Higher education is drenched in tradition. But it’s untraditional ideas that keep an institution’s brand evolving with a steadfast commitment to its core values. Brand strategy in higher education requires a strong understanding of how a school’s academic and administrative departments interact with each other, as many still operate in “silos.”
Thinking of “higher education branding” as its own isolated topic can risk stifling creativity. Thinkers with open minds must bring experiences from different industries to higher education for truly innovative solutions.
Too often, college branding is viewed as a footnote to admissions recruitment where marketing materials are a pedantic spell-out of mission statements, statistics and buildings. While these components are important, this focus neglects the bigger picture of the school such as sharing the above through genuine student and faculty stories.
Here are some thoughts:
Hiring a Brand Strategy Firm? Get them on Campus. Spend ample time walking and talking with students on campus. In plain-clothes, go eat lunch in the café, work out at the gym, and immerse yourself in the client’s world. Observations of student/faculty interactions offer invaluable insight to craft a story that echoes the school’s essence, while also providing the school with an aspirational quality. This type of interaction will allow the brand story to evolve.
Go From “LookBooks” to “Look What Our Students Are Doing” College “LookBooks” are typically printed booklets for recruiting purposes. But does your campus need a LookBook? Maybe. If so, why must it be limited to admissions communications? I’m sure some information typically found in alumni publications might be of interest to prospective students and their parents. Likewise, some content traditionally tagged as “admissions material” might interest alumni.
Moreover, “life on campus” can come alive with greater creativity – such as empowering current and future students to submit video ideas via social media. University of Delaware made a genuine video for a fun spin on the traditional “LookBook.”
Don’t “Take A Tour” – “Experience Our Campus” A college campus “tour” can typically be done in a self-guided format – sans Happy Student Tour Guide. Both Rider University and The College of New Jersey provide excellent experiences for prospective students. “Student tour guides” act as “ambassadors” – who help tailor visits to a student’s unique interests.
Academic Life, Student Life, Residential Life, Campus Life – It’s All “Life” Segmenting all aspects of “life” as their own category can risk yielding cookie-cutter strategy. Is Academic Life a part of Campus Life? Of course – it’s a major part! Look at the above distinctions and attempt to fit them within the greater context of the institution.
Set The Precedent Coordinating with other departments can mean crafting an identity for other components in the institution. At The College of New Jersey, The Center for the Arts was launched to serve as a focal point for arts performance and advocacy on and off-campus. The Center provides a “hub” for current students, prospective students, and the greater community while enhancing the institution’s brand as a whole.
Higher education must recognize that everything impacts their brand – including facilities, reputation, curriculum, setting, faculty, and activities. Most of all, the admitted students along with faculty have an enduring impact on the brand’s current and future position.
What’s your view? Comments are welcome.
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Jesse de Agustin (B.A., Philosophy, The College of New Jersey) wrote today’s guest blog. Jesse approaches challenges holistically to unearth insights that propel brands. He recently completed an internship as Associate Retail Strategist with Emotional Branding Alliance. Join him on Twitter @JdeAgustin , view his LinkedIn profile, and delve into his blog articles!
McNeal Maddox
This is an interesting POV on branding education. More universities will need to focus on telling a coherent, compelling story about their brand, since it's becoming increasingly harder to differentiate themselves. The traditional education model is being re-evaluated across the board, and this will have huge implications for branding. So much of a university's brand has historically been location-based or tied to personalities of figureheads. As those models change and corporate partnerships/sponsorships, customized learning, and disintermediation through technology become the rule rather than the exception, the unique experience that each institution (for-profit or non-profit) delivers will be a differentiator. How that experience translates into a brand that can own a strong position in people's minds (like "Harvard" equals "Ivy League" and "MIT" equals "The Best Engineers") will be worth considering.
Jesse
McNeal, Thanks for contributing to this really fascinating topic. I agree that the school's story has to be crisp, clear and genuine.
Also I think your point about the traditional education model is right on target – as colleges move to more distance learning and (what The College of New Jersey calls) "blended learning" it is essential to show how this type of instruction fits in with the institution's strategic position and story. Moreover, I believe that "blended learning" will become more common at many schools – schools have to show how this model of instruction empowers students and ultimately enhances learning. So in a way, this new "blended" model shows how technology can not only be seamlessly integrated into the classroom, but how technology can actually be a new hub for class discussions and interactions. However, with that said, I do believe that for maximum learning, blended classes ought to truly be blended – this means "real" in-person class meetings. This is especially true in subjects that thrive on interpersonal discussion, such as philosophy.
I also think that the schools who have it right do bring the experience into a "strong position in people's minds" – I've heard too many times that when people mention schools a reaction might be "oh good school" – yet this raises the question of Why is it a good school/What makes it a good school…" (beyond Princeton Review rankings, even though they're important)
-Jesse
Eric Pinckert
Too many university branding efforts are consigned to afterthoughts of generating collateral for the admissions process. And as Jesse points out, unless the branding consultants actually spend a concerted amount of time on campus and find out what the institution is really like, the result is generally a montage of smiling students toting backpacks accompanied by a few vague bromides.
It's not as easy as it looks, as this instructive tale reveals:
http://www.brandculture.com/blog/2010/09/d-is-a-b…
Jesse
Eric, Thank you for contributing your article to the discussion. This is a great piece that shows the danger of not recognizing the brand's context and where the experiences take place (a university…). Their work misses the mark. Also, I agree, without experiencing the campus, the outcome risks being "like" too many other institutions and as McNeal commented, the brand story is crucial for institutions to differentiate themselves.
-Jesse
Rodger D. Johnson
I'm not sure Jesse knows much about branding because his post lacks focus and it lacks any discussion on research and strategy development. It's also important to note, higher education doesn't need a branding job, but individual colleges and universities could benefit from strategic branding.
While these tactics Jesse speaks of are good, strategic branding is different for each university. That is to say, some of these tactics might work at one institute of higher education and not another. And research is the only way to discover which work where.
For example, my research has found large research institutions, such as, Indiana University could learn from the auto industry's branding efforts, while smaller colleges would not get an ounce of value from such an approach.
I hate to be negative, but calling those students who guide groups of prospectives around campus ambassadors isn't new. Vincennes University was doing that in 1992. I should know, I was one.
Let me point out something else. Institutions of higher education must communicate with varied groups of people: parents, students, prospective students, etc. This calls for a multifaceted communication approach. If research shows that parents find value in "LookBooks," then they are an important branding communication tool. My point is that research should guide decisions. If it does not, then marketing communication will fall short or fail.
Posts like this do not give university and college decision makers the information they need to make changes to their branding efforts. Research-based, data driven information does.
Jesse
Rodger, Thank you for your comment. The purpose of this work is not to counsel a particular school – of course different schools will have different needs. Rather my objective is to look at the "bigger picture" of higher education branding. I don’t suggest that "higher education [itself] is in need of a branding job," but I argue an institution’s brand is not only what the Admissions Department disperses. Moreover, the manner in which any brand acts and communicates are equally important as unique events offer rich stories that are an integral part of an institution’s brand. This is why I include the Center for the Arts at The College of New Jersey. I do discuss the value of research – a strategic branding firm must become immersed in the institution. Thinking "beyond the lookbook" opens possibilities to consider creative communications approaches, and communicating different content across audiences. While I'm sure colleges have called college tour guides "Ambassadors" for years, I’m concerned with their behavior and what they do. The ambassadors in the examples I mention don’t only give tours. If giving tours is their only responsibility, then I argue, they are not really "ambassadors" but are simply "tour guides."
My piece truly praises the value of a "multifaceted communication approach" while encouraging higher education leaders to consider how audiences perceive the institution as a whole, leverage the organization's culture, and set the precedent with unique experiences.
Jesse
Rodger
So which strategies brand development should a research university like IU use. (A) Would it make sense to set brand guidelines and let each college, department and program develop its own brand? For example, GM has several brand lines that are unique in their own right? Or, (B) Should a university brand from the top down with consistency?
For the record, I do agree with you about silos. Having worked in a university, I've seen first hand that communication never happens in silos. While it brings design and direction to branding, it sets communication barriers.
But I still argue that your points set forth here aren't original, creative or new. There are plenty of universities and colleges that are thinking outside the box. Yet there are plenty that are not. That, unfortunately, is the product of a status-quo, laisser-faire leadership.
kylelacy
I would be happy to accept a creative, original, and new post from you regarding higher education.
McNeal Maddox
I agree that research should guide ANY brand strategy–otherwise you're just taking shots in the dark. However, there are two problems with research: #1, It's often not a leading indicator (especially surveys which present all kinds of issues of reporting bias are subject to design flaws) and #2, can lead to analysis paralysis (I won't name names, but I've seen this happen at multi-million dollar firms in lots of sectors that waste time noodling over numbers instead of using a "constant beta" approach to developing solutions). Ethnographic research is a different story. Using the campus tours as an opportunity to listen for questions that pop up frequently or watching how people interact with and respond to the campus environment can be a much more effective way to discern insights about the overall experience and what resonates with different types of audiences.
As for a GM model for universities, you're talking about brand architecture options. That's a whole other can of worms that doesn't often result in a "one size fits all" approach (most of the brands I've worked with use a hybrid model–a cross between the "house of brands" and "branded house" models you mention). I don't completely agree that small schools can't benefit from the auto industry's examples. For instance, take the MINI Cooper. It's popularity skyrocketed in the US at a time when every manufacturer was scrambling to introduce new SUVs models. MINI carved out its own niche by appealing to drivers' desire to make driving fun. MINI's approach was uniquely tailored to a distinct target market and rooted in the brand's strengths (including associations with its BMW parent brand).
The question is: What's the biggest driver of brand preference for the university as a whole and the individual schools and programs? Once universities understand that and can create a comprehensive brand strategy complete with messaging for unique audiences, they can assert a more strategic brand position and stand out from the crowd.
kylelacy
Isn't it important to also ask current students why they chose the school? How do you bring in storytelling and crowd-sourcing to help build the brand message?