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Communications Audit

Dominican University (CA)

Shortly after Dominican changed its name from that of a college to a university, its communications staff came to Zehno to help leverage the generally positive response and media attention that ensued. We offered feedback and recommendations on vision/positioning, audiences, key messages, tag lines and defining position statements, communications strategies, visual identity, publications, advertising, the Web site, and campaign rollout, media relations and the structure of the communications staff.

Members of this community defined Dominican as a lived experience (“integrity,” “spirit,” “freshness,” “wide-open,” and “underpinning of who we are”). Our focus gropus found that when Admissions promotes the Dominican search for truth, students love the message that the university culture provides support for each individualÁs search for meaning and purpose. Asked what Dominican does best, interviewees consistently replied that it creates a welcoming community and supports entrepreneurialism by jump-starting creative initiatives. Students value its smallness and tie the quality of their education to the personal attention it affords. Positive attributes include flexibility, responsiveness, and the ability for each person to have a major impact. Prospective business students immediately grasp the ethical dimension of a Dominican education as a distinction, and all best-fit candidates respond eagerly when they learn they can “own their education.”

Other university representatives also promote the Dominican difference; Zehno was able to give them the strategies to do so consistently for maximum impact.