Nine Standbys That Increase Integration

In this issue

• ON STRATEGY: NINE STANDBYS THAT INCREASE INTEGRATION
• BY THE NUMBERS: TUITION INCREASES
• JOB DESCRIPTION DATABASE ON THE STAMATS WEB SITE

STAMATS ONLINE SEMINAR - Marketing Your MBA Program

With increased competition for MBA students, this program is designed to help you more effectively market your programs. This will begin with a review of recent trend data by type of program (full-time two-year, part time, online, and EMBA). We will then discuss the role of image and rankings in MBA choice and outline strategies to help recruit more or better students. Finally, we will also discuss how to market your program to women, students of color, and international students.

When: Thursday, November 18, 2004 from 1:30pm-3:00pm (Central)

Click here to register for this $249 program.

ON STRATEGY: NINE STANDBYS THAT INCREASE INTEGRATION

Recently, while developing an internal communications plan for a college in Washington, D.C., we outlined nine strategic and tactical "standbys" that will increase integration—and the flow of messages—throughout an organization.

While some of these nine are obvious, others are not. But what really unleashes their collective power is having all nine done and available for guidance and use. Here they are:

1. Your mission statement. It is interesting how seldom colleges and universities turn to their mission statement as part of the decision-making process. However, holding a potential idea or decision up to a well-articulated well-communicated mission statement should be the first litmus test. No matter how attractive an idea might be, if it doesn't pass the mission test, kill it.
2. Your vision statement. If missions tell where you came from, and what's important, a vision statement shows, like the jigsaw puzzle box top, where you are going. Like the mission statement, a vision statement should be used as a lens through which ideas can be evaluated. If the idea clearly advances the vision, support it. If it doesn't, spike it.
3. Brand promise or positioning statement. At its most basic, a brand promise or positioning statement is that part of the institution that your key external and internal audiences find to be important, believable, and distinctive. Never more than a couple of paragraphs, your brand promise guides not only your creative, but how you should act as an institution.
4. Brand portfolio. A brand promise is fully developed in a larger brand portfolio that includes the brand promise (or positioning statement), the brand rationale (an explanation as to why the brand promise is important), a set of brand attributes or benefits that guide creative, a tagline (a sort of brand promise in short hand) and a graphic identity.
5. Graphic identity. Though you may not have a formal brand promise, it is still essential for you to have a comprehensive graphic identity system that guides how you use your look, fonts, colors, formats, and even photography. In the old days (read that as "pre-Web") graphic identity systems were maintained in a notebook. Now, of course, they are best placed on the institutional Web site.
6. Elevator speech/standard paragraph. You've just entered an elevator and someone asks you to describe your institution. You have 30 seconds. What will you say? And perhaps more importantly, what will the other 219 people who are asked that same question say? Will there be any message consistency? The elevator speech is a standard, consistent response to the frequent question, "tell me about …" A simple version of the elevator speech is the standard paragraph. This is the second paragraph in most news stories and the second paragraph in the president's bio.
7. Yearly fact sheet. How many students attend your institution? From how many states? How many of your faculty have their terminal degrees? What was that annual fund giving rate? Having a yearly fact sheet that contains the answers to these kinds of questions is critical. The key, however, is updating all the facts at once and then using the fact sheet for one year until it is time to update it again. This means that you don't have to call the alumni office each month for current giving statistics. Instead, you can spend your time courting the Chronicle. Of course, if you keep your fact sheet on the Web, it can be updated on the fly.
8. Crisis communication plan. Sooner or later, disaster will strike. Probably on a weekend. Are you ready? It is amazing how many colleges are not. Before your people have to face an open microphone, update your plan. Conduct the training. And, relax (maybe just a little).
9. Master campus calendar. This last one is the easiest to understand, but technologically and politically the most difficult. Having a central campus calendar on your institutional Web site is critical. But on too many campuses, turf battles between athletics and student services and special events mean that Billy Joel will be coming to campus the same time your alumni leadership has scheduled an off-campus planning meeting. Use the technology to build your master campus calendar. Demand that it be used. And, then make it central to all event planning.

Ideally, except for the master campus calendar, all of these elements can be assembled in a notebook for continual review and for introducing to new employees at their orientation.

BY THE NUMBERS: TUITION INCREASES

According to a just-released report from The College Board, sticker prices at the nation's colleges and universities continued to increase this past year, to an average of $5,132 for in-state students at four-year public schools and $20,082 for four-year private schools.

As reported in the October 20 issue of USA Today, that's an increase of $487 or 10.5 percent for tuition and fees at publics and $1,132, or six percent, at private institutions.

During the same period, tuition at two-year public institutions increased an average of $167, or just under nine percent.

These costs are at historic highs, but represent smaller increases than last year.

JOB DESCRIPTION DATABASE ON THE STAMATS WEB SITE

Perhaps the question we are asked more than any other is, "Do you have a sample job description for …?"

To help answer this question, we are establishing the Stamats Job Description Database. Much like our popular Stamats Tagline Repository, the database will be available on our Web site and will contain job descriptions for professionals who work in the following areas:

• Admissions
• Marketing
• Advancement
• Web professionals

We will organize descriptions by broad topic and make them downloadable without charge.

If you are interested in adding your job description(s) to the database, please forward them to Brandy at brandy.huseman@stamats.com.

Thanks. Bob

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Each fall, Strategy Publishing holds its annual 25 percent discount sale for the Integrated Marketing Workbook, Building a Brand That Matters, and Thinking Outside the Box. Click on www.strategypublishing.com for full details.