We lead with orange

I have a confession.

I’m not a big fan of the color orange — well I wasn’t. I could spend the next 60 seconds listing my personal preferences or opinions about the color orange; but it doesn’t matter, because it’s not Jonathan’s color. It’s Campbell’s color.

When I first came to Campbell over a decade ago, I didn’t see the big picture. My thought process and mindset were guided less by strategy and more by opinion. I was wrong. Every now and again, I will run across a picture or an old file in the archives, and all I see is another missed opportunity to grow our awareness.

It’s just a color. We used the right logo. Why does it matter?

If you were to see a group of students in red shirts, you would probably think N.C. State.  Similarly, if you saw students in blue shirts, you’d think UNC or Duke. The world sees Campbell as orange.

We are exposed to thousands of brands and colors each day. Just like you, our prospective students, alumni, donors and friends are experiencing information overload. We skim through headlines at a hundred miles an hour, only to pause for a pretty image or interesting video.

Good or bad, we are all making assumptions.
One headline at a time.
One image at a time.
And, one color at a time.

When we tell the world about our amazing programs and community, do they know we’re talking about Campbell? Or do they look at the color of our shirts or the color of our marketing materials and assume we are one of those big red or blue schools just down the road?