management school fully integrated with a world-class science and engineering research institution, was under-communicating its value and energy," says Margaret Andrews, Executive Director of Marketing, MBA Admissions and Alumni Relations at MIT Sloan. "To continue to attract the best students, staff, and faculty, we needed to re-tune our brand to better present the School as an integrated whole and to resonate personally with our different constituencies. We wanted to work with Sametz Blackstone because of their deep academic experience, their ability to craft brand systems for complex organizations, and their proven ability to "teach" brand systems to organizations, ensuring that MIT Sloan would be able to get a maximum return on its investment."

Eric Norman, strategist at Sametz Blackstone, observes, "We learned in our investigation that MIT Sloan needed a very flexible system: the School needs to talk to undergraduates, candidates for MBA degrees, applicants to the Fellows program, and prospective PhD students—as well as to alumni, current and prospective donors, corporate partners, recruiters—in addition to a rich mix of internal constituents. These groups have different needs, are coming from different life situations, and have different expectations. Further, the School's communications functions are decentralized by program. The new system supports this range of needs and audiences while at the same time building the “master” MIT Sloan brand and reinforcing School-wide messages."

According to Roger Sametz, president of Sametz Blackstone: "Rather than develop a 1960s-Mobil Oil monolithic brand, we collaborated with a cross-program / cross-functional team to develop and express a brand for MIT Sloan—positioning, messaging, print and digital materials––that could be 'tilted' as appropriate for each group: different spokes comfortably aligned inside an over-arching umbrella."

"The beauty of the system," according to Andrews, "is that it has volume and tone controls. We can make the typography more edgy and employ hotter colors for MBA materials; we can dial down the type, color, and imagery for Fellows materials; and we can be quieter still for some development materials. The system gives us the tools to meet different constituencies on their terms, offer the right handshake, and continue a conversation in a voice that resonates. Not incidentally, the flexibility of the system also encourages buy-in, internally, across the organization. People were able to see that “their” constituencies were all of ours—and that communications could be both targeted and work hard to build the brand and image of MIT Sloan."

The new communications program includes new positioning, School-wide and program- and constituent-specific messages; focused approaches that guide the use of type, color, imagery, and language; revitalized communications across the School; and a system of guidelines and templates for common communications. An online brand extranet supports both those who commission and create communications; a newly formed Marketing Council is the steward of the MIT Sloan brand.

"We're a research-based institution," says Richard Schmalensee, the John C Head III Dean of MIT Sloan. "Sametz Blackstone was able to take the research we'd done, add new qualitative findings, and evolve a brand system that was a perfect fit for MIT Sloan—a system that presents us as the unique institution we are. And because the system is based on principles and approaches—and not on rules—the brand system is teachable: from MBA Admissions to Alumni Relations, from our contests to our clubs, people across the School are able to take ownership of the system and use it to connect creatively, all the while building our brand."

Dean Schmalensee continues: "We recognize the value of managing our brand. MIT Sloan is, and has always been, home to great thinkers and leaders. With Sametz Blackstone's counsel, communications of all sorts—spoken, printed, and online—now consistently portray our community and invite new generations of leaders to join us."

About Sametz Blackstone Associates

Sametz Blackstone Associates provides strategic communications counsel to leading cultural, academic, research, professional service, and corporate organizations. A twenty-eight year-old global practice located in Boston's historic South End, Sametz Blackstone integrates brand-focused strategy, message development, design, and technology to develop and produce compelling communication programs that help evolving organizations better navigate change. Clients include centenarians and start-ups: Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Ballet, Boston Center for the Arts, Harvard University, Yale University, MIT Sloan School of Management, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Schepens Eye Research Institute, Raytheon, Goodwin Procter, Mass Audubon, WGBH, and one of the world's largest management consulting firms. For additional information visit: www.sametz.com.

About MIT Sloan School of Management

The MIT Sloan School of Management, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of the world’s leading business schools––conducting cutting-edge research and providing management education to top students from more than 60 countries. The School is part of MIT’s rich intellectual tradition of education and research.

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