Finding Inspiration

When people ask you about Missouri State, what do you say?

It’s important for each of us to give a consistent answer. Our response should cover what we do and how it benefits our students at a high level, and should give just enough detail to communicate who we are.

Think of it as a starting place for a deeper conversation about Missouri State. It gives someone an opening to ask for more specifics, but it also offers a general overview of Missouri State without a lot of unnecessary detail. The creative platform is a conversational way to describe what we stand for and how we stand out.

General

When you stand up.

When you have the world’s attention.

When you have your chance to be heard:

What statement will you make?

Will you pursue your passions without losing sight of what’s right? Will you take your place in a bigger world, and be a part of a bigger conversation? At Missouri State University, you will.

You’ll connect the dots between thinking critically and acting heroically. You’ll thrive in a close-knit community of thousands. And you’ll be better at being heard for knowing how to listen. Giving every idea the thought it deserves. Testing the strength of your convictions. And finding the courage to change your mind.

So what will it be?

How will you be a part of something bigger, and make it something better?

After you’ve moved through the halls and along the paths that lead far beyond Missouri State and back again, you’ll know.

How to inspire dialogue that matters. How to live and lead with integrity. And what it means to make your Missouri Statement.

Alumni and donors

At Missouri State, we discovered what it meant to be invested in something bigger than ourselves, realizing that community stretches not just across our campus, but throughout our globe.

Here, we learned how to make a promise and then live that commitment fully. We learned to lead, not with self-importance, but with humility and intention.

It was on this campus where we grew courageous, thriving on new connections and open dialogue. Emboldened by our maroon and white community and the knowledge that no one can stop a Bear.

Here, we found our voice and we will make it heard.

To foster purpose, to build integrity, to inspire our current and future alums, we make our Missouri Statement.

Defining our positioning statement

Our positioning statement distills what Missouri State University stands for into a simple, relatable and repeatable narrative. It articulates our unique role in the greater world. Use it to inspire and inform the messages, the voice and the look and feel of our communications.

How this idea starts to take shape

Every word of our positioning statement has been carefully chosen to highlight a specific element of our brand. Although it will likely never be printed verbatim in its entirety, a number of its elements and ideas will be helpful to you as you craft communications.

Our positioning statement answers three succinct questions:

• What do we do?
• How do we do it?
• Why does it matter?

Missouri State University creates an environment where meaningful interactions have practical application in a dynamic and student-focused environment in order to cultivate global citizens, prepared to pursue their chosen path with integrity.

Distilling our brand essence

A memorable brand stands for one essential idea that can be boiled down to a single word. Coca-Cola stands for happiness. GE stands for innovation. Ritz-Carlton stands for service. By this measure, the brand essence of Missouri State brand is inspired action.

Inspired action

Inspired action lives through the tenets of our public affairs mission — cultural competence, community engagement and ethical leadership. Inspired action is the intent behind our brand platform: Make Your Missouri Statement. And inspired action drives our curriculum and inspires our students, faculty and staff.

While inspired action isn’t a phrase we should consciously incorporate in our communications, the idea of inspired action so completely defines our institution, our people and our mission, that it is the essence our brand.

What it is

• The simplest expression of the Missouri State University brand
• Our brand promise at its most ownable and actionable

What it isn’t

• A campaign hook or mandatory copy element
• A tagline in the traditional sense

How we use it

• As a shorthand expression of our creative platform
• As a gut-check for strategic and creative initiatives