Brand Overview

UNC Charlotte has a great story to tell.

“We’re the best kept secret in Charlotte.” Does this sound familiar?

This year, we embarked on a process to better understand the UNC Charlotte brand — our strengths and opportunities — to help position the University for the next phase of growth as we plan to celebrate our 75th anniversary this fall.
People need to know more about what makes this University special and unique.

Branding is more than a logo. It’s the presentation of a coherent message and the promise of an institution.
Effective branding is consistent and pervasive, designed to demonstrate value, inspire loyalty and build trust.
Development of a clear brand provides consistent messaging that demonstrates an institution’s unique strengths and identity to spark a connection with specific audiences and distinguish itself from the competition.
For UNC Charlotte, a focus on these strengths helps us build our reputation and attract students, faculty and staff, while engaging alumni, the broader community, donors and friends.

Through surveys, interviews and focus groups, we learned most of the university’s audiences (prospective/current students and parents, faculty, staff, alumni, donors and the border community) do not have a clear understanding of UNC Charlotte’s brand.
UNC Charlotte has developed a new strategic plan that includes goals around increasing our national and international reputation, elevating to a top-tier research university and increasing our rankings in US News and World Report.
In September 2021, UNC Charlotte will celebrate its 75th anniversary and inaugurate Chancellor Gaber during Founders Week (Sept. 20 – 25).

During the last several months, University Communications assembled a cross-functional marketing team and Charlotte-based strategic communications firm Luquire, to assess the UNC Charlotte brand and build a more cohesive, recognizable and differentiated identity to raise the institutional profile.
The results of our research helped us understand the ideal university positioning based on what motivates our audiences, our unique strengths and how we differentiate ourselves from other universities.

From the research, audiences selected a positioning statement to help guide development of the brand in experiential and marketing efforts.
One positioning statement stood out among our audiences and scored high on all key measures including overall consideration, likability, believability and uniqueness.