Brand Positioning: The Crucial Linchpin that Colleges and Universities Need to Tackle Now
This blog entry is going to be one of many to center around positioning. I’m hoping that this informal, yet substantive form of communication can be a place for the higher education marketing community to have a conversation on this important topic. I invite you to add your thoughts and experiences to this ongoing dialogue.
I’m convinced that positioning is the most critical piece of the marketing puzzle and that colleges and universities need to tackle it first. Just as integrated marketing communications is a way to bring focus to myriad messages, positioning is a way to bring focus to those messages.
Most importantly, good positioning will ensure institutions select the right messages – ones that resonate with and prompt support from key audiences. Good positioning lies in the convergence of three key areas: 1) what you institution does well; 2) what things are important to your stakeholders; and 3) what things you are doing better or more consistently than your competitors. Finding this positioning core is what I like to call triangulating your brand (see a graphic illustration this concept here).
Too many times, colleges and universities embark on positioning without focus, only to create a set of messages that tries to show how they can be all things to all people or that just describes the institution rather than its benefits to key stakeholders. This lack of focus or uniqueness is what got them into trouble in the first place, and these vague messages will not solve their marketing problems.
I challenge anyone reading this on a college or university campus to sit down with a piece of paper and pen or your laptop and try to identify your school’s position in the marketplace. If you can complete this exercise in one sitting, then you are to be congratulated, because your campus is three steps ahead of most. That is, only if your brand positioning and key messages are known, recited and lived by those on your campus.
If you can’t list your institution’s positioning messages, or if you can but they don’t really differentiate or triangulate your brand they way I described above, I encourage you to start reading up on positioning and how it can be a powerful tool for leveraging your institution’s assets in the higher education marketplace. Numerous articles, books and blogs touch on the subject. I would suggest these blogs:
Mantra’s What’s Your Brand Mantra Blog [http://brand.blogs.com/mantra/]
Laura Ries’s The Origin of Brand [http://ries.typepad.com/ries_blog/]
Futurelab’s Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog [http://blog.futurelab.net/2006/07/]
I also welcome anyone’s thoughts and experiences on higher education brand positioning to be added to this blog.
CT Turner
Partner, SimpsonScarborough