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I saw Spielberg’s movie “Lincoln” over Thanksgiving weekend. Wonderful screenplay by Tony Kushner and amazing acting by Daniel Day Lewis, Sally Fields and Tommy Lee Jones. I was struck by the parallels between Lincoln’s strategies for consensus building and the branding work we do for Christian colleges. To me, Lincoln was brilliant at holding tension between sometimes competing and at other times opposing forces. Branding a Christian college is similar in that we have to balance the college’s mission with God’s mission, appeal to prospects who are Christian and prospects from other faiths, attract prospects from various denominations of Christianity, and persuade faithful and secular alike. Not an easy task, but our team at Elliance has slowly mastered the art of digging deeply into the histories of various Christian denominations to find the common ground which is distinct enough and yet broad enough to hold the tensions between all these forces. Lincoln was also a master politician and engaged in … Continue reading
Posted in: Christian College Marketing, Higher Education Branding
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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
How do you know when people are really engaged with your brand? Certainly one way to tell is if they stand in line for hours on end for a chance to buy your latest product. But how do you measure it when you are a small, regional college in rural central Pennsylvania? In 1998, my colleagues and I were hired to create a viewbook (shown at right) for, then, Saint Francis College. It was our first “real” venture into the world of higher education marketing. Coming from an advertising background, we naturally began thinking beyond the viewbook – our thoughts focused squarely on branding the college itself and finding “right-fit” students. A not-too-common way of doing a viewbook back then. Okay, so this in and of itself is hardly news – or even blog worthy – but the rest of the story is, well, pretty interesting. So fast forward to 2012 and you’ll find Saint Francis University – not College. You’ll discover … Continue reading
Your brand already exists. Your brand is the foremost expression of your college or university. It’s the lens through which you invite the world to view your work, your product, your significance. Many colleges and universities struggle to create a distinct brand. In truth, brands are not created. They exist, and it’s just a matter of defining and expressing them. Here’s how we’d suggest you get there. Listen. Listen to everybody, and listen to nobody. It is not what—or who—you listen to that’s important, but what you are listening for. Brands are not built by yearly campaigns, but by long-term institutional vision and enthusiastic, loyal customers. What do people love about you? Think. Everyone knows differentiation is critical. But you also need to build common ground with your constituency. So be yourself. Think about the intrinsic brand value you offer. This will create a cycle of self-selection from a prospect base that is pre-disposed to accept your message. Sing. An … Continue reading
Posted in: Higher Education Branding
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
Suddenly it’s very quiet. How would you react if 25% of your active customer base got up and left on the same day? Would you become concerned? Perhaps, if you’re a business owner. But not if you’re a college enrollment manager, right? Because it’s commonplace. It’s commencement, and students are leaving in droves right now across every college campus in America. So what about this newly graduated 25% that everyone has in common? What are they taking with them: Degree? Check. Confidence? Check. Knowledge? Check. New skills? Check. Life-long friendships? Check. A deep affinity with the school? Hope so. Brand message? Huh? Too many institutions treat their brand message simply as a marketing campaign. Without question, it can be a campaign and can contribute to solving many urgent marketing issues like boosting enrollment, attracting new faculty, or funding a capital campaign. Still, that’s selling it a bit short. The best institutions treat their brand as something more – an ethos – … Continue reading
Posted in: Higher Education Branding
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 take out and burning through many planted acres of cigar tobacco. Fast forward 60 or 70 years and the Draft stands as a three-night prime time television event. Along with presenting sponsors Verizon and Anheuser-Busch, the Draft attracts big ad spenders such as GM, Nike, AT&T, Axe, Fiat, Geico, Jim Beam and Samsung. The whole spectacle is fueled and fed by a video archive covering 100-plus college players, including canned commentary from dozens of analysts. So what’s any of it have to do with higher education marketing and branding? User appetite for video content on higher education websites and social media channels far exceeds supply … Continue reading
Posted in: Higher Education Branding
Girl walks across campus. Not the kind of information that higher education marketing types rush back to their desks to share with the world. But as This American Life creator Ira Glass reminds us, sometimes the distance between information and story can be covered in one simple question: And then what happened? On the campus of Middlebury College, someone clearly gets the art of storytelling and its connection to higher education branding. Too often, college editors and writers settle for the lowest rung of the content potential ladder. Content and story get treated as information. A potentially irresistible story about the physics professor who falls in love with speed skating tells us that it’s “all applied physics,” but stops short of allowing the reader to see, hear and feel how that translates on the ice. It’s a tall challenge, asking a faculty member a third or fourth follow-up question, insisting on more detail, when everyone’s time is short. The call … Continue reading
Posted in: Higher Education Branding, Storytelling
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 job with their websites and social media touch points, little realizing that the cumulative impact of these touch points will undo them a couple of decades from now. It’s the butterfly effect. Gentle nudges here and there will change brand destinies forever. Brands, like children, need to be nurtured with utmost care. Great brand managers, like good parents, dream of greater futures and foster their brands carefully to create those greater futures.
Posted in: Branding, Higher Education Branding
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 call writing art, not craft — because while you can teach all of the rules of composition, you can’t teach a great sentence, headline or billboard copy. Practice alone makes persuasion, especially in higher education branding. As for story, Elliance believes the essential building blocks of story as it applies to web site creation and higher education branding actually emerge earlier, at the site map stage. In my days writing for an award-winning university magazine, I worked alongside many fine MFA-holding writers and editors schooled in the finer points of narrative non-fiction. They talked about a writer’s motives and an article’s spine. My journalism training … Continue reading
Posted in: Higher Education Branding