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Vol. 8, no. 18 Stamats QuickTakes™ Insights into Leadership, Strategy, and Integrated Marketing for Colleges and Universities by Dr. Robert A. Sevier, Senior Vice President at Stamats, Inc. (bob.sevier@stamats.com) NEW CLIENTS
Job listings available online at Higher Education Careers. If you have a short position description (100 words or less) you would like posted, please forward it to brandy.huseman@stamats.com. There is no charge for this service. COPYRIGHT, DISTRIBUTION, AND PERMISSION Stamats QuickTakes™ is published by Stamats and is distributed to our clients and colleagues in higher education at no charge. Contents (c) 2005 by Stamats, Inc. Please forward copies of Stamats QuickTakes™ in its
entirety to colleagues. Visit www.stamats.com/resources |
Why Market? In this issue STAMATS 5TH ANNUAL PRESIDENTS' INSTITUTE ON STRATEGY AND INTEGRATED MARKETING We go to a number of seminars each year, but the presidents' institute this time around promises to be something truly special. If you are a president and you and your team are interested in how strategic planning, integrated marketing, and brand marketing relate, then this is the conference you need to consider. We will have presentations by Ronald Ehrenberg, William Massey, John Roush, Bob Sevier, Jim Scannell, Dennis Trotter, Doug Mason, Mel Tyler, Larry Large, and a host of others who are recognized experts in their fields. The conference is on November 1-3 in Washington, D.C. We keep the size of the conference small so there is ample time for questions and conversation. For more information, go to our site: www.stamats.com. NEXT ONLINE SEMINAR—Understanding Teens: Presentation of Stamats 2005 TeensTALK™ Study Make plans today to join us for our next online seminar presented by Steve Kappler. The presentation featured will be Understanding Teens: Presentation of Stamats 2005 TeensTALK™ Study. Please go here for more details. UPCOMING ONLINE SEMINAR—DOUBLE FEATURE: TOP 10 MARKETING MISTAKES COLLEGES MAKE & MESSAGES THAT MATTER Please make plans to join us for our December online seminar. It is a double feature: Top 10 Marketing Mistakes Colleges Make & Messages That Matter. It will be held December 8, 2005 from 1:30-3:30 PM CDT. Please go here for more details. It's a question we get from faculty and others on almost every project: Why should we spend money on marketing?" That good question is worthy of a thoughtful answer. To help develop that answer we thought we would pose it to you, our readers. If you have some insights, or better yet, a great answer, drop me a line. We will assemble what we learn, add it to our own ideas, and run a column in an upcoming QuickTakes. You can e-mail me at bob.sevier@stamats.com. Thanks. VIRAL MARKETING (or the idea of being buzzworthy) I did a session on viral marketing at our recent interactive media conference in San Francisco. As I put the session together I struggled with understanding how viral marketing relates to higher education. Based on my experience and research, most consumer oriented viral marketing efforts tend to walk a fine line between innovative and odd. We all know from long experience that most colleges and universities are not comfortable (or necessarily good at) walking that fine line. However, as I wrote the presentation some real nuggets began to emerge. The great unveiling began with the definition of viral marketing as any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others thereby creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure. I think that this definition places too much emphasis on the message and overlooks, I think, the product or service that generated the message. In other words, the message may be buzzworthy even if the product or service is not. Consider, for example, Burger King's video on the subservient chicken. The video got buzz, but did it move anyone to buy any chicken sandwiches? What would happen, I wondered, if the product and message were equally buzzworthy? Consider, for example, the Mini Cooper. A remarkable product with remarkable, buzzable, word-of-mouth on steroids, marketing. It occurred to me that one reason that so many colleges and universities may have trouble with the idea of viral marketing is that they are afraid of being truly distinctive. After all, when asked, all institutions are friendly, caring, and supporting. All have great academic quality. And all have a library. These qualities are vital, but firmly in the grip of sameness. It seems, then, that if a product is not buzzworthy the natural temptation is to place all of our eggs in the messaging basket. However, as noted above, most C/U are wary of that fine line between innovation and odd. As part of this mental conversation I asked myself what would happen if an institution was truly distinctive, and by extension buzzworthy, in a way or ways that target audiences value? All colleges say they are friendly, but what if you truly are and are able to demonstrate it in a compelling fashion? All colleges (well, most), have good faculty, but what if you could demonstrate not only how good your faculty were, but that they were available and accessible and willing to go the extra mile? At this point we are beginning to approach the idea of buzzworthy. There is a corollary here. Colleges and universities have a strong tendency to list features (friendly, caring, supportive, great academic quality, and libraries). A feature-by-feature approach to marketing is the antithesis of viral marketing. All colleges and universities have features. But those interested in differentiating themselves from the pack make the time and take the effort to translate those features into benefits and outcomes that are truly compelling and "messaged" in ways that are relevant, repeated, and remembered. I've done a 180 on viral marketing. I think it is a legitimate marketing tool that has much to offer higher education. However, I think its true value is at the strategic differentiation level. If your sole viral focus was on messaging you will continue to walk that fine line. Resources: Not surprisingly, I used a blend of Web and printed resources to help pull the session together. Some of the sites I found to be invaluable included:
Yyou might also want to check out some of the following books:
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR NACAC WINNERS! Maureen Mathis, Xavier University: Patio furniture Thank you for joining us at our booth in Tampa this year… We'll see you next year in Philadelphia! 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:
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. Thursday, November 10, 2005 from 1:30 p.m.-3:00 p.m. CDT Understanding
Teens: Presentation of Stamats 2005 TeensTALK™ Study This updated presentation explores the fascinating world of today's college-bound teens. It looks at how they spend their time, choose their media, and who influences them. It includes a careful review of how they choose a college, by looking at who influences them and analyzing the college-choice characteristics of most importance to them. This year we identified several teen personas as it relates to the college-choice process. Each persona has unique characteristics from a recruiting, marketing, and communication sense. Learn which group is most prevalent at your school and how to talk to each group. For more information about the online conference, please contact Brandy Huseman at (800) 553-8878 or brandy.huseman@stamats.com. You can also check out the Stamats Web site at www.stamats.com. Register today at www.krm.com/stamats. Cost: $249 Thursday, December 8, 2005 from 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. CDT Double Feature: Top
10 Marketing Mistakes Colleges Make &
Messages That Matter This online seminar is a double feature, two presentations for the price of one. The first session, The Top 10 Marketing Mistakes Colleges Make, will run from 1:30-2:30 PM Central and the second session, Messages That Matter, will run from 2:30-3:30 PM Central. You get both sessions for the single price of $249 per site! Top 10 Marketing Mistakes Colleges Make Messages That Matter: Strategies to Help Get the Word Out For more information about the online conference, please contact Brandy Huseman at (800) 553-8878 or brandy.huseman@stamats.com. You can also check out the Stamats Web site at www.stamats.com. Register today at www.krm.com/stamats. Cost: $249 Stamats 5th Annual Presidents' Institute on Strategy and Integrated Marketing - November 1-3, 2005 Designed specifically for presidents*, the Stamats 5th Annual Presidents' Institute on Strategy and Integrated Marketing will feature a number of the nation's "best" sessions from previous conferences, added sessions suggested by recent attendees, and created an unparalleled blend of theory and practice. Topics include:
In addition we have two special keynote speakers:
Ronald G. Ehrenberg is the Irving M. Ives Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Economics at Cornell University, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and Director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute (CHERI). The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Atlantic Philanthropies (USA) Inc. and the TIAA-CREF Institute fund CHERI. From July 1995 to June 1998, he served as Cornell's Vice President for Academic Programs, Planning and Budgeting. He received his BA in mathematics from Harpur College (SUNY Binghamton) and his PhD in economics from Northwestern University. Ehrenberg is author or coauthor of over 120 articles and of 20 books, including Tuition Rising: Why College Costs So Much [Harvard University Press, 2000 (paperback edition, 2002]), Governing Academia (Cornell University Press, 2004), Science and the University (University of Wisconsin Press, forthcoming) and What's Happening to Public Higher Education (ACE/Praeger, forthcoming). He currently chairs the National Research Council's Board on Higher Education and the Workforce and recently chaired the AAUP Committees on Retirement and on the Economic Status of the Profession and served on the NACUBO Endowment Study Advisory Committee. He also is past president and fellow of the Society of Labor Economists, a National Associate of the National Academies, a member of the National Academy of Education and a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. Ehrenberg has served as a consultant to faculty and administrative groups and trustees at numerous colleges and universities about issues relating to tuition and financial aid policies, academic programs, faculty compensation policies, faculty retirement policies and other budgetary and planning issues.
Dr. Massy is president of The Jackson Hole Higher Education Group, Inc., and an emeritus professor at Stanford University. He earned tenure as Professor of Business Administration, then moved to Stanford's central administration as Vice Provost for Research and later Vice President for Business and Finance. In 1987 he became a professor of higher education and founded the Stanford Institute for Higher Education Research where he worked on education quality, resource allocation, finance, and mathematical modeling of universities. His book with David Hopkins, Planning Models for Colleges and Universities, received the Operations Research Society of America's Frederick W. Lanchester Prize for 1981, and in 1995 he received the Society for College and University Planning's annual career award for outstanding contributions to college and university planning. In 1996 he published Resource Allocation in Higher Education, which introduced the idea of "value responsibility budgeting." His most recent book, Honoring the Trust: Quality and Cost Containment in Higher Education, published in February 2003, presents an action plan for boosting quality without increases in spending. Dr. Massy holds a Ph.D. in economics and MS in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a BS from Yale University. Where: Cost: To register, call 800/553-8878 and ask for Brandy at ext. 2213 or online at www.stamats.com/events/seminars *This conference is intended specifically for presidents of colleges
and universities. Senior staff members are welcome to attend only
if attending along with their president. Thank you for respecting
this decision. |
| ABOUT STAMATS Every year more than 100 colleges and universities trust the team of integrated marketing professionals at Stamats to help them identify, communicate, and keep their brand promises. Stamats services include research, consulting, publications, interactive media, search solutions, and advertising. Stamats. Promises kept. |