Ideas, insights and inspirations.

2021 is finally here. Here are some of our predictions for this coming year. Covid’s drag on students and colleges will persist at least through the summer. The previous administration’s negative impact on international recruitment will begin to ease. Celebration of diversity will be in vogue again due to continued growth in underrepresented students. Paid media prices will continue their meteoric climb. The absence of high-school travel and standardized test-takers will continue. Due to economic uncertainty, the decline in number of high school graduates enrolling in college immediately after high school will continue. In this time of volatile change, here is our advice for higher education marketers to overcome the challenges and make the most of emerging opportunities: 1. Celebrate Diversity Gen-Z and Millenials are race-blind, faith-blind and gender-blind. As part of the most diverse generation in U.S. history, they take diversity for granted. They accept, not just respect, others for who they are – irrespective of their race, religious … Continue reading

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Communicating before, during and after a capital campaign requires the kind of symphonic thinking that author Daniel Pink explores in A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age. Strategic visions and campaign priorities can quickly deconstruct into campaign inventory and itemization — losing all connection to a larger and more compelling story about why a college matters and to the invitation for how donors might connect their singular sense of purpose to something larger. It’s not a matter of longer versus shorter content, but a question of what Pink calls the “relationship between relationships.” Pink talks of the three types of people that thrive when asked to overlay little and big pictures. Boundary Crossers: comfortable with abstraction, they understand how a concept like regulation can inspire donors to support the training of future financial accountants who will police insider trading and osteopathic doctors equipped to ease an epidemic of diabetes. Inventors: able to project new … Continue reading

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Until recently, the battle for consumer attention on digital devices and platforms was led by Google, Bing, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter – and to a lesser extent by Pinterest and Snapchat. The entry of Amazon dramatically changes the dynamic of online advertising. It is now the third largest digital advertising platform in the US. To put things in perspective, here is how these platforms are situated in the demand funnel. In a nutshell, social media platforms know buyer’s interests and let them discover new products/services; Google and Bing have the intelligence about the buyer’s intention to purchase something; and Amazon has data about what products buyers are purchasing. Each player now offers its own advertising service, with e-commerce product companies favoring Amazon Advertising, and all other companies using a combination of Google, Bing and social media advertising platforms. According to eMarketer, Amazon advertising is still a distant third behind Google (37%) and Facebook (20%) in US digital ad spending, … Continue reading

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Achieving Google page 1 rankings is the road to prosperity for brands. Since 90% of the users never go beyond page 1 of Google search results, and Google now commands close to 90% of global searches, getting on page 1 is critical for brands. These Google page 1 rankings are also a critical foundation for the emerging voice search arena. I’ll first provide a little background on how Google’s algorithm works. Then I’ll share some tips on how to get ready for voice search on mobile devices and home gadgets like Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple HomePod. Factors That Influence Page 1 Google Rankings Getting on page 1 is not a one and done game. Because Google’s algorithm changes periodically, the strategies for securing page 1 positions must be adapted periodically. In general, Google wants marketers to provide concise, helpful and useful information to all prospects so they can evaluate their options and make their choices. It doesn’t want … Continue reading

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I have read dozens of reports on Gen-Z (born between 1996 and 2010) including those from Pew, HubSpot, SHRM, and other credible sources. But watching my own three teens and dozens of their friends has given me a nuanced understanding of Gen-Z. Here are my observations:     They are race-blind, faith-blind and gender-blind As part of the most diverse generation in the U.S. history, they take diversity for granted. They accept, not just respect, others for who they are – irrespective of their race, religious beliefs, and their gender preferences. They are digital natives Born in the digital age, they live on YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr and Google. The internet is an extension of their brain. They have an app for everything they do, or have an interest in. Memes are a part of their daily lives. They are data literate and research driven Rankings, ratings, scores, research studies are part and parcel of their daily lives and … Continue reading

As revenue pressures grow across higher education, so do board- and cabinet-level imperatives to “define the brand.” Easier said than done, true. But also worth every ounce of effort. At its best, a brand discovery should yield an authentic and durable brand position (with a 10-year shelf life). Better yet, a brand discovery (well planned and executed) should liberate your institutional voice — a bright new vocabulary that establishes an emotional connection with prospects and other stakeholders; a way to articulate, with clarity, verve and imagination why you matter. Getting the brand and voice right can test any school and potential partner. Brand discovery is where you begin to look more closely at hidden assumptions and unexamined bias — on your way to a clearing where new light allows something fresh and unforeseen to emerge. Choose quality over quantity How you approach brand discovery, especially the rationing of scarce time on campus, will have a big impact on results. A … Continue reading

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To find one’s voice and to have the courage to speak it is sacred. But to be heard is divine. This wisdom applies to both people and brands alike. The art of listening is a great gift of life. Cultivating it has been incredibly hard for a person like me who has been struggling and striving most of my life. Crossing cultures made it even more challenging. Landing at fiercely competitive Cornell and Carnegie Mellon was no respite. Becoming the CEO of an entrepreneurial company made it harder. As a Muslim, being under relentless attack has made it very difficult to stay silent and simply listen. True listening begins when you are in equilibrium, when you have arrived, and when you are neither fighting, nor in flight. I have been conscientiously working on getting better at this divine art. All my life, I have searched for quiet spaces where I could be who I truly am. Nature, mountains, parks and … Continue reading

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Each year Inc. magazine posts its Inc. 5000 list, which ranks the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the United States. The companies are assigned numerical positions in accordance with their growth rate over the past three years. This renowned list celebrates innovators and opportunity-makers across 30+ industries from Advertising & Marketing to Travel. This year, 165 of the ranked organizations, or 3.3 percent of the 5,000, were self-categorized as manufacturing companies. Berkley, a molded fiber and custom packaging company out of Carson, California, was the highest ranked manufacturer coming in 17th place with a three-year growth rate of 9,249 percent. Key Safety Systems, ranked 4,261st, had the highest revenue of manufacturers on the list, coming in at $1.5 billion. Ranked 3,734th, Novae has been featured 11 times on the Inc. 5000 list, more than any other manufacturer. California had the highest representation of Inc. 5000 manufacturing companies with 29 of the total 165; Florida had the second-highest concentration with 15. … Continue reading

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When I was eighteen, I joined the United Auto Workers Local 677 to earn money for college. I wore a hard hat, safety goggles and steel-toed shoes and was paid three times more than the current minimum wage. Coming home sweaty, smelly— and if I worked on the axel line, covered in grease —was well worth it. Manufacturing paid very well. It was on that Mack Truck assembly line that I saw the value of teamwork—what I did or didn’t do directly affected my co-workers—something essential for every employee, in every type of work setting. This important lesson stayed with me in the decades since, but so did my misconception that manufacturing is still a boring, dirty profession. This all changed last year, when one of our clients, Aerotech, gave me a tour of their facilities. I was shocked. The place was clean and quiet. And, as they told me the tasks the workers performed, it became clear that this was … Continue reading

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One of the best gifts that I ever received was a copy of the book How to Take the Fog Out of Writing by Robert Gunning. At the time, I was just two years out of college with a tendency for verbosity, $10 dollar words and copy that often well exceeded my allotted word count, much to the dismay of our graphic designers. My writing lacked precision; I was indulging my whims as a writer at the expense of my readers. Two decades later, I’m still a work in progress, but that book transformed the way I wrote and made me a more effective copywriter in far fewer words than I ever thought possible. Sometimes less really is more. Today, writing clear, concise copy is more critical than ever, thanks to character limits, short attention spans and the limited screen size of our pervasive digital devices. Fortunately, there are tools to determine if your writing is clear of fog, readable … Continue reading

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