I loved the recent article in the New York Times (4-23-10) describing the apparently emerging problem of U.S. students "addiction" to the internet. As a college professor, I see first hand the problems of students putting away their Blackberry's, Ipods or laptops long enough to answer a short question. I especially loved the quote from one student that described their attachment to all this technology as "a constant feeling of comfort."

This is a sure sign that I am a bit older than others.....I find a "constant feeling of comfort" when I am completely unplugged! Sure, I have a Blackberry, an ITouch (Verizon has not graced me with an IPhone yet), an IPod and my MacBook Pro. Sure, I check them constantly..but mostly when I am on the road....okay I am almost always on the road....but what I look forward to most is stopping and unplugging. I love time to myself in the morning when I am swimming or running when technology does not intervene. I love the ability to exhale, look around, take in the moment and just be.

Besides, what ever happened to addicted to love? That is a concept I can still get my head around!

Peace Out!

Tom Hayes

th@simpsonscarborough.com

Inside Higher Ed recently published an article by this same name that highlighted our company and the work we have had the privilege to provide to a few of our clients. Besides being stoked by the article and its response, I am happy to see a discussion developing over approaching potential new programs from a ROI perspective. We in higher education are really good at developing new programs but not evaluating if they are necessary. In my book, University Marketing Mistakes (CASE 2008), I developed the concepts of "program creep" and  "empire builders" that outline the reasoning behind this phenomenon. Few, if any, schools take the time as the Kogod School of Business at American University did to check market realities.  The long-standing exception to this is DePaul University under the guidance of David Kalsbeeck.  Looking at potential programs from a business perspective should not be a threatening endeavor. It makes all the sense in the world to maintain courses that are at the root of an institution's mission whether they are making money or not. How could any self-respecting liberal arts college NOT have English and Math courses? However, this does not mean they need to have a master's in English, especially if the university across town has a far larger and more reputable program of its own.

In order to stay strong in a world of limited resources we need to ask ourselves not only what potential new programs make sense financially, but also what programs have outlived their time? Where can we redirect resources rather than come up with new dollars.

I look forward to more schools adopting a market oriented approach. I look forward to more schools using solid research to ensure the long-term viability of their institutions. I look forward to schools asking themselves will this new program add value to the market and serve the needs of the community in which they serve.

Live long and prosper!

Tom Hayes

th@simpsonscarborough.com

I was talking with my friend Melissa Richards at Virginia Tech the other day. She called me because she is looking for other schools that are doing something similar to her "Brand Ambassador Program." She wants to compare notes. I had to admit that I haven't heard of anyone who is running such a comprehensive brand training program!

The program is offered to any employee at Virginia Tech and results in the awarding of a certificate. To earn it, you have to complete 6 classes from a list that includes History of the Virginia Tech Brand, Branding Your Unit, Designing for Our Brand, Writing for Our Brand, and Our Brand on the Web. According to Melissa, her department had a waiting list for these classes as soon as they started offering them.

This is a great example of where our profession is headed. Our centralized marketing departments will be responsible for developing a brand strategy and training everyone else on campus how to use it, apply it, live it, and expand on it.

Elizabeth Scarborough

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I have student retention on my mind this Sunday morning. Could it be because I was asked to speak at a retention conference next month? J Anyway, have you seen the April 2010 report from Southern Regional Education Board: Promoting a Culture of Student Success? If not, check it out. The Report's introductory comments do a nice job of setting the stage in terms of the continued challenges facing our colleges and universities: "Despite rising college enrollment, improvement in students' timely completion of bachelor's degrees in the United States has stalled. Student success rates are alarmingly low and have not changed significantly in many years: Fewer than one-third of degree-seeking, full-time freshmen in public four-year institutions graduate in four years. Most students who enter college as first-time, full-time freshmen take at least six years to earn a bachelor's degree -- and only 55 percent graduate in that time span."

And here's the best part, the report outlines two important characteristics that create and define strong cultures which promote student retention: (1) leaders should build cultures of student success and (2) institutions should support student needs. Seems totally obvious, right? I completely agree, but so many schools make student retention their direct goal which is actually misguided. Rather, providing a positive experience for our students should be our goal and retention will follow. I seemingly minor but a critically important distinction.

-Jeff Papa

In case you need yet another argument that marketing and branding strategy needs to be grounded in strong research, here it is in the form of this article on msnbc.com:

Make the Logo Bigger: 10 Rebranding Disasters

A sampling of these disasters:

• The SciFi Channel's new "text-friendly" name is a slang word for syphilis
• London may have won the bid, but is weird Olympic logo has everyone up in arms (Have you seen it? Weird is a pretty accurate description.)
• Radio Shack tries really, really hard to be hip, with "The Shack"
• Blackwater tries to erase the past with "Xe"
• Comcast introduces.... "Xfinity" (as someone who lives in a Comcast service area, I can definitely relate to this one)

Surely these "disasters" could have been avoided with sound research--and some common sense--before and during the rebranding process.

If there's one lesson to be learned here, it's that just slapping on a new name or logo doesn't change who you are.  Changing your name doesn't erase years of poor service (or human rights violations!).  Attempting to be hip does not make you hip.  And maybe "hip" is not even what your customers want from you.  It's good for a brand strategy to be aspirational, something for you to live up to, something that holds you accountable to your mission, values, vision, and goals.  But it needs to be grounded in what is true.  It's about so much more than just the packaging.

Deb Gere

I've had the privilege to work with the fine folks at University of Northern Iowa over the last year. So, I watched the recent NCAA tournament with special interest in UNI. As I watched the games, I just kept thinking how the Panther's athletic succes would influence the work of the marketing department and my friends Jim O'Connor, Mary Taylor, DeWayne Purdy, and Stacey Christensen. 

Well, Mary sent me a file today that literally quantified the coverage they received as a result of their performance in the tournament. The University would have had to pay $300,000 to place the UNI spots that were run during the games. And, the University's senior Ali Farokhmanesh was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated (below). A full page, four-color ad in SI runs about $325,000 and is certainly a lot less impactful than the cover.  

* On a a typical Saturday, the UNI Web site gets about 15,000 visits; on March 20th, the UNI site drew about 39,000. Monday was 46,000 and the following Friday was 35,000.

* For the 14 day period prior to the tournament, only 10% of UNI's web visitors were from outside of Iowa; during the tournament, 38% were from out of state.

* On March 15th, UNI's official Facebook page had about 12,000 fans; by March 30th, that had grown to almost 17,000. 

* Two of the top 10 Google searches on March 20th were "Northern Iowa" at #3 and "Ali Farokhmanesh" at #9.

* There was a 28% increase in pledges on calls that received a "soft no" and were recalled during the 2-week long tournament.

Any more questions about the effects of athletic success on marketing?

-Elizabeth Scarborough

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Can you imagine how much fun it would be to be the Director of Marketing at Butler University right now? Fun and a little nuts! I was thinking about this today because I had a quick little email interchange with Stephanie Judge who is the DOM for Butler's College of Business. I was writing to her about the AMA Symposium but just HAD to get in a little P.S. about Monday's game. The convo that followed was great.

Stephanie said the team came home yesterday with their heads hanging low but that the enthusiasm of the faculty, staff, and students at their welcoming rally really turned them around. Of course, they should feel nothing but pride for reaching the the finals and giving Duke a real run for their money. Surely it's a game that will have an impact on sports that will be talked about for years to come......generating more visibility for Butler and paving the way for people to experience the University's brand building efforts. What an opportunity! I'm almost jealous of Stephanie and her colleagues in marketing at the University.

Stephanie's favorite quotes about the game were:

* "Actually, this was a game everyone will remember forever. As corny as it might sound, no one lost this game. And, the biggest winner wasn't Duke.....it was the game of basketball." - The Washington Post.

* "The 2010 season will be remembered similarly by lots of us.....yes, Duke won the national title. But, Butler won the season. There are two defining moments of this NCAA tournament: West Virginia coach Bob Huggins draped his body over Da'Sean Butler as the injured Mountaineers star lay prone on the Final Four floor. That's one memory. The other memory is of Butler. What specifically? Nothing, specifically. Just....Butler." - Gregg Doyel of CBS Sportsline.

I couldn't agree with Gregg more.....Just Butler!

-Elizabeth Scarborough

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A month or so ago I was flying home to SC and forgot my book, so I picked up Delta's Sky Magazine and I came across this article about crowdsourcing. I immediately started thinking of ways that our clients could use this tool, and I brought the magazine back to DC to share with the team at our next retreat (it isn't stealing, they want you to take them!).

I did some background research on crowdsourcing, and it isn't as new of a technology as i thought. I guess I am behind on the times. It has even been applied in the world of higher ed.

Crowdsourcing is a mass collaboration enabled by web technology. It is a way to include the masses to get opinions on just about anything from product design to brand campaigns... to the design of a new bus station at Universty of Utah. 

The term was coined by Jeff Howe in a 2006 article in Wired.

 "Crowdsourcing is the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call."

Since te term was coined in 2006, there has been a explosion of different sites using the technique to accomplish a multitude of different tasks. It is inexpensive and in theory it seems like a great way to reach more people... my only question is how? Are you only reaching people who are tech saavy enough to have accounts on these sites? How can you harness this idea on your campus?  Think of the possibilities... and please email me (meredith@simpsonscarborough.com) if your campus has used this technology. I am just beginning to learn about it and I am dying to see more of it in action!

These are the articles I read. Definitely worth reading...

http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2010/03/01/Putting-the-IT-in-Crowdsourcing.aspx

http://msp.imirus.com/Mpowered/imirus.jsp?volume=ds10&issue=2&page=72

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/crowds.html

--Meredith

There is a great video online that shows Brian Kenny, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Harvard Business School, giving a talk on marketing in Washington, DC, that was sponsored by The Chronicle of Higher Education and Policy Review TV. It's really helpful to download a copy of the ppt while you watch the video. Brian makes a number of great points including:

* Increasingly we need to begin to think about our stakeholders as "customers."

* Your brand is whatever your customers believe it to be.

* You have to appeal to both the rational and emotional sides of your customer.

* Universities are brands and they need to be treated as any other product or service.

* Your marketing and brand strategy needs to be grounded in research.

* Your chief marketing officer needs to be at the table when strategic decisions are made.

* A university's audiences cannot be "neatly" defined.

* There are so many things going on at a large university, you couldn't possibly communicate about them all.....so you have to focus on some themes that really matter to your audiences.

These are things we have all heard before but for some reason, they are more compelling coming from Harvard Business School, no?

So, why DOES Harvard Business School need marketing? According to Brian, "competitors are ramping up marketing and were managing our brand for us." He says the increasing number and variety of MBA programs that are out there and the increasing criticism of business schools, in general, both drove HBS to reconsider its approach to marketing. Further, he knows from his own research that HBS is perceived as averse to change, old, and stodgy; his job is to influence and manage those brand associations. So, I guess HBS really DOES need marketing and if they do, we all do!

-Elizabeth Scarborough

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