Brand Strategy

Founded in 1842, Willamette University is a prestigious and historic Oregon University.

Willamette University came to us looking for foundational changes in how they message, market, and engage their audience in order to increase enrollment. We began the process with workshops, focus groups, interviews, brand audits, and more in order to fully understand their opportunities.

Research

We visited Willamette University to conduct workshops and focus groups. These sessions were key to understanding the university’s core values and how those resonate throughout their departments, offices, and student groups. We were able to involve participants from all aspects of the university – students and parents, faculty and staff, deans and alumni.

Positioning

Willamette has a unique history and an innovative vision for the future of education. We helped Willamette reposition their undergrad school from a “Liberal Arts” school to an “Arts and Science” school. We presented Willamette with differentiation strategies that honored their history while showing the ways they are shaping the future.

Bringing it All Together

Combining Willamette’s core values with the university’s key differentiations, we created a brand character, voice and tone, and key messaging strategies that would both inspire new students and resonate with faculty and alumni.

From the Client

“Murmur has guided us through a huge project of incredible importance to Willamette University. Through workshops, interviews, competitive analysis, focus groups, and more, we dove deeply into who we are and what we are becoming. This work then informed new branding, new marketing campaigns, new logos, and a massive new website that is absolutely best-in-class.”

Tim Cobb

Vice President for Marketing & Communications

Mailers

Willamette’s mailers are a key part of introducing the school to potential students. We created a series of mailers to highlight Willamette’s unique aspects. We combined heritage elements with innovative design, illustration, and photography to create one-of-a-kind pieces that could only come from Willamette.

“Our goal was to create an elevated, modern take on field guide illustrations, leaving the viewer with a sense of wonder and opportunity.”

Marc Girouard

Art Director

Viewbook

Seniors receive countless viewbooks from universities. Willamette needed to stand out in a crowded mail box. We designed a viewbook that harnessed the essence of Willamette’s innovative liberal arts education and the excitement of the college experience.

From the Client

“Working with Murmur has been a real treat. The team is professional and a blast to work with. From strategy to tactics, they can do it all - and do it all well.”

J.R. Tarabocchia

AVP for Admissions Marketing

Website Redesign

With over 20,000 pages, redesigning the Willamette University website was no small task.

Balancing the needs of many departments and interest groups, we designed a website focused on user journeys. We identified the most important user types and crafted easy-to-navigate experiences that catered to their individual needs and funneled them towards conversion. Photography, video, and copywriting were all part of this process.

“It was really amazing to be able to work on a project that dove so deeply into such a large organization. We built the web strategy upon the scaffolding of our in-depth brand strategy. Our user journeys were crafted to meet the needs of each audience. The copy was crafted from the voice and tone work we'd done. It was an exciting and rewarding team effort.”

Angela Larisch

Strategy Director

“By creating pathways for each audience, we transformed the university's old website into an immersive, personalized, and clean experience from start to finish. Elements such as video clips tailored to users' interests, dynamic facts and stats, and an intuitive course finder, help guide visitors to their goals.”

Dani Ramsby

Senior UI/UX Designer

“I love this site because it’s a hub of information for everyone: teachers, students, parents, alumni, and more. We paid special attention to every detail from the typographic hierarchy, navigation structure, and copywriting to the striking photography and captivating video.”

Dani Ramsby

Senior UI/UX Designer

Videography

We created a breathtaking video that immersed the viewer in the Willamette experience. It would become the centerpiece of their website and the background on their homepage. We used drones to capture a bird’s eye view of the scenic campus and interspersed this with more grounded shots of daily life for students and teachers.