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Anyone involved with higher education branding and marketing has used such shorthand as “four-year liberal arts college” or “four-year degree.” Likewise, most colleges and financial aid sources will talk about a bachelor’s degree as a four-year effort. But the best national data tells a different story. Reports from the American Council on Higher Education and the national Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study tell us that the average time to a bachelor’s degree is six years. Time published a story earlier this year says that according to the Department of Education, fewer than 40% of students who enter college each year graduate within four years, while almost 60% of students graduate in six years. At public schools, less than a third of students graduate on time. Judith Scott-Clayton, an assistant professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, does a thorough job of explaining the mix of politics, economics, misinformation and parenting that collide in the simple question of “can I graduate in … Continue reading
Posted in: Christian College Marketing, Higher Education Branding
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Recently, while watching the movie “A Knight’s Tale” with my son for about the 50th time (no kidding), I picked up on something I hadn’t heard before in all the times we’d watched it together. If you don’t know the story, it follows the life of a poor 14th century squire named William Thatcher who always dreamed of changing his stars by becoming a knight. He seizes his moment when his master dies during a break in a jousting tournament. Donning his master’s armor, he finishes the tournament in his master’s place – and wins the joust! He then meets up with Geoffrey Chaucer, himself a down on his luck writer/gambler looking for greatness. Chaucer makes Thatcher a deal; in exchange for his care, he’ll write him a patent of nobility. Knowing it’s needed to compete in other tournaments, Thatcher accepts the offer, and in that instant, the two are bonded. William Thatcher will now be known as Sir Ulrich … Continue reading
What might one of the most sophisticated and talented franchises in the National Hockey League have to teach us about higher education branding?
When budgets are shrinking, competitors are multiplying and program offerings are expanding, this higher education marketing strategy will help you outsmart competitors without outspending them.
Does higher education branding actually help prospects and parents make sound choices?
One of the tensions we hold at Elliance has to do with the pros and cons of specialization. While most of our work focuses on higher education marketing — where we have deep experience — we also meet a wider set of client challenges in manufacturing, banking, non profits and other worlds far from campus. Google’s search engine bot and people generally, favor simplicity. Elliance gets it — we know why many higher education marketing firms keep a singular focus. We also know first-hand the many ways that our higher education clients benefit from our broader exposure and reach. In the end, we find that higher education branding and marketing clients have plenty in common with clients in other verticals when it comes to solving the essential marketing challenge: turning awareness into inquiry, inquiry into conversation and conversion, and conversion into engagement, community and lasting brand loyalty. That premise led us recently to ask a bigger question: “What does it … Continue reading
Posted in: Branding, Higher Ed Marketing, Higher Education Branding, RISD, Umpqua
To higher education marketing pros, April & May is “yield season.” It’s the culmination of all their marketing and relationship-building efforts to convert a suspect to a prospect to an applicant to an admitted student. Yield is the percentage of admitted students who actually decide to enroll. This is a big deal in enrollment marketing – having knowledge of where the yield percentage might fall provides a target of how many students the admissions office needs to, or is willing to, accept. Tracking the tuition deposits as they begin to trickle in is a daily process for admissions, and is why the final piece of marketing communications – the admissions yield piece – is so important. Over the years I have seen all kinds of yield tactics from fact sheets to multi-page brochures. They all seem compelled to give the prospect ‘one more reason’ to consider their school. (As if two years of curated courtship through the admission process has … Continue reading
Posted in: Admissions Marketing, Admissions Yield
…isn’t taking data from research reports and discovery sessions to come up with creative ideas for a campaign or a tagline. Honestly, that stuff is quite easy. The hardest part is letting go – of forgetting all the old notions, perceptions and sometimes predictable ways a client has communicated in the past; and replace it with a language, a tone, and a lens for the future. A single brand lens that all can shared by all – from prospective students and their parents to the college community to alums and future donors. But this isn’t easy to do. When we allow ourselves to forget old models, we create spaces for new ones to rise. Old vestiges are replaced with new tones, and a new language is created – a new focal point that raises the perception floor for a client, and helps them forever see themselves in a new light. I’m not speaking of tactics here, I’m talking about implanting … Continue reading
Today, we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology—where each worker may bloom, secure from the pests purveying contradictory truths. Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death, and we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail! Anyone who remembers watching the Super Bowl 29 years ago this week may recognize that speech from the now iconic “1984” TV spot that introduced the Apple Macintosh personal computer. Apple officially aired the original commercial just once, during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII, about the time that Los Angeles Raiders running back Marcus Allen broke the hearts of every Washington Redskins fan with a 74-yard-long touchdown run. Apple and its agency, Chiat/Day, created … Continue reading
Higher education marketing professionals traditionally equate the “new year” with the turning of an academic calendar, the approach of 2013 is good reason to offer 5 New Year’s Resolutions.