A new responsibility--"brand management"--has developed for some boards of trustees as competition for high-achieving students and various types of resources has intensified. As this competition has grown more intense, and as alumni and donor response to publicized rankings has grown more strident, trustees have begun to focus on brand strength and positioning as a way to affect these and related issues. A college or university's "branding" process allows trustees to learn more about the institution, including how it positions itself in the student market and responds to competition. It helps to have someone on the board with professional experience in marketing and branding, but trustees at institutions with successful brand management stress that the role of the board is to set the direction of communications and let campus officials execute the substance. In this article, the author provides the board's perspective on how to manage the college or university brand.