Kansas State University is trying to re-brand itself as “Kansas State University” and not “K-State.”
Kansas State President Kirk Schulz has announced the school wants to improve its national recognition, and he believes dropping the K-State nickname would help. He says the university needs to be called Kansas State as it seeks to increase its scholarly rankings among national universities.
He points out that in Kentucky and other places K-State refers to different schools. Good point. The University of Kansas experiences the same issues.
Schultz’s plan certainly sounds like a good idea, but he might want to contact someone like Rick Nobles at Patron Insight in KC for assistance with the school’s branding effort. Nobles will likely stress the key to successful branding is to have everything you do reinforce your brand. Consistency is the key.
Nobles might first recommend a name change for the college’s long-range plan. It’s currently titled “K-State 2025: A Visionary Plan for Kansas State University.”
SILO TECH FOREVER
In some circles the university located in Manhattan, Kansas will always be known as “Silo Tech”. No rebranding campaign will ever change that way of thinking. Yes, you don’t refer to Kansas State as K-State in your official long-range plan if you’re seriously wanting others to move away from that particular term. Duh! They’ve been out in the sun too long over there.
NOT A NATIONAL BRAND
There’s a sort of caché for a school when it’s known nationwide by a moniker like USC, UCLA, Pitt, Penn State, LSU, or KU. Evidently Kirk Schulz doesn’t believe Kansas State University has a national brand.
TAKING CHEVY OUT OF CHEVROLET
Remember how successful they were when the genius managers at GM tried to take the “Chevy” out of Chevrolet?
The University of Southern California is still USC, or SC to locals, although they stress “The”, and The Ohio State University is still Ohio State, so maybe the folks at The State University of Kansas, or whatever it’s called now, can just relax a bit, and not stress over such a minor, unimportant issue. K State, Kansas State, it’s all the same thing.
The Tom Lawrence
BENEFITS OF KANSAS
Why is there benefit to being associated with the state of Kansas? The state is the butt of every joke.