SimpsonScarborough: Intelligent Marketing for Higher Education

A lot of the schools I am working with are turning to traditional ad agencies to develop their creative strategy and implement their marketing plan. But, since many colleges have historically worked with firms that specialize ONLY in high-ed, it can be challenging for them to find an agency. I've helped many schools find agencies that have at least a couple of college/university clients and have maybe won a regional or national ADDY award. But, now there is a Web site called AgencyFinder. Free to searchers, you can use this online tool to search for an agency that is a perfect match for your needs. They call themselves the e-Harmony of the agency business. Great tool for finding some new talent to develop your important creative work!

Weekend before last, it was my great privilege to join Sara Simpson in accepting a prestigious CASE award on behalf of her father and my business partner, Christopher Simpson. His book, Weathering the Storm, was honored with the Alice L. Beeman Research Award.

Also attending was Christopher's wife and dear friend of all of SimpsonScarborough, Millie. We all choked back tears as Julian Bivins, Chair of the CASE Board of Trustees, eloquently described Christopher's impact on the advancement profession. (Picture of Julian, Sara, and myself included below.)

CASE needs help identifying potential submissions for next year's competition. Please pass along this link to your professional network of colleagues, students, etc. to anyone you think may be interested.

 

After reading my blog entry about my four-legged friend, Cathy Conover, Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs at Montana State University, emailed me a picture of Tyson and Maggie.  Too cute!!  Anyone else?  Feel free to email me at tvp@simpsonscarborough.com

As I concurrently partake in my daily homage to Starbucks, I want to alert you to AdAge's interview with Starbucks' SVP for marketing, Terry Davenport.  He answers questions about the return to the brown Starbucks logo, if and when the green logo will resurface, and discusses how Starbucks solicits feedback including recruiting online "customer passion panels" with "old folks" (AdAge's term, not his).  

I recently posted about my trip to Sao Paulo to work on the brand strategy of the Methodist institutions throughout the country. This is a photo of our Brazilian host, Paulo, and me in front of the Ipiranga Museum, located near the place where Pedro I declared independence from Portugal in 1822. The gardens were incredible with fountains and mazes. The blue sky looks almost fake, no?

The Washington Post reported today on House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel's writing "letters on congressional stationery and has sought meetings to ask for corporate and foundation contributions for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York, a project that caused controversy last year when he won a $1.9 million congressional earmark to help start it. Republican critics dubbed the project Rangel's 'Monument to Me.'" He has also secured "two Department of Housing and Urban Development grants totaling $690,500 to help renovate the college-owned Harlem brownstone that will house the center." 

His fundraising goal is $30 million for an academic center, which will house his papers upon his retirement.  It isn't the fundraising goal that The Post reports as receiving scrutiny (we all can appreciate $30 million isn't what it once was); the fact that he is "soliciting donations from corporations with business interests before his panel" is drawing ire from his peers and watchdogs.

Colleges and universities should fully embrace gifts and pork, but you need to have a communications plan in place when the details are scrutinized. If CUNY is onboard with the Center, then they need to provide details regarding the academic impact of the Center and the ways in which it will advance the institution.  And they need to help the public understand why the scrutiny is misplaced, if it is misplaced.  Otherwise, the "Monument to Me" will continue to be a lightning rod and distraction for Rep. Rangel and CUNY.

-- Teresa Valerio Parrot

I recently joined RAIN, CASE's online peer community for advancement research. This social community was created by Chris Thompson, CASE's VP of Research and Information. I'm excited about participating in the discussion groups and getting to know others in the field. It just got up and running recently so there aren't many of us in the community. So, I'm posting this entry to invite other research geeks to join in. Takes 5 minutes to join.  It's worth it just to read Chris' great blog postings. Join us in the RAIN.  

The AP covered a topic near and dear to my heart this week.....online Scrabble! I've been playing Scrabulous for months now (sometimes up to 8 games at a time) without realizing that it was NOT developed by Mattel. And, I just started playing it within Facebook which makes it a lot easier to play with friends.

But, now Mattel is lobbying for Scrabulous to be pulled from Facebook because Scrabble is their intellectual property.  Aack!  I say shame on Mattel for not coming up with an easy way to play Scrabble online in the first place!  Don't deprive all of us who are hooked just because you are late getting into the game....just because you were trumped by a couple of guys in India who can only be blamed for loving the game! If Facebook loses Scrabulous, I'll still play on the main site. I'm used to it and it's a principle thing.

Anyone up for a game?

I was just thinking about the 2009 NASPA National Meeting, which will be held next March in Seattle. And guess what?  On my flight today I read July's "Three Perfect Days" article in United Airlines' Hemispheres Magazine... and it profiles Seattle!  The heavens are telling all of us to mark the conference on our calendars :).  I'll see you in March at the kayak rental location!!

Our colleague, Christine Florence, had a rebuttal Op-Ed run recently in the Mail Tribune in which she defended Southern Oregon University's marketing efforts.  She stated, "[t]he right fit between students and a campus is a key factor in whether they go to college, finish their first year and ultimately gain a degree. Marketing, from this perspective, is both information outreach and a service to the community."

My return flight from Sao Paulo to Newark arrived this morning at 6am and I don't know where to begin in writing about my trip. I was in Brazil to speak with a group of presidents, senior administrators, and marketing personnel about developing the umbrella brand for all Methodist institutions in the country. We were hosted by the Universidade Metodista de Sao Paulo, one of the largest Methodist universities in the country.

It was absolutely fascinating to hear about the trends in the Brazilian higher education marketplace. The for-profit institutions have moved into the country in a big way. One had a goal of enrolling 100,000 students by 2010. They're already at 140,000 and the private institutions, including all of the Methodist schools, are really feeling it. From the way they described it, Brazil's traditional universities are suffering in competition against the for-profits much more than U.S. institutions. We assumed this is because the lower income socioeconomic group in Brazil is so large and so price sensitive.

Also, in Brazil, the public universities are free. Imagine our entire country having Georgia's HOPE scholarship. Getting into one of the publics is tough but when a student gets in, they always go....again because most of the families have modest incomes but also because the public universities, while free, are also the most prestigious.

The hi-ed adminstrators we met with were well-versed on marketing and branding issues. They don't seem to have the same issues we do about feeling that "marketing cheapens the academy." And, they are very pragmatic; there was a distinct "let's figure this out and get moving" aroma in the air for the entire, day-long workshop. It was an incredible experience. Will write more about the people and the place later.

 

I suggest administrators test their institution's crisis plan in August as a reminder to their campus of roles, responsibilities, policies and procedures related to a coordinated crisis response.  When asked for sample crises to test I recommend common campus occurrences, with IT hacks and binge drinking incidents rising to the top of this list.  

These creepy  faceless people are part of a buzz marketing campaign for Lotus.I am not very sure what they have to do with cars, but that is sort of the point of these campaigns, right? They really get people talking. Blogs have been buzzing about these people who have been showing up at various events. Kind of cool, kind of freaky... I just thought I would share it with you.

- Meredith Simpson

A lot of people complain about the weather but they never do anything about it. Similarly, a lot of people, (and organizations), talk a lot about providing service but don't go too much further with it. Allow me to introduce to you the Quality Service Initiative (QSI) at North Carolina Central University (www.nccu.edu). In the fall of 2007, under the leadership of new Chancellor Charlie Nelms, NCCU introduced one of the most comprehensive quality and customer service programs I have ever seen. Its goal is "to create a respectful, responsive and encouraging environment for students, faculty and staff that will lead to greater retention and graduation rates." There are so many good things to say about this initiative, I hardly know where to begin so let me provide the highlights. Employees sign a covenant whereby they pledge to serve others in a respectful caring and timely manner; they participate in training and apply the training on a daily basis; they are expected to participate in all assessments to measure progress and;  commit to continuous improvement to enhance the program.

 

Training is extensive and continuous. Supervisors and leadership positions go through a foundation course for creating service based culture. They then join all other employees (yes, ALL employees including faculty),  in three more seminar based programs that deal with relationship strategies, exceeding customer expectations and working with dissatisfied customers with the goal of building customer loyalty. In addition to these in- person seminars, there are also web based programs on among other things, telephone skills.

 

Perhaps the most impressive part of this program, and there is a lot to be impressed with, is that service excellence is built into the employee evaluation system. How many schools have taken that step? I know of no other that has created such well thought out program and implemented it across campus. If you know of more please let me know. This is especially impressive as NCCU is a school of over 8,000 students.

 

As many of you know, I am a strong advocate of approaching education from a services perspective. (I have a book coming out in September on the subject.). I wish I had known about North Carolina Central's QSI when I was writing it. I would have devoted many pages to this outstanding example of client focused systems. NCCU truly understands that quality service is not a gimmick but a strategic response to the expectations of our constituents in an ever increasingly competitive world.

 

Congratulations go to North Carolina Central University! They are setting quite an example!

 

- Tom Hayes

Tom Hayes forwarded an article to me about how to defend your institution after it has been attacked on a blog.  The article, "8 tips for countering a blog attack on your business," by Christopher Elliott, is worth reading. 

If you are going to implement any of his ideas, make sure you track who is saying what about your institution online.  For me, the easiest and cheapest way to do this is with Google News Alerts.  Be sure you select "blogs" on the drop down menu for the "type" of news.  When you enter the "search terms" field for each alert, make sure you search the terminology bloggers  use to reference your school.  I don't call my alma mater by its full name, but I use its initials and (it's true!!) its athletics mascot.   Perform a quick online search and see how your alumni refer to you, and use those phrases as well as your formal name as search fields.

I think one of his interviewees said it best when providing advice for those being attacked online: "Don't get angry or become unprofessional. And don't take it personally."  If you only remember one thing from this article, let this be the part that resonates.

-- Teresa Valerio Parrot