It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years since brand marketing first swept higher education. During that time we have seen countless colleges and universities launch and develop brand strategies. And based on the number of RFPs in play, it appears that the interest in brand marketing will likely not diminish any time soon.
As we look forward to that next decade of brand marketing, I thought it might be useful to look back to see what lessons we have learned.
In 2006, Northeastern University enrolled students from 42 countries, representing 4 percent of the freshman class. By 2009, the university had increased those numbers to 61 countries and 11 percent, along the way adding 932 new high schools sending students to Boston.
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Last month I had the pleasure of participating in a "Meet the Media" panel at the 29th Annual CUPRAP (College and University Public Relations Association of Pennsylvania) Spring Conference at the Hotel Hershey.
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During the annual National Student Leadership Congr |
Business-to-consumer marketers have become increasingly adept at identifying various demographic segments with specialized interests: moms who blog, people who like to cruise, upscale married couples with children, environmentally minded homeowners, etc., etc.
To be or not to be? A college on the East Coast uses "The Place to Be!" as its tagline. And why not? Everyone has to be somewhere. But unless the school wishes to target modern-day Hamlets who haven't decided whether to be or not, it has zero impact.
Mark your calendar for EduComm 2010, which returns to Las Vegas, June 7-9. This year's conference promises to be more informative, more cutting edge, and more value-packed than ever.
We asked members of The EduComm Institute to help us plan the 2010 conference program and they delivered. As a result, this year more than ever, the program features the topics and speakers that you told us you want to see.
In America, we lavish attention on our most talented fellow citizens—star athletes, film and television celebrities, brilliant scholars and scientists, and sometimes even college presidents—but we also insist that our celebrities not act like self-styled royalty. When members of America's elite are aloof and ignore the public's welfare—as many titans of Wall Street did, first ruining the economy, then paying themselves bonuses—Americans insist on retribution.
WHEN IT BECOMES HARDER TO raise funds and the notion of success is coming up with just 90 percent of last year's revenues, fundraisers must get smarter--by better understanding their donors and the different tools and approaches to connecting with them. Colleges and universities of all sizes now have the opportunity to influence and motivate a new generation of donors and get them in the "habit of giving," but it's an uphill climb.
Many colleges and universities are confronting even more complex challenges than usual. Indeed, the timing, intensity, and consequences of some of the most serious challenges qualify them as outright crises.
WHILE ONLY 19 PERCENT OF Americans aged 12 to 17 have ever listened to a podcast, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, many institutions have invested in academic or marketing initiatives to offer content and updates via podcasting. At the other end of the line, the possibilities for reaching and engaging the 75 percent of teens glued to their mobile phones are still mainly ignored by the majority of marketing strategists in higher education.
With all the Web 2.0 hype these days, it’s no surprise that student expectations of the web continue to swell. Is your institutional website living up to these expectations? Today higher education websites are more than just static pages. They are strategic assets for admissions and enrollment, advancement and fundraising, brand awareness, disseminating information such as news and safety alerts, and, now more than ever, they are strategic assets for social networking.
As branding initiatives in higher education have emerged and evolved over the past two decades, the media-outreach segments of the plans often continue to miss the mark. The reason? The campus professionals who are responsible for strategic communication are often relegated to a back-seat role in the process, or are left in the dark until the branding campaign is ready to be rolled out.
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A DEFINITION OF STRATEGY that centers around the idea of “more”—we will serve more students, offer more programs, and be in more places—is highly likely to fail.
