Battle of the brands

Looks like IU and Ball State are squaring off in the branding arena, according to this article. Ball State is touting its Intel ranking as Most Unwired Campus with its Cutting Edge Cool campaign, while IU is celebrating its Newsweek designation as Hottest Big State School. Most interesting in this article is the importance of word choice in the ad campaigns. A Ball State freshman thinks his school is "trying too hard" and explained that if you have to say you're cool, you're probably not, a sentiment shared by another student mentioned in the piece who wasn't crazy about the wording, but enthusiastic about the overall campaign. Hmm... Did Ball State not test this slogan out on its target market?! While I don't know for sure how Ball State developed the slogan, it's a good opportunity for a general reminder: The only cool that matters is what your patrons think is cool, and overlooking their points-of-view is definitely not cool.