Could the transformation of a university’s brand identity help make it the top choice for more admitted students? When I led marketing and communications at a university some years ago, my team and I set out to answer this with a bold new brand campaign. Two measures of success were top of mind: the yield rate (or conversion rate)—the percentage of admitted students who decided to enroll—and the number of students who saw us as their first choice.  

Over the course of five years, we nearly doubled the yield rate, with a marked increase in students who named us as their first choice. While it was gratifying to see these results, one major question lingered: how much of this success was attributable to the brand strategy, as opposed to changes in the admission process? We had invested significantly in building a brand that resonated with students, donors, alumni, and the broader community. Yet despite the tangible impact we felt in every interaction, and the positive shifts in perception and affinity, we had no clear measure to demonstrate precisely what we had achieved.  

Today, many institutions still lack a standard way to assess the impact of their marketing and communications (marcom) efforts on institutional success. We know that brand and reputation are essential for success across admissions, alumni relations, and fundraising, but measuring them directly is challenging. The new CASE Insights Framework for Brand and Reputation Metrics aims to meet this need, providing the foundation for tools CASE will build to help institutions measure, benchmark, and understand their influence.