Beyond Football: How Ethan Braden Is Building the Texas A&M Brand

How do you take a brand that inspires extraordinary loyalty on the inside and make the rest of the world understand why it matters? That’s the challenge Ethan Braden took on when he became Vice President and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Texas A&M University three years ago. Texas A&M was already one of the largest and most influential universities in the country, with generations of fiercely loyal Aggies. But outside Texas, the story was very different. Research showed that 40% of Americans had either never heard of Texas A&M or had no association with it, and when asked what came to mind, the most common answers included football, sports and, remarkably, “nothing.” And Etha