I blogged
about Ben Fold's a capella project on college campuses across the
country. I still think is really
cool.. and now there is a documentary
on the project on YouTube. Enjoy!
June 2009 Archives
See this article on Inside Higher Ed's
site today on the role of housing officers during a crisis. I appreciated the coverage of John Buck's
presentation at ACUHOI--his comments and experiences align with one of my experiences.
Any crisis incident or communications plan has to be scalable to include those
offices that are front-line communicators and leaders for students. This can include housing officers, the
registrar, admissions officers and the director of financial aid. In times of a crisis you want
assistance from all who can help, but most importantly from those who can react
and at some later point tell the story from a first-person account.
I love this article in yesterday's New York Times about how campuses are getting creative about generating summer revenue. Monmouth University made some extra cash by letting a bridal magazine do a photo shoot on campus. Manhattanville College earned $25,000 for letting Martin Scorsese shoot some scenes for an upcoming film. And, many colleges are generating extra revenue from the typical camps and summer programs.
I've always boasted about how lucky I am to spend so many of my days on college campuses. They are generally lovely places to work and live. Seems like a win-win to me for corporations, in particular, to use the space when it's most unused (summer) allowing the institutions to generate much needed revenue. And, should marketing these "assets" fall into the marketing department?
Things that make you go hmmmmmm...........
Campus
Technology has a great
article that walks readers through a text messaging response to armed
robbery suspects fleeing to Napa Valley College. It was interesting to see what the
college thought worked well and read the anecdotes of how the availability of
technology aided and hurt the response.
Interestingly, the suspects entered the campus library to blend in and found an advantage: "students, who were able to use the library's computers, were sharing information among themselves--including the assailants--in real time, which meant the suspects knew what was going on outside." Thankfully the suspects surrendered and all ended well.
For your next crisis tabletop drill, make sure you discuss more than just sending out a text message to the campus--talk through the possibility of sending out more than one message and incorporate complications like those Napa Valley College faced. If nothing else, it will help you to prepare for the complexity of an actual crisis.
I don't know where Jessica
Terry is going to nursing school in the fall, but if you have some
scholarship dollars left over for the coming academic year, I'd try to scoop her
up!!
This is too funny not to share...
MTV has
announced that they will be filming their 23rd season of The Real
World in Washington, DC. If you
aren't aware of the show, it was one of the original reality series in which (approximately) college age students from a variety of backgrounds are brought
together to live in a house and have their lives filmed. The highlights of each season would
make any parents blush.
Here is the ultimate news... rumors
suggest that the home for the Real Worlders is about three blocks from our
office, and less than two blocks from the headquarters of ACE and a whole
host of higher education associations.
It is enough to make me giggle to
think of our two worlds colliding!
Might make me tune into the show J.
Many of you probably saw the article in Ad Age last week which covered higher education marketing and branding. If not, you should check it out. You can use it to help your institution understand that the concepts of marketing and branding are now widely accepted inside and outside of higher education. Good fodder for those of you who are still "fighting the good fight" to help your institutions realize that your marketing department should not be thought of as an internal Kinko's.
I can't help but follow up to my
entry from earlier this week re. the U.S.
News & World Report rankings presentation given by Catherine Watt of Clemson University. Here is the most recent media coverage:
- Part 2 of the Inside Higher Ed piece (suggestion--read the comment sections for both IHE articles)
- Coverage in The Chronicle (see below)
- AP coverage in which Watt is called a "rogue Clemson University staffer"
- Reaction from Bob Morse on his USN&WR blog. I liked this quote from the blog: "We realize we can't control how this information gets used in the higher ed community, but the rankings are not meant to drive the mission or any other strategic goals that a university may be trying to attain. It's up to the Clemson University community to decide whether rising in the college rankings is a goal it ought to pursue."
PS-- I've been emailing back and
forth with a number of people about this story. We all wonder if Ms. Watt has tenure in her faculty position...
Need something fun on a Friday?
If you are on Facbeook then you probably have seen the proliferation of quizzes
you can take. Some of them focus
on current events or measurements of IQ, some are silly like "which type of
Starbucks drink are you?" My
Facebook friend Kent Barnds recently posted that he took the quiz, "which
Augustana administrator are you?" If you want something fun to do on a Friday,
look it up. Apparently, I'm "W. Kent Barnds."
Note to self... need to buy a
bowtie...
I wonder if my alma mater has a
quiz. If so, I'm hoping for a trivia one J.
Some of you may remember the early computer game (and PBS television show), "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?"Recently I have had the tremendous good fortune to travel to very interesting countries and universities as part of my job and role in advancing the success of higher education institutions through marketing strategy, research and branding. I love this part of my job, as I truly believe I learn as much from my travels as I may teach.
In April, I had the opportunity to visit Brisbane, Australia to work with a client, Queensland University, and attend a conference of Australian Universities where I gave a key note. There are so many interesting developments happening in the Australian market that are driving the schools to adopt even more customer-focused processes and programs. Competition is heating up, and some of the schools are creating some very cool marketing initiatives. Beyond our own client, Queensland University, another school that is garnering a lot of attention is Melbourne University. I was so impressed with their presentation and marketing efforts that I recommended Patrick Freeland-Small, their Vice Principal of Marketing and Communications, to the AMA committee to present a key note address at an upcoming conference. I am happy to report that Pat has been asked and accepted the invitation. I am sure you will love what he has to say as well.
In May, I was privileged to serve as co-chair for CASE's Institute for Integrated Marketing and Branding with Terry Flannery of American University. Once again, I learned a lot from my colleagues that served as faculty (Terry, Joe Hice, Deborah Wiltrout and Tracy Syler-Jones) as well as the participants themselves.
I am now in Maastricht, Netherlands, working at the University of Maastricht and having a wonderful time learning about the Dutch culture and their system of higher education. Thankfully, through the miracle of modern technology (yeah for Skype!), I can keep up with the office and clients back home.
When I return to the states I am heading first to Mexico City for a conference planned by Universidad Panamericana (a three-day adventure) and then off to Lima, Peru for a similar event.
The more I travel and interact with other higher education professionals from around the world, the more I understand the global impact of higher education and the role we play in advancing its mission. I am truly blessed to be part of this effort and am thankful for whatever I can contribute.
SimpsonScarborough discussed with Kristen Flory, Director of Marketing and Communications, at Michigan State University's College of Law, the brand identity study we recently conducted with them.
Q. Why did MSU College of Law decide to do this study?
A. The MSU College of Law, formerly known as the Detroit College of Law, was physically located in the city of Detroit from 1891-1995. In 1995, the College moved to the MSU campus in East Lansing. Approximately 7 years ago, our name formally changed to the MSU College of Law. However, no branding or identity research was done prior to or following the move and name change. When I arrived at MSU Law in 2006, I noticed an alarming trend during qualitative research--namely brand confusion among some of our audiences. Many people (including some of our peer institutions and prospective students) thought we were a new law school; others confused us with another law college located in the same town; some thought we had two campuses. We needed to fully discover what our brand recognition is in the marketplace in order to develop strong strategies to communicate with our audiences.
Q. You included two online focus groups of MSU College of Law alumni in your study. What business challenges were you trying to address by running online focus groups?
A. We have two groups of alumni that really have different needs. For more than 100 years, we were a regional college located in the city of Detroit. Now, we are a national college affiliated with a Big Ten research university with global reach. The College increased in size upon its affiliation with MSU. Because of that, nearly 50% of our living alumni graduated from MSU Law and 50% graduated from DCL. We realize that their opinions and knowledge about the College can be very different, and we wanted to make sure that both sets of alums were informed and engaged with the College in a way that best suits them.
Q. MSU College of Law has a distinct history coming from Detroit College of Law. Can you tell us how that impacts your marketing?
A. Name confusion is the first issue. There is currently a University of Detroit College of Law. We are two different schools yet occasionally there is confusion. Also, we no longer have a Detroit campus. So,
getting the message out there that DCL is now MSU is often challenging. The other is alumni support and outreach. We are 90 miles from the old location (and far from many DCL alumni). To ensure that our Detroit alums feel connected, we have to reach out to them in different ways than we do our MSU alums. Also, many of our Detroit alums were upset about the move from Detroit, and that is still a sensitive issue to combat with marketing the College.
Q. What was the most helpful about the type of information the online focus groups generated for you?
A. The sheer abundance of participation. In my experience with in-person focus groups, I found that 2-3 people (out of 15-20) pretty much "ran the group." They are the most vocal, often offer the most information and their strong opinion can affect the participation of others in the group or even sway the line of discussion. With an online focus group, nearly everyone participates. They can certainly comment on what other people say, but I don't feel that participants are as reluctant to offer information than in face-to-face interactions. Plus, the moderator could redirect or flesh out certain points as he/she saw fit over the course of the group's discussion. It's also less expensive for the client and allows a greater window of time to participate for the participants.
Q. How do you plan to use and apply the findings?
A. Many of the findings were actually right on target with what we were already supporting, which gave us a huge sense of relief. We plan to use the findings to create and reinforce our communication strategies. The methods we used to communicate with our audiences will not drastically change; the messages, however, will.
Q. Move over Carrie Bradshaw, there's a new girl in town! Tell us about those shoes in your picture!
A. I admit it--I am addicted to shoes. Around the College my shoes are kind of a defining characteristic of me. I tend to go for the unusual colors and quirky, artistic styles and I never match! I think shoes say
a lot about a person and I find that they are often great conversation starters! I thought these lovely orange kitten heels (that I bought in Italy) would match SimpsonScarborough's color scheme.
If you only have five minutes to
catch up on the news today, I have your MUST READ article!! Doug Lederman of Inside Higher Ed covered a
presentation given by Catherine Watt, former institutional researcher for Clemson University, at the annual forum for
the Association for Institutional Research.
She discussed the steps Clemson
took to move from 38th
to 22nd in the public research university category of U.S. News
& World Report rankings.
Most of the steps are those we traditionally discuss including providing
the most up-to-date information in the data reported to U.S. News, increasing selectivity in the admissions process,
reducing class size and increasing faculty salaries.
Here is where she started to draw
ire from her peers... "Watt said
that Clemson officials, in filling out the reputational survey form for
presidents, 'rates all programs other than Clemson below average,' to make the
university look better. 'And I'm confident my president is not the only one who
does that,' Watt said."
In addition, she reported on Clemson's presentation of faculty compensation
data. The school is "altering the
way it relays the data to the magazine's editors" to include salary and benefits
based upon "several different definitions of faculty pay." In response to a
comment that Clemson "favored merit over access in a poor state" and other
criticisms, Watt replied, "We have walked the fine line between illegal,
unethical, and really interesting."
Interesting line to walk, huh?
If you're like most admissions professionals, I'm sure you've asked yourself and your staff to respond to a bunch of important questions that directly impact your admissions program:
· What specific factors influence a student's final college choice?
· What are students looking for in a particular college?
· To what extent is the economic downturn impacting students' college selection?
· How do students compare your school to your competitors?
· What specific characteristics of your school are truly impressive to prospective students?
· Are social media sites--like Facebook and Twitter--an effective way of communicating with prospective students?
· To what extent do parents influence their student's college choice?
Focus groups--the most commonly used marketing-research technique for gathering baseline, qualitative information--are a quick and easy way to gather this type of information. Focus groups involve a carefully planned open-ended discussion with a small group of selected participants to obtain their perceptions, attitudes, ideas and feelings about a defined interest area. This may sound a bit fancy, but focus groups are much more than bringing students or parents together to shoot the breeze. If done well, focus groups allow participants to share with the moderator (and each other) their candid, unfiltered thoughts and options about a series of important issues.
Over the years, I must have conducted hundreds of focus groups with students and parents. During a particular focus group, I remember asking a group of prospects to indicate how they personally determine if one college or university is better than or distinctive from another. As it turns out, most students said they look for two major indicators: (1) the institution's academic standing (i.e. admissions requirements and program offerings) and (2) what they heard about a particular college from others (i.e. word of mouth). Once those two factors are satisfied, then students may delve a bit more deeply to determine if that school is a good fit for them personally by exploring a variety of additional institutional factors including student-faculty ratio, the amount of time professors are willing to invest in their students, alumni success stories and the local town and surrounding area. By asking students this one question, I was able to more fully understand how students approach their college search and the factors that seem to influence their decision making.
With the use of Web-based applications and toll-free phone lines, focus groups can now be conducted online, allowing participants to gather together from any geographic region with just a click of a mouse and a phone call. So, my fellow enrollment managers, I encourage you to consider conducting focus groups with prospective students and their parents and ask them the questions that are most important to your admissions program.
If you are looking for a little
bit of data on where the recession is predicted to end first in the US, or
which areas of the country are "recession-resistant," click on this link to MSNBC. The projections, created by Moody's, include areas in the country in which college
towns "have stayed out of [economic] downturns." When you see the map it makes a great statement about the financial
impact of higher education in our communities and regions.
