Defining Your Target Geography

In this issue.

• ON STRATEGY: DEFINING YOUR TARGET GEOGRAPHY
• LET'S NOT CONFUSE THE ISSUE: IT'S ALL ABOUT POWER
• IT AND MARKETING WORKING TOGETHER SUCCESSFULLY
• ON THE BOOKSHELF: BRAND WARFARE: 10 RULES FOR BUILDING THE KILLER BRAND

ON STRATEGY: DEFINING YOUR TARGET GEOGRAPHY

A number of years ago I mentioned the need for colleges and universities to overlay or plot their alumni, feeder high schools, and current students on a single map to get a better sense of where their primary and secondary markets exist. The goal, of course, is to identify those areas where you can wisely invest additional resources with the best chance of receiving a return. During a marketing retreat at Colorado College I was shown an excellent example of such an overlay (see below).

Todd Wilson, CC's Director of Communications, added an important dataset, the location of the teams with which Colorado College competes, to the mix. As you see from the map, those states with two or more symbols (graduation caps for alumni, tiger insignia for athletics, and/or books for existing primary markets), represent opportunities for growth.

Greg Carroll, VP Marketing/Public Relations at Furman College, adds another ingredient in the geographic pie: the cities from which discount airlines fly to Greenville. His reasoning, and it's right on the money, is that discount airlines like Independence Air make it possible for people to fly conveniently and cheaply to Greenville.

Obviously, there are lots of variables that might help you define your marketing geography. The key is to define the four or five that are the best predictor for you.

LET'S NOT CONFUSE THE ISSUE: IT'S ALL ABOUT POWER

It was one of those "ah ha" moments. I was sitting on a campus listening to a client tell me about their brand problem when it dawned on me that it really wasn't a brand issue, but a power issue. In fact, the more I thought about it the more I realized that a lot of brand issues are really territory issues in disguise. If the advancement office won't play with admissions or if athletics refuses to get on board, you might think you have a brand problem. But you don't. The problem is much more fundamental. It is a power issue. And because it is a power issue, hiring a newly-minted marketing person won't solve them. It has become an issue of will. Someone with enough horses needs to step up and say, "That's enough. This is costing us too much."

It is only when not dealing with the issue becomes too painful, that the true underlying problem will be addressed.

IT AND MARKETING WORKING TOGETHER SUCCESSFULLY
by Scott Hall, Interactive Media Director

The relationship between your computer folks (IT) and marketing* has become strategically important. It's no longer just a matter of getting computers fixed; instead, cooperation between these departments can make a critical difference at your school. Whether your relationship is good or bad, here are some ideas that may help you.

The information here comes from a presentation I recently gave titled "IT and Marketing, Working Together Successfully." To prepare for the speech, I polled the attendees about their situations.**

Current IT and Marketing Cooperation
More than one in four respondents said their IT & marketing relationship was poor or very poor. That's bad news, since this partnership is so important.

The good news is that 42% of respondents said their situation improved over the past year. Only 9% said their partnership became worse. This improvement is coming as Internet technology becomes more reliable and workers are becoming more Web savvy.

Ideas for Marketing and IT cooperation
Here are some suggestions for improving your IT and marketing relationship:

• Assign resources in both IT and marketing
  Schools with a marketing person assigned to Internet projects were much more likely to say they had a good relationship. The correlation was almost as strong for having an IT person assigned full-time.
• Foster communication by cross-training, collocating and starting together
  Even if you have dedicated resources, it is good to cross-train members of your marketing-related staff on Web/Internet issues. Likewise, having an IT person work in the same area as the "marketing" Web people will help them know each other and share ideas. You should also start projects together, not dream them up in marketing and then try to get IT on board.
• Get a content management system (CMS)
  A content management system lets non-techy staff members post content to the Web. Good CMS systems include the ability for approved users to create and manage forms and calendars. Having a CMS reduces the load on IT and gives marketing the power to create what it needs. Schools without a CMS were three times as likely to report a poor or very poor relationship.

After the presentation, several schools said their situation was bad enough that they would like to have their team and leadership see the presentation. If you need more than this article to foster improvement at your school, please contact me at scott.hall@stamats.com.

*For ease of discussion, I am using the term "marketing." These observations apply to all departments that do marketing/communication functions, including development, admissions, etc.

**Because of the nature of the survey, the results are good directional guidance but can't be considered statistically accurate.

ON THE BOOKSHELF: BRAND WARFARE: 10 RULES FOR BUILDING THE KILLER BRAND

If you are interested in a slightly lighter treatment of brand marketing, take a look at David F. D'Alessandro's Brand Warfare. He offers 10 lessons (his term is rules) that will help build a robust brand. And for the most part, he delivers.

While the 10 rules, offered below, suffer a bit when removed from the great number of supporting insights and incidents he used to help build his case, they are still worth remembering.

Rule #1: It's the Brand, Stupid

Rule #2: Codependency Can Be Beautiful—Consumers Need Good Brands As Much As Good Brands Need Them

Rule #3: A Great Brand Message Is Like a Bucking Bronco—Once You're On, Don't Let Go

Rule #4: If You Want Great Advertising, Be Prepared to Fight for It

Rule #5: When It Comes to Sponsorships, There's a Sucker Born Every 30 Seconds

Rule #6: Do Not Confuse Sponsorship with a Spectator Sport

Rule #7: Do Not Allow Scandal to Destroy in 30 Days a Brand That Took 100 Years to Build

Rule #8: Make Your Distributors Slaves to Your Brand

Rule #9: Use Your Brand to Lead Your People to the Promised Land

Rule #10: Ultimately, the Brand Is the CEO's Responsibility—and Everyone Else's Too

My favorite story is on the need to control sponsorships. While he was CEO of the John Hancock Insurance they made the decision to help underwrite the Boston Marathon. However, he insisted that the finish line be moved so that the race wouldn't end on the doorsteps of his major competitor.

My recommendation: Buy the book from the used bin on Amazon and spend a quiet couple of hours. Well worth your time.

HOW ORG CHARTS LIE (OR AT LEAST DON'T TELL ALL THE STORY)

If you have ever wondered why even the most elegant organizational changes seem to have little impact on overall effectiveness, you might want to take a look at The Hidden Power of Social Networks by Rob Cross and Andrew Parker (Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation, 2004). The authors make the case that because work, and the coordination of work, is increasingly negotiated in employee networks, new managerial challenges have emerged. Interestingly, while managers often acknowledge external networks established through alliances and strategic partnerships, they are less certain about any discussion about informal, internal networks. The book offers a careful evaluation of these informal networks and presents clear insights into how these networks can be used to help advance your institutional mission and vision.