Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)
The Challenge
The Fashion Institute of Technology, located in New York City, is known globally as one of the premier schools of fashion. Its graduates include some of the most famous names in fashion and design who have shaped the industry for decades. As a part of the State University of New York, FIT’s degree programs extend well beyond fashion and into multiple creative and business disciplines. However, FIT’s reputation remained solidly locked in fashion, presenting both a challenge to enrollment growth and to the career aspirations of its 4,000 annual graduates.
The Solution
We were asked to build a strategy that would serve to expand the understanding of the breadth of FIT’s offerings, build a compelling positioning that would appeal to a wider set of potential students and employers, and re-energize the brand in the marketplace.
Our strategy work revealed the core insight that the power of FIT was not solely in its leading position in the fashion industry, but in the talents, creativity, uniqueness, and potential of the type of students who study there. Based on that insight, we created a new positioning narrative:
“There is a new creative economy in the world. One that demands special skills and an unconventional approach to problem solving. FIT is the place where these special talents and unusual minds are being nurtured.
We train our students to be design thinkers to look at problems holistically. They understand that sometimes the best answer to a problem is a question. And when you question everything your answers are nothing like anyone else’s.
It’s why FIT students are unlike any other. They’re unboring, unexpected, unusual, undeterred, unpredictable, unbridled, undaunted and unusually talented.
And that’s why FIT grads are highly sought after by industries where innovative minds are in high demand, in fields like Virtual Reality, Toy Design, Computer Animation, Marketing, Advertising, Mobile Technology and, of course, Fashion.
The visionaries of tomorrow are at FIT today.
Enroll in FIT or enroll an FIT grad in your company’s battle to be relevant in the new economy.”
We delivered the strategy and sample creative materials to the in-house agency at FIT, who then implemented it across their communications channels and student/industry engagement points.
According to FIT’s qualitative brand tracking, “The result of engaging the FIT community was a renewed brand infused at the core by the message stakeholders felt about the institution. Their brand story of nurturing unconventional minds permeates throughout the institution’s every day activities. With this type of high-touch engagement, the community can have pride in the development of the brand story. Furthermore, there is no lack of confidence in the full adoption of nurturing unconventional minds.”