Rebranding John Jay College: Adapting to an evolving higher education market

Abstract

Institutions of higher education face an increasingly complicated business environment today, marked by slowing enrolments, rapidly inflating tuition fees and heightened competition for enrolment on- and offline. So it is no surprise that college presidents are paying more attention to branding and marketing, often turning to unified brand identity programmes to combat these forces. An authentic ‘brand identity’ requires both the organisation and the consumer to believe in what an institution stands for, and when that is achieved a loyal relationship is formed. The recent case of the rebranding for John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City provides an illustrative primer explaining how to go about such efforts and what to expect from a comprehensive rebrand.