The March 13th edition of the Chronicle had a good article, 13 Reasons Colleges Are in This Mess. Two of the 13 items discussed were related to marketing and branding:

#9: Failed to Find a Niche - The Chronicle reports that many colleges have "failed to differentiate themselves."  They say that colleges that have "not established a firm identity will lose prospective students." We agree.

#10: Ignored Customers' Needs - I agree with this one but struggle with it a bit. The Chronicle and other papers, the New York Times included, have recently bashed colleges for operating too much like corporations. Yet, here they acknowledge that institutions can't/shouldn't ignore the needs of customers. That sounds like coporate marketing speak to me. I do agree but think the critics should lay off of criticizing colleges and universities for embracing corporate principles of marketing and branding. Fact of the matter is that most schools are tuition driven. If they aren't generating revenue, they won't stay open.....just like any other business. Criticizing them for acting like a business (when they ARE one) is counterproductive.

-Elizabeth Scarborough 

I highly recommend everyone read Mary Beth Marklein's piece in USA Today about how the "Economy Influences College Choices."  She cites a recently released study by the Princeton Review that looked at college "hopes and worries." We have participated in a number of discussions lately about how the economy will influence enrollments in the fall... and here is some data to help frame that conversation.

As we should have anticipated, more students and parents indicated "financial aid will be 'extremely' or 'very' necessary to pay for college."  Here is a statistic, though, that gave me pause: "When asked what their biggest concern is, 37% of both students and parents - the largest share of each- said it was that they (or their child) will get into their first choice of college but won't be able to attend for financial reasons."

This Princeton Review survey just gave all admissions professionals the framework and the language they need to use to position their institutions.  Make sure you share this article with your financial aid offices, too.  They need to understand exactly how emotional of a decision college choice is this year.

-Teresa Valerio Parrot

My friend, Tony Proudfoot, the Associate VP for Mktg & Comm at Ball State, sent me a link to a cool Web site called Flowing Data the other day. This is a great site if you are a believer that the presentation of data is just another art form. Here are some links to some "data visualizations" that are really awesome:

1. 27 visualizations on the financial crisis

2. Safest seat on a plane

3. Learn how to read and use the box-and-whisker plot

The image below is another one. It shows how Obama beat Clinton...a little late, I know. But, it's still interesting.

You can even watch a visualization of the growth of Walmart. Cool site for those interested in learning better ways to be effective in communicating what can easily be missed in your data.

-Elizabeth Scarborough

Okay, one more crisis tidbit... when working with institutions in crisis I sometimes encounter an administrator who is quick to place blame with others for the situation.  I often respond by saying the general public and your specific audiences are looking for someone to hold accountable, not necessarily for someone to blame.  And there is a significant difference between the two.

It is impossible for a leader, someone who is truly a leader, to set the direction for forward movement if they are unwilling to be where the buck stops.  Good, bad, or ugly they need to be the final resting place for accountability.  That is just one of the many glamorous job responsibilities for their position--consider it an "other duty as assigned."

For this reason, I think the words President Obama used yesterday are a perfect example of exactly this principle.  Watch his comments at 0:44 on the video.  He has made himself accountable.  My next advice, he needs to live this bold statement or he needs to prepare for the consequences of betraying trust.

-Teresa Valerio Parrot

I've been recommending to my crisis clients that they get involved in social networking well in advance of any crisis situation so that they have an established presence and are well versed in the technology before a crisis hits.  The networks we discuss these days, of course, have to include Twitter.  Last week I presented on this topic at the CASE I conference in Boston, and this week I walked a client through the application's benefits as an internal and external communications tool.

I figured I should follow my own advice and yesterday finally set up my own Twitter account.  I would LOVE to follow any of your institutions that are using Twitter to communicate to their audiences--send me an email to tvp@SimpsonScarborough.com with your username or link to me via Twitter (user name tvparrot).

I also wanted to pass along an opportunity with a colleague I admire tremendously.  Cindy Lawson, of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, is presenting an audio conference with Higher Ed Hero on using social media during a crisis.  She and I chatted for at least half an hour this morning about how to use social media to an institution's advantage.  If this topic excites you as much as it does the two of us, you are in for a treat.

If you don't yet Twitter I invite you to join me on the other side!!

-Teresa Valerio Parrot

In 2004-2005 I had the great privilege of being selected as an ACE Fellow. It was with out a doubt the best year of my professional life. I spent my year at Kenyon College learning directly from the President, Georgia Nugent, her staff and all the fabulous faculty. As a Fellow, I also had the chance to explore many different modalities of higher education. The one area where my eyes were most opened up was a greater understanding and appreciation for community colleges.

The Survey of Entering Student Engagement Report for Community Colleges just came out and I was fascinated by its findings and recommendations  (http://www.ccsse.org/sense/survey/SENSE_2008_National_Report_March_18.pdf). I found the content interesting for three reasons. First, there has never been a time when community colleges have had such an important role to play in the economic recovery of the nation. Second, community colleges are facing an uphill battle for funding that facilitates their success. Third, the findings and recommendations of the report could and should be applied to all colleges and universities.

The report outlined six design principles that were to be integrated into the first "touches" with students that begins with the school's initial contact with the student and continues through the first few weeks. They were:

·    Principle #1: Personal Connections

·    Principle #2: High Expectations and Aspirations

·    Principle #3: A Plan and a Pathway to Success

·    Principle #4: An Effective Track to College Readiness

·    Principle #5: Engaged Learning

·    Principle #6: An Integrated Network of Financial, 

Social, and Academic Support

Providing personal attention, management of expectations, support and an integrated approach to education are keys to success in any educational institutions. This report is one more flashing red arrow pointing us in the direction of customer centric strategies. I invite you all to read it and think how it may apply to your school.

-- Tom Hayes

College admissions is an uncertain science. For years those of us in enrollment management have asked ourselves the tough and seemingly unanswerable questions: How many qualified students will actually apply to our institution? How many applicants do we need to accept to meet our enrollment goals? Will our financial aid packages be strong enough to meet our financial objectives, but not too strong that we needlessly inflate our discount rate and overspend our aid budget?

This year, with the added stress of the economy, we are not only asking ourselves "the same old questions," we are also trying new methods to determine which students will actually show up next fall--according to the New York Times article, "In Shifting Era of Admissions, Colleges Sweat."  Check this out: Wake Forest, in North Carolina, is using Webcam interviews, while other colleges say they are scrutinizing essays more closely. And schools are making more vigorous appeals to try to convince parents and students who will be offered admission in April that theirs is the campus to choose. Other schools say they will rely more on their wait lists--as well as place greater emphasis on "tried and true" enrollment indicators including how many phone calls, Web hits, campus visits they have received.

This recruitment year is undoubtedly one of the most uncertain (and stressful) I can remember. With that said, I wish you all the best as your financial aid packages hit the street and May 1st draws near.

-Jeff Papa

Berry College conducted extensive research in 2007 and settled on a brand strategy which primarily emphasizes the College's unique work program. Even though it's not required, over 90% of the College's students work on campus each semester. They graduate with an exceptional four-year degree but also four years of work experience on their resume. Much of the work is directly related to a student's major and the College is working to ensure this becomes even more true over time. Most Berry graduates even have management experience by the time they graduate.

Integrating the brand strategy into marketing materials was easy. The images below appear in the College's collateral materials and ads and it's easy to see how they directly reinforce the positioning.

What's even more exciting that seeing than seeing the brand come alive in the campaign was hearing from Jeanne Mathews, Berry's Associate VP for Marketing and Public Relations, that the College's President was recently asked to appear on talk radio to discuss the College's work program. And, that CNN is coming to campus to interview a student about the work program. All of these items together are indications of a successful brand strategy in the making!

Have you noticed how some brands are super feminine and some are super masculine?  Well, I just read this great article in the Journal of Market Research that quantified this; Gender Dimensions of Brand Personality by Bianca Grohmann. You have to get a subscription to the Journal to read the whole thing but basically it measured the masculinity and femininity of some brands we all know and love. Not surprising, Charmin and Haagen-Dazs are more feminine while Gatorade and Budweiser are more masculine.  

Makes you wonder how we are communicating our high-ed brands. Are we, in fact, more masculine or feminine and does our marketing convey those traits accurately? Also, are we making the right choices about who represents our brand? The article described some major implications for how we pick spokespeople or brand represetatives. A male spokesperson representing a primarily female brand, for example, reduces brand credibility. This is very relevant in higher education where we tend to profile the kinds of students we want.....even if they are not the kinds of students we have. This article points out that can ultimately hurt our brand rather than help it.

-Elizabeth Scarborough

 The American Marketing Association Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education  features over 30 general lecture sessions and practitioners from a variety of higher education disciplines are invited to submit speaking/paper proposals.

The 2009 AMA Symposium is looking for proposals/papers that report on new and innovative strategies and tactics in higher education marketing. Popular topics include including image and brand building, buzz/viral marketing, marketing research, internal marketing, electronic marketing, new marketing channels, emerging markets and trends, marketing organizational structure, marketing budgeting, web metrics, and marketing ROI. We are not looking for "case studies," per se. Paper proposals should focus on specific successes and strive to provide detailed how-to content that Symposium participants can apply at their own institutions.

Proposals/papers are welcome from two-year colleges, four-year colleges and universities, and graduate, professional, and specialized schools. Final selected authors will have their works published in an AMA professional proceedings journal and are required to present their best work at the conference, whether applied or methodological in orientation.  If accepted, one presenter per session will receive a complimentary registration to the conference.

An electronic copy of the submission form and abstract must be emailed to AMA by Friday, April 3, 2009.

Find out more about the 2009 AMA Symposium and how to submit speaking/paper proposals.

SimpsonScarborough discussed with Ruth Watson, MBA Marketing Manager for the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, the bulletin board SimpsonScarborough recently conducted for her institution.

Q.    What business challenges were you trying to address by running a bulletin board with your newly enrolled MBA students?

A.    We wanted to run focus groups with a selection of our MBA class to delve into their decision making process, and find out more about what aspects of our MBA offering attracted them.  We also wanted to do some comparisons between nationality and industry sector. 

Q.    Why did you choose to run a bulletin board as opposed to using more traditional qualitative techniques like focus groups or in-depth interviews (IDIs)?

A.    I had heard that this technique was welcomed by participants, and that the relative anonymity allowed for a more frank discussion!  It also worked well for our busy students.  Finding a time to suit all participants had always been a problem in the past. This method allowed students the flexibility to log in when they wanted, which we hoped would improve the participation levels. Also we've had some experience of international groups being hard to balance (face-to-face discussion doesn't suit every nationality and culture) so we felt an online forum would enable some distance, and therefore provide more representative results.

Q.    What was most helpful about the type of information the bulletin board generated for you?

A.       I think that the virtual environment allowed the participants to be more frank in their responses.  I think there was less danger of 'group think' - some of the responses we got varied enormously.  Also, this method allowed us to ask some quantitative questions too, rather than just the qualitative questions you'd typically get at a focus group.  We could give them a list of phrases to respond to, or rank some ideas, for instance.  The online platform made this easy. Also the immediacy of the results allowed us to act quickly afterwards. 

Q.    Was there anything you found challenging about the type of information the board generated?

A.    I think at times the general gist of a question was misinterpreted.  In a physical focus group, this could have been clarified in an instant, but in a virtual environment where participants were logging in at different times, this was perhaps more difficult to remedy.  But having SimpsonScarborough's project manager, Emily, online to nudge the discussion or delve into themes was great. I wish I'd had the time to be online for the whole bulletin board too, but that was hard over a 3-day project.

Q.    Do you have any plans to use bulletin boards in the future?  If so, how?

A.      Definitely.  I love this method. The practical benefits over a physical focus group are numerous.  There is still a need for both, but I would favour this method for a participant group who are busy and hard to pin-down.  I also love to ease of the responses. It's all there, documented and available immediately.

Do you have questions or tips on how to market your institution during a recession? SimpsonScarborough is hosting an online bulletin board where you can learn from and share your strategies on marketing in a down economy with your higher-ed colleagues. Space is limited so SIGN UP NOW! Just put your name in the subject line and hit send!

The bulletin board will take place on April 1^st and April 2^nd. Questions will be posed the morning and evening of each day and you can log-in and share your responses when it's convenient to you.

Bulletin boards are quickly becoming a popular alternative to focus groups because of the voluminous amount of very rich, in-depth data they generate.  An online bulletin board  is a threaded online discussion led by a professional facilitator which takes place over a two-three day period with  twenty respondents participating 2-3 times each day. Participants are able to log in when it's convenient for them making the participation rate near 100%. Online bulletin boards involve inviting members of the target audience(s) to participate in the specific board.  The participants who sign up are then called to confirm participation and ensure they meet the required specifications outlined by the client. The moderator posts questions twice a day over the course of the bulletin board while also monitoring responses and probing as necessary.  A full transcript from the three days of discussion is generated. Online bulletin boards are particularly appropriate to use with high school and college-age students who prefer communicating online and are difficult to schedule for a synchronous discussion.

Sign up today for the Marketing in a Down Economy online bulletin board. Just put your name in the subject line and hit send.  

Join SimpsonScarborough CEO, Elizabeth Scarborough, for the Bring Your Brand Strategy to Life web series offered through Academic Impressions and explore the essentials of a dynamic brand strategy, including:

·         Using market research to guide differentiation

·         Finding your brand promise and making it practical

·         Bringing your brand to life

·         Assessing the effectiveness of an existing brand campaign

Pressure on institutions of higher education to bolster enrollment and advance their reputation continues to increase, and colleges and universities must differentiate themselves in the minds of prospective students. Far more than implementing a new logo or a tagline, effective brand building takes a holistic view of your institution and capitalizes on its strengths and unique qualities. Equally important is the way that you get your campus and your external stakeholders involved in the brand.

This four-part webcast series will offer you the information you need to begin identifying a plan of action for your institution's brand campaign. Designed to provide a broad overview of branding best practices, this web series is well suited for institutions embarking on a new branding initiative or looking to critically examine their existing brand.

Find out more and register for this web series.

Can I borrow everyone with a Blackberry for two minutes?  Thanks!

Look at your Blackberry keypad and help me understand how you would use a traditional Blackberry keypad to dial word-filled 1-800 numbers?  If you only list an acronym-filled or word-based 1-800 number on your website (main page, admissions page, contact page, etc.), I suggest supplementing it today with the actual digits those words represent.  Otherwise, you might miss a call or two from those audiences you most want to hear from...

Whew!  I feel better now :).

-Teresa Valerio Parrot

Yesterday MSNBC.com ran an article about the booming Hispanic market in the United States (including the commonly misleading use of the term "Hispanic"), and the new marketing and communications tactics being used by a variety of companies and institutions to woo Nuevo Hispania.  Approaches used by the Boy Scouts of America, Walmart, AARP, Coke, and a few others are profiled.

As a topic near and dear to my heart as a Latina, I was intrigued to think about the implications of this rising demographic on colleges and universities beyond the diversity we so often discuss on campuses.  Specifically, how can we approach Hispanics with online and nontraditional offerings and how can we convince them to enroll? 

Latino Perspectives' article last August suggests online education is a match for many "Latinos because it allows them to pursue a degree without compromising family time, as is the case with a traditional college education." 

Panacea of prospective students?  Perhaps.  But, note the Pew Hispanic/Pew Internet survey of 2007 that found that 67% of Hispanics between the ages of 18-29 (our traditional student audience) have Internet access, versus 86% of their white peers.

So, this brings me back to my MSNBC article.  What can we learn from the Boy Scouts and Coke and Walmart about communicating to this rising American demographic?  And what can we learn from our peers who have captured Hispanic online enrollments?  First, we can't make assumptions across the "Hispanic" spectrum, and second we need to do some research and then craft messages that are supported by the data.  Otherwise, we are making decisions with anecdotes that, more often than not, miss our mark completely.

-Teresa Valerio Parrot

PS-- visit here for information on the 2009 EDU Blogger Scholarship Contest :)

The Wall Street Journal's Digits blog, written by Marisa Taylor, highlighted Virgil Griffith's "aggregated Facebook data about the favorite bands and books among students of various colleges and plotted them against the average SAT scores at those schools, creating a tongue-in-cheek statistical look at taste and intelligence."

I loved his study, because my iTunes playlists rival those of any Nobel Laureate.  If you want to see the entire chart of musicians versus SAT scores, visit this site (NOTE!  I'm just providing you with a link--excuse the language!!  Apparently Virgil's site crashed from the traffic volume).

As I type this entry, The Counting Crows are playing on my computer.  Take that Baby Einstein!!

-Teresa Valerio Parrot