In higher education, most schools are trying to make a name for themselves.   But what happens when your name itself leads to total brand confusion?  Working in branding in higher ed, every school who is conducting an image and branding study is trying to position itself to be differentiated and relevant.  As we research perceptions and associations of colleges and universities, many misperceptions are revealed.  But when you have a name that leads to additional misperceptions, it makes branding even more necessary.  For example, Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana, just received a court judgment that will require Franklin University in Ohio to refer to itself as "Franklin University of Ohio" or "Franklin University, Columbus, Ohio." 

Franklin University entered the Indianapolis adult education market with a media blitz this past spring promoting its adult programs, creating confusion, for Franklin College  (an undergraduate liberal arts institution of a little more than 1,000 students) who has received calls, comments and emails from people asking why they changed their name or if they started online programs.  Luckily, Franklin College's President quickly filed a complaint in U.S. District Court.

Other institutions who must experience similar issues are Miami University of Ohio and Miami University in Florida, Bethany College in Kansas and West Virginia,  "Loyola Universities" in Louisiana, Illinois and California and soon to be Maryland.  Even schools with names that are similar but not identical have issues - Seton Hill and Seton Hall, St. Mary's and Mount St. Mary's, even James Madison and George Washington!  This points to the fact that branding is necessary and needs to go beyond a name.  Make yourself more than a name - create an identity, an institution that is known for something not just its name.

I can't tell you the number of schools that have contacted me recently to discuss their pricing strategy and the price elasticity of their school. In the wake of the economic downturn, we all are wondering if our schools are priced appropriately and competitively. School after school is struggling with some very tough questions: What's the maximum we can charge without negatively impacting our enrollment? How does demand for our institution change as the price changes? What is the relationship between total cost (tuition, fees, and housing) and perceptions of quality?

If you are asking the same questions of your institution, you are not alone. But, as you can image, the answers to these questions are different for each school. Although many colleges and universities look alike, they are not. And to really answer these questions in an informed and thoughtful way, you need to study your unique market position and institutional differentiators. One thing I know for sure: many of us have not looked at our pricing structure in a long time--if at all. Perhaps that's one positive outcome of our current economic climate.

-Jeff Papa

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.

-Jeff Papa

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.

This is going to sound very odd at first but bear with me. A goat-milk carton may actually be a good example of how to listen to your students. Ok, here's the deal: I saw this video on "Church of the Customer Blog" about Flying Goat Milk, and I just had to share it with you.  In the video, Jackie and Ben use a goat-milk carton (wait, don't click away yet) to illustrate why it's important to listen to your students. I told you this was odd, but here's what they say: "One thing you have to know about goat's milk is that the milk solids go to the bottom, and every time you drink it you've got to shake it up." But when Jackie shook the carton milk flew out all over her kitchen because the carton didn't have one of those fancy screw tops. When Jackie went back to supermarket, on one of her return visits, she noticed that carton now had a screw top, along with the words "Customer Requested" on the carton.

Jackie says, by adding these two words, "they are basically saying, hey we heard you." She also stressed the importance of not only providing ways for customers (or students) to contact your institution but to actively give them the tools to do so. The end result: we learn what students like and don't like--isn't that an important aspect of effective marketing?  As they said in the video, "Listening is a risk-free strategy overall...nothing can harm you by actively listening to what people are saying and feeding that back..."

-Jeff Papa

I read with interest the article last week in the Boston Globe, which talked about the Southern New Hampshire Univeristy's new Salem campus, a satellite campus that is being described as a "no frills campus."  As a word-person, I was intrigued by the terms being used to describe the branch campus and its programmatic offerings.  SNHU is describing value without using the often-stigmatized phrase "commuter campus."

The language of "value" is resonating with students.  As proof, today the AP ran a story about record enrollments for community college campuses.  Here is how the AP breaks down the economic benefits of fewer frills (my phrase) at a community college:

Nationwide, the average annual cost of community college is $2,402, compared to $6585 in tuition and fees at in-state public four-year schools, according to the College Board.  Averaging tuition and fees for private four-year schools: $25,143. 

Factoring in financial aid, the College Board estimates the average net cost at community colleges is only about $100.

What are the down sides to a "no frills" or reduced frills educational experience?  A parent interviewed in the Boston Globe story summarize the negatives well: "By being with other students and listening to the way they handle projects and even problems in life, you learn a great deal," Teri Gambardella said. "That's what they're missing right now. They just leave at the end of the day and go home."

This is the year's most critical season in higher education--the time between student acceptance and student deposits.  What language are you using to describe the value of your education and how does that experience compare to your "no frills" competitors?

- Teresa Valerio Parrot

Just when we thought our current challenges in higher education couldn't get any tougher along came the 2009 Squeeze Play findings......

Based on phone interviews with a random, national sample of 1,009 adults (aged 18 and over), a solid majority of the respondents (55%) consider a college degree a necessity to be successful in today's world. That's the good news. I wish I could stop there, but the vast majority of people (67%) believe that students (1) who are qualified to go to college do not have the opportunity to do so and (2) have to borrow too much money to pay for their college education.

As the report indicates, "At a moment when college is more frequently perceived as absolutely essential, more Americans think that a college education is out of reach for many." Those of us in higher education MUST address these warning signs and strive to improve our overall public image. Sorry to be such a downer; my next entry will be more upbeat, I hope.

-Jeff Papa

[T]he "spacebook" blog has been pretty successful in terms of reaching middle-school and elementary-school kids. Back in November, I posted a little on-the-fly analysis, based on Google Analytics, of how our well our mix of traditional and non-traditional (read: social media) PR campaign worked for this site in its early days. You can see the analysis, complete with charts and graphs, at http://highered.prblogs.org/2008/11/21/traffic-from-a-pr-campaign/ . So if you're interested in reading about that kind of measurement stuff, take a peek at that post (and the comments, of course).

CU leaders last year announced plans to create a $9 million endowment to fund the Visiting Chair in Conservative Thought and Policy on the Boulder campus, which long has been derided as a liberal bastion.

"The entire concept of a Visiting Chair in Conservative Thought and Policy politicizes academics in a way that is contrary to the university's mission," senior Jesse Jensen, president of the College Democrats, said Monday. "By endowing a chair in one specific political ideology, we are not promoting intellectual diversity -- we are tokenizing a point of view that should be presented in all classes on political thought."