A regular regimen of quality photography is one of the most powerful, influential, and simplest things a school can do to invest in the long-term health of its brand. Overstated? I don’t think so. A couple weeks ago, my colleague Kate Tomlinson wrote about a photo shoot we recently completed for a client and what […]
The New York Times wrote a great and fun story about a nut company that just spent a fortune for the domain nuts.com, despite having a wonderful brand to itself and a thriving online business at nutsonline.com. We had a nice debate internally about all the search and brand impact of this decision. Read Abu’s […]
Brand managers, take note. Researchers are finding out that insecticides introduced in the 1990’s are causing the decline of bee colonies two decades later. Similarly, the impact of poor branding may not be felt for a decade or two, but ultimately it will catch up. I see several colleges, companies and non-profits doing a reckless […]
We recently pinned home pages from 50 of the country’s top liberal arts college on a large work wall. Our motive? Learn something about story, content strategy and voice — favorite topics among Elliance creatives. Here is a confession — there’s nothing I avoid more than turning the art of writing on itself. Yes, I […]
In searching for the true essence of brands, we often journey, sometimes physically and at other times virtually, to mythical lands of their origin stories. Consider some recent places we have visited in our imagination: Xanten in Rhineland where St. Norbert was born, monasteries of Holy Cross in Southern France where Blessed Basil Anthony Moreau […]
I attended a higher education branding session at the AMA/Higher Education conference a few years back led by Purdue University’s chief marketing officer, Teri Thompson and Elizabeth Scarborough, CEO/Partner at the well-known quantitative research firm Simpson/Scarborough. Toward the end of the productive hour that covered Purdue’s extensive investment in market research, staff re-structuring and process […]
In our view, branding is the process of: attaching an idea to a product or service e.g. achievement for Nike, freedom for Southwest Air. creating expectations and promises around a product or a service creating strong to impenetrable differentiation in the marketplace What’s your definition?
Colleges and universities have found brand religion. However, branding of higher education institutions is more challenging than creating consumer product brands. Why? Because higher education institutions serve an extraordinarily large number of stakeholders and make decisions by building consensus. Following these 10 steps to build a college brand may be harder than it sounds: Recognize […]
One simple truth, so many ways of saying it. Here are a some you may recognize and others you may not: “Keep your eye clear, and hit ’em where they ain’t” said the baseball legend William Keeler. “The purple cow”, a book written by Seth Godin of “Permission Marketing” fame. “Zag when others zig”, the […]
Appeared in Enrollment Manager on 10/18/2010. What’s the difference between a college with an abundance of applications and one with an unacceptably high acceptance rate? Sometimes, it’s curiosity and nerve. Adversity — brought on by geographic isolation, shifting demographics, deep-pocketed for-profits and other Goliath competitors — can inspire a college and university to challenge assumptions […]