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We know that colleges and universities today are scrambling to adjust to shifting demographics, shrinking budgets, skyrocketing pressure, and other changes on all fronts. We expect (rightly) that college presidents will be educators, diplomats, fundraisers and visionaries. Too often, organizing and managing personnel slips a little bit farther down the list. Too often, today’s presidents use outdated models of organizational management, where huge amounts responsibility fall to academic with little experience or training in the areas they oversee. Also troubling: many models overlook the most important part of any organization, the people. You may find the chief HR professional buried under a CFO or (even more frightening) under a Provost. We all think we could do better, right? I’ve certainly got some ideas of my own, and I bet you do as well. If I was president, here’s who would be sitting at my senior staff table, and why. VP of Academic Affairs or Provost At its very foundation, a … Continue reading
Posted in: Enrollment Marketing, Higher Ed Marketing
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Like a blindfolded volunteer in an “Old Coke, New Coke” taste test, Republican pollsters and pundits seemed genuinely surprised last week to learn that their trusted brand — “USA” — had changed. Although demographers and groups such as the Pew Research Center have been charting changing US birth/death rates and immigration patterns for decades, and essayists like Richard Rodriguez have written with depth and nuance about the change, some in the political class seemed caught flat footed, if not flat stunned. Higher education marketing and enrollment professionals have watched and responded to these trends for years, and college presidents and boards have grappled with a range of issues related to student success, admissions policies, financial aid, and more. Often, the assumption in higher education circles is that institutions play a significant role in helping first generation students advance professionally and personally. While nobody would argue that case, colleges miss a huge opportunity if they fail to acknowledge a wide range … Continue reading
In this season of debates, we turn to a higher ed marketing area where debate is endless. What type of college best prepares students for “the real world?” While consumers — students and parents — can find great programs at the extremes of vocational education and classic liberal arts colleges, most of the higher ed marketing battle happens in the in-between. Elliance has done work for all kinds of schools, always believing that great higher ed marketing involves finding authentic proof aimed at right-fit students. For now, let’s focus on the great many of four-year liberal arts colleges that seem to have either lost their one true brand voice or somehow stand too afraid to speak it. Elliance begins our higher ed marketing work with such schools by taking a close look at a school’s general education core and first year studies courses. How do these and other student experiences shape one’s mental muscle and instills certain habits of the … Continue reading
Posted in: Brand Voice, Branding, Higher Ed Marketing, liberal arts
I just returned from the beach. I have to admit, it’s not a place I always want to go, but it’s always a place I never want to leave. For me, the beach is nature’s ultimate creative expression. It has only three elements – land, sea and sky – yet it delivers an infinite number of visual configurations that simultaneously feed the soul and quiet the spirit. It has inspired creators since the dawn of time. Greek poets wrote of shores inhabited by deities and modern romantics measured their minds against the vastness of the oceans. Scientists use the beach to record the history of the earth’s great geological change. There are other examples in this vein: just seven notes have given us music from Mozart to Sousa to Joplin to The Beatles. Four chromosome types give us life in all it’s splendor. Three primary colors give birth to a nearly infinite palette. And the core curriculum of the liberal arts … Continue reading
Posted in: Higher Ed Marketing
Colleges and universities are rebranding themselves at an increasing rate. Here are a five common reasons for a brand makeover: 1. “We need to reach new frontiers.” We want to widen the nexus, expand our reach, grab new markets, seek new revenue streams. 2. “The world has changed and we are still relevant.” The world has changed dramatically and what people value has changed. We need to articulate the brand value and brand experience for the new zeitgeist. The old skin needs to be shed and we need a new skin. 3. “The competitors have changed and we are still relevant.” New competitors are dancing in our stomping grounds. Old competitors have reimagined themselves. We need to re-articulate the brand value and brand experience to reposition our brand. 4. “We have changed and we are now more relevant than ever.” We have added new centers of excellence, forged new partnerships, created new divisions, formed new schools. We need to modernize … Continue reading
A ruling by Judge Rudolph Contreras of the Federal District Court for Washington, D.C. last week set back efforts by the U.S. Department of Education to deny federal financial aid dollars to the lowest performing for-profit schools. For the time being, the marketplace will decide — students and parents matched against hyperbolic for-profit higher ed marketing machines. While the for-profit operators and their Wall Street investors have long understood the power of higher ed marketing, the response by the vast community of endowment-driven colleges and universities remains fragmented. It’s easy for most colleges to disregard the concerns of students and families at the lower rungs of achievement and income — those most vulnerable to the false claims of education value and return on investment. But higher ed marketing is really conversation marketing in the age of social, SEO and PR 2.0 optimization. If the best schools in the country decided to raise the level of conversation as it related to … Continue reading
Posted in: Higher Ed Marketing
Today marks my son’s graduation from eighth grade — which gives me roughly two more years of immunity before the tools of higher ed marketing get turned in our direction. At 14, everything seems possible and parents mostly refrain from worrying aloud about career direction or ambition. My son and his classmates still carry themselves with a certain half-formed awkwardness that encourages everyone to exhale and consider the long view. So, what happens in the ensuing eight years to cause parents and anyone involved with higher ed marketing to become so intensely focused on buzzwords like ROI and outcomes? Human development can never be planned or measured quite as sequentially as we might like. St. Olaf College President David A. Anderson has been a strong and clear advocate for disclosing in detail how students are transformed, and how they transition from college to career. Most college websites lack either sufficient data or compelling translation of placement numbers into story. Alumni … Continue reading
Posted in: Higher Ed Marketing