SimpsonScarborough: Intelligent Marketing for Higher Education

I am so excited to have two WOM specialists speaking at the AMA Symposium next month. We all already know that word-of-mouth is the #1 marketing tool we have. Shoot, it probably drives about 99.9% of my business. But most of us spend an inverse proportion of our marketing budget to harness and stimulate WOM. Nielsen just released a study that shows that “consumers around the world still place their highest levels of trust in other consumers;” “recommendations from consumers” are the #1 form of advertising that customers trust. 78% of the study’s respondents said they trust WOM compared to 56% who say they trust TV ads, 38% who trust move theatre ads, and 26% who trust online banner ads. Some of the comparisons by country are really interesting and might influence how you recruit international students. Recommendations from current customers make the biggest difference in Asia. “Relying on someone else’s recommendation” makes less difference in Denmark, Italy, and Lithuania. Consumer generated media (such as blogs) were considered a reliable source of information for the largest percentage of respondents in North America; though the magnitude of the different from the average was small. Still, it’s fair to say that WOM is the best thing we got going. I can’t wait to hear from Lois Kelly and Andy Sernovitz at the AMA so they can teach us more about it.

-- Elizabeth Scarborough

Posted by Meredith Simpson at 09:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This was the headline to a story in University Business last month. I was drawn to the story like a moth to a flame for a number of reasons. First, I have to admit “yo tengo una alma Latina” (I have a latin soul). I have had the opportunity to spend considerable amount of time in South America, Mexico and Puerto Rico. I enjoy the cultures, the people and the music. Secondly, I serve on the Hispanic Scholarship Fund Committee in Cincinnati. As a group, we have raised more money than any other city in the United States, having just passed the one million dollar mark, for scholarships targeting Hispanic men and women. For these reasons and more I have long been an advocate for creating programs and communications on our university and college campuses that target the Hispanic community. They are truly a “force to reckon with.”

Let me provide you a couple basic facts:
• Since 1990, 59% of the increase in population in the United States had been Latino.
• In 2010, one out of every five high school students will be Latino.
• Right now, 52% of children under the age of five in the U.S. are Latino.

If institutions of higher education are not currently reaching out to this increasingly important audience, they will loose the opportunity. While not all Hispanics are the same, (Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Cubans, Colombians etc…) or should be treated the same, there are some important common traits. The Hispanic market is not one that can be reached by promotion and traditional communications without first establishing a relationship with the community and building support systems on campus. “Familia,” or family is very important. We need to establish that we truly care about this group and do not approach the market as if they are a convenient way to fill seats. Beyond getting directly involved with the Latino community in your city, consider bi-lingual admissions directors, not for the students but for their parents. Also, think about a parent’s page on your web site in Spanish.

Is your campus doing anything to celebrate Hispanic heritage month?
I hear far too often that “we will do more things directed at this market when the numbers get larger in our area.” My typical response is “when you go to get money from and ATM, what is the first question on the screen?” Banks have figured it out why haven’t we?

The time is now and in one generation our campuses, along with our country, will look much different. As I tell everyone in one of my classes, “you can fight change, invest in it or create it.” The only sure way to lose is to fight it. Invest in this market now, embrace the Hispanic community and create the programs and systems on your campus that demonstrate you mean it!

-- Tom Hayes

Posted by Meredith Simpson at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NRCCUA released its annual study of admission Web sites today. They used 34 different criteria to determine “grades” for over 3,000 schools. Among the “best” were LeTourneau University, Wayne State, Newberry College, Saint Vincent College and Seminary, and others. I looked at all of the ones in the top 10 and I’m wondering if it’s just me or if the grading didn’t place enough emphasis on design. I mean, some of these sites are seriously unappealing visually. There are exceptions, of course. Gonzaga’s is a cool site. The design is edgy and youth-focused. And, yet the traditional Jesuit brand still comes through with “Develop Your Total Self” splashed across the home page. Pennsylvania College of Technology’s home page is totally disruptive (in a good way) with that over-sized photo of the student engineering a huge crane. It would be even better if that photographic style was carried throughout the site. Cal Baptist uses a similarly effective approach on their home page. If I were going to pick my top ten favorite college sites, the list would look completely different. Check out the sites for Virginia Tech, Ball State, and Boston University. These are great sites in my opinion. Not that my opinion matters `cause I am not the target audience!

-- Elizabeth Scarborough

Posted by Meredith Simpson at 03:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

just came across an online article from Bill Dedman, an investigative reporter for MSNBC, outlining “10 Myths About School Shootings.” Surprisingly, our recent survey found that 68% of higher education crisis plans include a response to a campus shooting. If your plan includes such language, read the list of myths and ensure that your plan is rooted in reality and not hearsay. And if you are part of the 42% whose plan doesn’t address a campus shooting, consider keep Mr. Dedman’s list and the experiences of your peers in mind the next time you update your plan.

-- Teresa Valerio Parrot

Posted by Meredith Simpson at 03:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From The College of New Jersey to Memphis, St. Johns, Wisconsin-Madison, William & Mary and many others, college and university campuses are scrambling to upgrade student warning systems quickly for use in times of crisis.

Most have implemented a combination of campus-wide siren alert systems, reverse 911 calls, mass email protocol, text messaging systems and door-to-door alerts. These efforts are long overdue and we applaud them.

We hope institutions aren’t failing initially to segment audiences, which would show that faculty, staff and students should be the first notified in times of crisis – but there are more stakeholders that deserve outreach.

While sirens blast warnings campus-wide, institutions also should employ concurrent crisis communications to reach parents and loved ones of faculty, staff and students; alumni; donors; opinion leaders and the business community locally; elected officials and others.

Good crisis planning demands audience segmentation: who are the most important constituents an institution must reach in times of crisis, and what is the most effective way to send constant, accurate and clear updates?

We have templates on our website you can download to assist you in this process. Simply alerting students and those on campus is only half of the crisis battle.

-- Christopher Simpson

Posted by Meredith Simpson at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A week ago, College of the Holy Cross’s Ellen Ryder and Kristine Maloney and I visited with the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities’ Tony Pals and Tony Wagner. “The Tonys” provided an update on the U-CAN (University and College Accountability Network) campaign, which is NAICU’s response to the U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings of colleges and universities. The site went live on September 26th after many months of planning.

What is U-CAN’s goal? The site “is designed to give, in a common format, prospective students and their families concise, Web-based consumer-friendly information on individual private colleges and universities.” How does it work? I’ll use the Holy Cross page as an example. The college was able to submit institutional information of its choosing and provide a hyperlink to their own website’s “At a Glance” data. U-CAN provided electronic templates for Holy Cross to use and now hosts their information.

My friends at Augustana College called me last week and said they want to provide prospective students with more than just the information U-CAN requested. They believe they should take credit for all of their successes, not just those that fit the U-CAN template, and they are also willing to expose their warts for all to see to achieve full disclosure. They not only created a U-CAN page, they are also distributing “Open Book” (Download file), which shares the good accountability measures and takes responsibility for turning around the bad.

I say bravo on these approaches. But, long-term I worry that these efforts will remain unknown to high school seniors, their parents and high school counselors. A full-court marketing approach is needed. Without it, all of the good news will remain unread, unlike the USN&WR rankings.

-- Teresa Valerio Parrot

Posted by Meredith Simpson at 03:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just like every Sunday morning, three days ago I was rounding up my family to scoot out the door (“we have five minutes before we’re late!”). Despite my destination goal and the time on the clock, something made me stop in my tracks. After Tim Russert signed off of Meet the Press for the week, an ad for avian flu came on the screen. The PSA encouraged viewers to visit www.pandemicflu.gov to get the latest news on the status of this virus. Interesting timing, I thought, since Christopher Simpson and I are hosting a webinar on planning for avian flu later this month.

Out of curiosity I visited the site today. A tab along the top of the page is labeled “School Planning” and provides checklists for rating institutional preparedness. The checklists, in addition to our webinar, will ensure that your institution will be prepared should pandemic flu hit.

-- Teresa Valerio Parrot

Posted by Meredith Simpson at 03:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rob Moore, from Lipman Hearne, and I are presenting together at an Academic Impressions conference on branding in January. On a planning conference call today, the conference head, Betsy McNair noted that Rob and I use similar, yet slightly different, definitions of branding. We both agreed this is absolutely fine because we each emphasize different nuances of the concept which fit our own corporate brands. How’s that for differentiation? But, the point lingered with me a bit today so eventually I googled “definition of branding” and found some interesting stuff.

I found a blog on “defining branding” that included definitions like “it’s a story that we tell ourselves and eachother,” (which I like) “it’s a promise” (which is tired), “it’s whatever we can do to be like Nike/Starbucks/Coke” (which is hollow and completely misses the point), and “the brand is what you tell your friends about afterward” (which I am stealing).

I found another interesting blog that will be fun to visit every once in a while. It has a “bookshelf” with recommending reading on branding and a bunch of good stories on corporate branding. If you peruse the entries you will quickly notice it’s written with a research bent; that’s probably why I like it.

Finally, I found an interesting take on branding compiled into a periodic table of brand evolution terms. There are also some worthy downloadables including a paper on “drip marketing,” a term I admit I haven’t heard yet.

I also found a couple links to my own Web site. Thank goodness!

-- Elizabeth Scarborough

Posted by Meredith Simpson at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We encourage all of our crisis clients to write a plan that addresses every possible crises they may face, prioritize the likelihood of each incident, and finally hold table top or mock drills at least twice a year to test the ins and outs of their plan against the prioritized list. We also suggest that the crisis team leader present case studies at select cabinet meetings to review the institution’s crisis plan and remind people how a similar situation would be addressed and messaged should it occur closer to home.

I’ve had a few people ask where to find case studies. Unfortunately, our peers are experiencing crisis on a daily basis and the details they face can serve as the models to best prepare your institution. Need proof? Click here, here or here to learn of recent shootings on or near a college campus. Click here for a recent student fatality. And, here for a story that includes on campus drug use and a sexual assault. Click here for a story on free speech and the editor of a student paper. Finally, click here for a fiscal mismanagement allegation.

I don’t bring up these stories to smear the institutions or their handing of their crises. Instead, I mention these cases because we believe you can strengthen your approach, should you face a similar situation, by watching and learning from other institution’s approaches. Most crises you might face aren’t unique, and there is much you can learn from studying similar situations. Learn how the institutions that effectively control the message and flow of information are able to connect to their audiences throughout the crisis.

And remember, if you study and present case studies to your senior staff peers, you increase your credibility to lead your team through the worst.

-- Teresa Valerio Parrot

Posted by Meredith Simpson at 02:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)