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 […]
Anyone involved in higher education marketing and branding could learn something from the annual ritual known officially as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting, or more commonly, the Draft. In the early days of the league, the Draft played out in quiet seclusion, owners and general managers holed up in a New York hotel, ordering […]
As the director of new business development for Elliance, I spend a lot of time thinking about the strengths and services that we can provide for our clients. I’m very energized by the Elliance team, and I love bouncing ideas around with them and hearing their thoughts about what’s coming next in the digital world. […]
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 […]
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 […]
I read with great interest and empathy two stories this past Monday related to the burdensome cost of higher education — one setting the level of total student debt in the US at $867 billion last quarter; the other alerting us that campus food pantries are becoming commonplace as many students struggle to afford groceries. […]
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 […]
Savvy higher ed leaders realize they need to add search engine marketing (SEM) to their overall marketing plans. But several common mistakes can hinder efforts.
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 […]