What Is Strategy?

In this issue.

• ON STRATEGY: WHAT IS STRATEGY?
• A TASTE OF DUKE
• DONORS PREFER PRINTED SOLICITATIONS OVER OTHER MEDIA
• NEW APPROACHES TO USING STUDENTS IN RECRUITING
• PATRON SAINT OF THE GRAPHIC ARTS

ON STRATEGY: WHAT IS STRATEGY?

I'm working with a university in Los Angeles on their strategic plan and sure enough, someone posed the question, exactly what is strategy? A great question. Here's what we came up with:

Strategy is all about differentiating yourself from your competitors in ways that your customers value.

In a parallel theme, Michael Porter, in his myriad of books on competition, reminds us that there are only two sources of sustainable competitive advantage:

• Price
• Differentiation

Most colleges and universities cannot and should not position themselves as a low cost provider.

The only alternative, then, is differentiation. Strategy is all about differentiation. It is not about doing a better job teaching than your competitors (the dangers of simple benchmarking come to mind), it is about doing something that your competitors cannot or will not do; something your customers value (and by extension, notice).

A TASTE OF DUKE

One of our consultants, Scott Lomas, ran across a fascinating initiative at Duke. Scott writes, "If you want to view something really snazzy, take a look at a joint product between Duke University's Student Affairs department and their IT folks." They developed a Frosh Live Movie Festival that encourages Duke students to make short films about their freshman year experience. Each film is produced by residents of a particular residence hall and entered into a competition (a film festival, if you will). The films are approximately 10 minutes, shot on campus, and reflect some element of the freshman year experience: roommate relationships, love stories, getting mail from home, etc.

This not only builds spirit and energy within the halls for current students, it also allows prospective students to have a little window into student culture, to sample the character of each of the halls and the personality of the residents and residence halls. It feels authentic to them, so that they can view all the films and then say to themselves, "I'd like to live in Pederson - that seems like my kind of place."

To view the films, or to check out the FAQs, go to www.duke.edu/froshlife/.

DONORS PREFER PRINTED SOLICITATIONS OVER OTHER MEDIA

A recent issue of CASE's BriefCASE e-newsletter highlighted a survey in which 300 nonprofit donors in the U.S. revealed that they prefer to receive solicitations through printed ads, direct mail, and newsletters rather than e-mail, telephone, or in-person.

Half of the respondents are members of the national Do Not Call registry. Of those respondents on the registry, 51 percent said magazine and newspaper print ads were the preferable method of solicitation; 45 percent named direct mail and 39 percent named newsletters. Eleven percent preferred solicitations via e-mail at home and two percent preferred e-mail at work. Nine percent preferred in-person solicitations and only one percent preferred telephone calls.

Forty percent of respondents who are not on the Do Not Call registry chose magazine and newspaper print ads as their preferred method of solicitation by nonprofits. Thirty-seven percent named direct mail, and 29 percent named newsletters. Ten percent chose e-mails at home, while four percent preferred e-mails at work. Eleven percent preferred in-person solicitations and seven percent preferred telephone calls. When asked whether they would join a national Do Not E-Mail registry, almost 80 percent of those on the Do Not Call registry, and 70 percent of those who were not on the registry, said "yes."

NEW APPROACHES TO USING STUDENTS IN RECRUITING
by Scott Lomas, Principal Consultant

Stamats is often asked to comment on how to best integrate current students into the recruiting funnel. On a tactical level, we know prospective students want to speak directly with current students. Simply put, they are more credible than admissions staff in the minds of students. But the question remains, what are the best times, media, and strategies to use for your institution?

Outside of higher education, we need not look further than Amazon.com's approach to selling books, which links readers with prospective readers. Several years ago they made a huge investment in building a system based on reader reviews of books. (In an interesting twist, the man hired to develop this system recently wrote a book about the experience, though I have not checked to see if it has been reviewed on Amazon.com.)

Many institutions have tactics in their recruiting funnel that encourage student-to-student contact, such as Furman's student profiles and corresponding online journals. Less common, however, are institutions that incorporate this approach into their organizational structure. Here are a few worth reviewing.

Simpson University in Redding, California has an admissions staff that is comprised entirely of current students. Only the director is a full-time employee. Simpson's admissions counselors usually come from the ranks of orientation counselors. All work up to 20 hours per week during the school year and they work full time in the summer. For an institution that stresses missionary work, this commitment comes naturally.

University of the Pacific - McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, California annually employs three recent graduates for the heavy fall recruiting season. After graduation and summer training, they hit the road until the holidays. It is a welcome opportunity after sitting the bar and before they are certified to practice. As John McIntryre, assistant dean, explains, "These graduates have immediate credibility when they speak of their education and experience at McGeorge based on the fact that they completed their program so recently; they can relate to those considering the pursuit of a law degree." This provides a temporary labor pool when they are most needed, and their graduate recruiters maintain a travel schedule that would burn-out most long term employees. As for results, Adam Barrett, dean of admissions, explains why they implemented the model. "When I started four years ago we were attending a handful of events and generating 1,440 applications. This year we did over 200 events and received 3,600 applications."

Perhaps the most radical example I have seen recently comes from the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Arizona, which wholeheartedly embraces the tenets of marketing to today's sales-resistant youths. When UAT decided to focus solely on degrees in gaming and network security for traditional-age students only, they committed to a model and structure that is almost entirely self-selecting. Jason Pastillo, chief marketing officer, architected the new approach which took "selling" out of admissions and traditional admissions representatives out of UAT. Student ambassadors answer calls from UAT's prospective students. UAT relies on viral marketing and targeted advertising to generate inquiries, then focuses internal resources on fulfilling requests for information. Pistillo says, "The name coined was ‘discovery based recruitment'. It allowed potential students to remain as anonymous as they liked. The new measurements did not focus on ‘deposits' or ‘calls' or anything similar; it measured the percentage of times we fulfilled student requests." Since implementation, retention has climbed from 67% to 81% and the fall class has grown 200 percent. Fulfilling indeed.

Have an interesting recruiting structure? Know an interesting recruiting structure? Have questions about recruiting structures? Contact me at scott.lomas@stamats.com.

PATRON SAINT OF THE GRAPHIC ARTS

If you've ever wondered why your designs may not be as crisp as those of your competitors, it's probably because you don't have a shrine to the Patron Saints of the Graphic Arts in your office. To remedy that situation, take a look at www.lynnster.com/saints.html. This site will introduce you to:

• Saint Anxiete: Martyr. Patron of impossible deadlines
• Saint Concepta: Patron of brainstorming & procrastination
• Saint Exacto: Patron of quick comps & missing fingertips
• Saint Pantone: Patron of pretty colors
• Saint Pixela: Patron of retouching
• Saint Typernius (Typo to his friends): Patron of spell checking & Google searches

Make sure you have your speakers on when you connect so you don't miss out on the music.

COMPREHENSIVE INTEGRATED MARKETING WORKBOOK

An Integrated Marketing Workbook for Colleges and Universities, authored by Dr. Robert A. Sevier, is now available from Strategy Publishing.

Written for college presidents, administrators, and faculty who are interested in how integrated can help them more effectively build an image, recruit students, and raise dollars, the book begins by exploring such questions as:

• How do I know if integrated marketing is right for our institution?
• What is the relationship between integrated marketing, integrated marketing communications, brand marketing, and strategic planning?
• How can I build internal support for integrated marketing on my campus?
• How long will it take to develop a plan and how much will it cost?

It outlines a step-by-step integrated marketing planning process that will move a planning team from initial goal creation through the major components of a marketing plan including audience identification, the definition of target geographies, the creation of vivid descriptors, and the completion of integrated marketing action plans.

Designed as a workbook—each chapter concludes with a series of discussion points and questions that will reinforce key themes and clarify decisions—the book contains the most comprehensive integrated marketing checklist ever published. In addition, budgeting is treated in-depth.

The book is available from Strategy Publishing at www.strategypublishing.com.