In circles where the marketing of higher education is discussed, you’ll often hear frustration about communicating the value of an investment in a degree. “We simply haven’t told our story well enough.” “We need to talk about value, not cost.” “We’ve got to do a better job of connecting benefits and value.” You may have…Read more
Author: Rick Bailey
Your Audience System Organizer
Clients often ask us how to establish priorities for engaging each of their myriad audiences. Here’s a way you might think about establishing priorities for making choices and building budgets.
Presidents as Entrepreneurs: How the New Higher Ed Environment Has Transformed Leadership Skill Sets
We are living in a new age for American higher ed. Maybe a new era. A future history will tell us the results of this remarkable period of re-invention, re-articulation and re-negotiation of missions and purposes. In his new book Breakpoint: The Changing Marketplace for Higher Education, Jon McGee, Vice President for Planning and Public Affairs at…Read more
Finding Your One Place in the Universe: Why Being an “Only” Makes Life Better For You and Your University
When donors and prospective students (and their families)—your sources of income—have more than 5,000 colleges and universities from which to choose to support or attend, they need help finding the right fit. They’re asking: To whom shall I entrust my gift? Which school will provide me with the best future? Helping these important audiences find…Read more
Your Audience Identifier
This includes a downloadable asset. You’re working on your case statement (or alumni magazine, or viewbook, or website, or financial aid brochure, etc.) and—good for you!—you are making great progress. You’re writing solid copy, selecting great images, designing creative layouts. But think for a moment. When you complete this project, who will be on the…Read more
Creating a Splash or Making Waves?
Creating a splash serves promotional needs, but that’s only one part of the marketing equation. In order to make exchange—with students, parents, donors, alumni, faculty, neighbors, the government, even the general public—you also have to consider what you’re actually delivering, how and where you’ll deliver it and how much someone will have to pay for…Read more
Should You Brand Your Core or Gen Ed Curriculum?
As valuable as we know your general education curriculum to be in providing the broad perspective to yield informed and productive graduates, it’s still a tough sell to students and their families. Even parents with liberal arts degrees are raising questions about the relevance and validity of course requirements outside the academic and professional interests…Read more
Beyond Branding: Coherence
In the advertising class I taught at the University of Notre Dame for many years, I would bring a candy bar for each student on a certain day. As you can clearly tell by that, I was a very good teacher. On the appointed day, I would make sure that every student had a different…Read more
Seeking Third Satellite
Some time ago, our work took me to downtown Boston. A colleague and I had flown in late in the evening and had a client meeting the next morning. The weather was poor and I was glad that we had access to GPS. As annoying as the system’s mechanized voice could be (“Right turn in…Read more
Changing the Shape of the Funnel
Chapter 1: A “terrific” tradition, but a terrible investment You probably don’t remember Tom Terrific, because you’re much younger than I am. Tom was the main character in a great kids’ cartoon that was shown on Captain Kangaroo in the mid-50s. Our hero Tom, who was developed by Gene Deitch, always wore a signature hat:…Read more