Stamats QuickTakes

Insights into Research, Strategic Planning, and Integrated Marketing for Colleges and Universities by Dr. Robert A. Sevier, Senior Vice President at Stamats (quicktakes@stamats.com)

Vol. 7, no. 2: First, Break All the Rules Continued

In this issue.

• ON STRATEGY: FIRST, BREAK ALL THE RULES
• WANT TO PLAY A GAME?
• THE STATE OF PRINT: IS IT TIME TO OVERHAUL YOUR VIEWBOOK?
• BY THE NUMBERS: UPROMISE

STAMATS WEBINAR

Stamats will be hosting a 90-minute Audio/Web conference on February 26, 2004 @ 1:30pm CST. The Parent Puzzle: Understanding the Role Parents Play in the College Search and Selection Process, presented by Eric Sickler, will discuss the Stamats 2003 national ParentsTALK™ research study that provides insight into how and why parents influence their students' college-choice process. He'll look at the generational context that shaped the parent's outlook on life, parenting, and education.

During this Webinar, you will learn:

• How this new generation of parents will be involved in your search process
• The messages parents most want to hear about you
• Their fears you need to be aware of
• Where cost and rankings fit into their deliberations and your communications planning
• How they plan to be involved after their child enrolls

To register for this $199 program, please visit https://www.krm.com/stamats

"Attending a Webinar is a great way to increase training and development on our campus. As IWU continues to experience significant enrollment growth, we are needing to become more deliberate in providing professional development opportunities. The Webinar format actually means more of our people can attend and it enhances communication on relevant issues across department lines." —John S. Gredy, Ed.D., Vice President for Enrollment Management and Marketing, Indiana Wesleyan University

ON STRATEGY: FIRST, BREAK ALL THE RULES

This discussion of Marcus Buckingham's First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently is continued from the previous issue of QuickTakes.

Attitude Adjustment #4: Stop looking to the outside for help. The solutions to your problems exist inside your company.

Talent is a multiplier. The more energy and attention you invest in it, the greater the yield will be. That's why the best leaders are relentless at seeking out, shadowing, studying, and highlighting the lessons of their own top performers.

The funny thing is that most bosses spend their time benchmarking best practices in other companies. They want to know how they're doing relative to their peers. I tell my clients, Don't go on a tour of Disney, Southwest Airlines, or Discover Financial Services. You have some of the world's best managers working inside your own company. Look to them first. Learn from your own people first.

Attitude Adjustment #5: Don't assume that everyone wants your job—or that great people want to be promoted out of what they do best.

There are two myths about talent that feed the conventional—and misguided—approach to career tracks and leadership development in most companies. The first myth: Talent is rare and special. Wrong. We all have talent. What's rare and special is a worker who finds a role that suits his or her talents. The second myth: Some roles are so easy that they don't require talent. Wrong again. We hear a lot about developing more respect for frontline workers and customer-facing employees, but peel the onion and you run into a rigid hierarchy of jobs. The compensation system evolves out of that hierarchy. So do titles and careers.

We say that we want to build world-class organizations. That's meaningless if we don't value world-class performance in every role. Yet the people who touch customers the most—hotel housekeepers, outbound telemarketers—get the least respect and the lowest paychecks. The assumption is that anyone can do that job and that nobody would want to do it if they were given a choice to do something else. Frontline talent has a prestige problem, and it's turning into a corporate-performance problem.

The 12 Questions

The article concludes by saying that if you want to build the most powerful company possible, then your first job is to help every person generate compelling answers to 12 simple questions about the day-to-day realities of his or her job. These are the factors, argue Marcus Buckingham that determine whether people are engaged, not engaged, or actively disengaged at work.

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment that I need in order to do my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. In the past seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission or purpose of my company make me feel that my job is important?
9. Are my coworkers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?
11. In the past six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
12. This past year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

Good questions. Hopefully the answers will help guide you toward greater employee and organizational health and productivity.

WANT TO PLAY A GAME?

In the October 2003 issue of University Business we learn that Southern Methodist University (SMU) is offering the first-ever graduate level, certificate program in video game design. The new program recognizes that the video game industry, with sales of $25 billion a year internationally, will need approximately 5,000 new game designers a year with annual salaries ranging from $40,000 to $50,000.

But before you think that higher ed is selling out, think about what it takes to be a video game designer. Says Peter Rand, managing director of the new program, digital game development is a multi-disciplinary activity that requires artists, designers, programmers, sound engineers, project managers, and others to work together. In fact, the same skills used to develop video games are used in simulations for education, business, the scientific community, and the military.

THE STATE OF PRINT: IS IT TIME TO OVERHAUL YOUR VIEWBOOK?
Chuck Reed, VP for Client Services

The Viewbook is not dead—it's just not quite the same animal we once knew.

Rather than always serving as the full depository of editorial and visual information about a college, many new Viewbooks take on other forms, from coffee table photo essays to testimonial pieces.

Some institutions have eliminated their Viewbooks (or tried), but most institutions with which I am familiar are restructuring and revising information and its presentation rather than removing this classic print cornerstone from their funnels.

Others are changing who the Viewbook goes to in the first place—rather than making the Viewbook something for everyone, only admitted or "top" students are sometimes receiving them.

Of course, the Web is greatly responsible for this change, as more colleges move to a Web-centered communication flow. However, the evidence is clear—student prospects and parents (and evidence suggests that parents are growingly involved in their children's college search processes) still like the tangible, substantive feel of a Viewbook. While a Web site can (and should) be engaging and also full of factual information, the Viewbook of an institution near-and-dear to the prospect is a worthy format in which to tell the institution's distinctive story.

Is it time to overhaul your Viewbook? Ask yourself the following:

• How visual is the piece? Invest in excellent photography because audiences want their Viewbooks visually compelling. Saving money on photography is a folly—unless a gritty "student's real view" of your school is the campaign's concept—as even the most unsophisticated audiences will judge you on quick impressions that include technical soundness (focus, color) and convincing composition (subjects, naturalness). The most expensive photography is usually the one that costs you the least.
• Are we judicious with our words? The most difficult (but effective) way to use words is having fewer of them, not just because students have said for years they "don't read" Viewbooks but because simple works. Students read captions, headlines, and particular topics first—they will eventually read Viewbooks if you are a true consideration for them, or if they like what they first read. Can you reduce the words in your Viewbook? It will make for better reading.
• Who is doing the talking? As few words of these fewer words as possible should come from the institution's voice. Don't say "We are a good institution" and "We care about you"—let your students say this for you (they are far more believable) supported by great photography. Show, don't tell.
• Does it work with your Web site? Many colleges have done an excellent job integrating print and Web messaging: the mediums work fine separately but also operate together in more robust ways than just occasional URL references. Ultimately, a visual Viewbook and a complementary admission Web site should be seamless. Do your Viewbook and Web site say the same things in the same way? Look at both to see how you explain academic benefits, student life, and directions to campus to determine if your vocabulary is consistent.
• Are you clear of its purpose? Make sure you know what you are trying to do with the Viewbook—is it to generate applications or campus visits? Is it to "seal the deal" or introduce you to interested audiences? Don't take its place in the flow for granted—you need to have a focused purpose with this piece, and shape its content, timing, and audience accordingly.
• Does it have an impact upon receipt? Don't forget the envelope. That old phrase, "a $3 Viewbook in a 19-cent envelope is a 19-cent Viewbook" is truer today than ever. A swash of color, a vibrant icon, a colorful envelope—something to make it stand out in the mailbox.

Hopefully, you will be able to revitalize your Viewbook as a visual showcase and keep it from ending up in college-bound student closets across America.

But a final word—the best Viewbook in the world will not pre-empt brand inertia (remember—awareness of your institution is key to getting recipients to even look at your Viewbook). Much brand marketing should be happening to make your institution more top-of-mind prior to the Viewbook's hallowed arrival.

If you want to chat about the above article, please contact me at chuck.reed@stamats.com. Best of luck to you.

BY THE NUMBERS: UPROMISE

The January 26, 2004 issue of BusinessWeek offers a fascinating insight into the promise that Upromise.com makes to help families save for college. Upromise.com deposits small rebates on everyday purchases into a college savings account. While the site lists hundreds of products, it could, according to the article, take a long time for those dollars to add up. To pay for four years at public college in 2021, you would need to:

• Drive 612,747,640 miles
• Eat 93,699,310 boxes of cereal
• Wash 32,401,172 loads of laundry

Our advice to parents who are participating in Upromise? Better get started.

NEW CLIENTS

• University of Nebraska, Kearney: Advertising
• Whitman College (WA): Interactive

JOB OPENINGS

Job listings available online at Higher Educations Careers.

If you have a short position description (100 words or less) you would like posted, please forward it on 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) 2004 by Stamats. Please feel free to forward copies of Stamats QuickTakes in its entirety to colleagues. Visit QuickTakes for past issues.

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