Building Marketing Strategies–All of them
This is my 50th post for the Building Marketing Strategies for Higher Education blog. Writing the blog stirred in me a desire to return to campus life where I could again lead a brand and put into play...
View ArticleEssentials of New Leadership
Well, it’s been a very busy eight months in my new leadership position, and too long since I last posted. As I move forward, my blog will now include posts such as this one about the choices I’ve been...
View ArticleAn Admissions + Marketing Organization
For most of the 20+ years that I have led an admissions and enrollment team, I have also led marketing, and have come to believe in the effectiveness of an organization responsible for both, especially...
View ArticleThe Roles of Brand, Branding, and Identity
Higher education marketing leaders sometimes have to navigate what may be a highly political environment of concern for institutional identity. Just launch a branding campaign that is perceived by some...
View ArticleAn Identity No Longer in Search of a Market
This is the second post in a series on the relationship of brand, branding, and institutional identity. Refer to the first post for a definition of the terms. This week, Bethany University closed its...
View ArticleLead with Brand, Not Identity
This is the third post in a series on the relationship of brand, branding, and institutional identity. Sometimes faculty are so concerned about their college drifting from its founding identity that...
View ArticleYour Homepage. It’s Your Brand.
A colleague of mine was telling me that his daughter has a job as a switchboard operator at the college she’s attending. He said she’s the voice of the college since she’s the first voice callers...
View ArticleThe Power of Storytelling in Communicating Brand Culture
I love this commercial. In just 30 seconds, Subaru tells us a story that has the potential to touch us. It’s not a tear-jerker, but it connects to the human spirit with a universal theme of love lost...
View ArticleBranding on the Website: Homepage
When I interviewed 14 months ago for my current position, I was critical of the university’s website. After consuming it for hours, I still had no sense of the brand or the culture of the institution....
View ArticleBranding Institutional Identity
The Chronicle of Higher Education recently reported on a conference of enrollment management and mission officers from Catholic colleges and universities designed to explore how Catholic institutions...
View ArticleIntegrating Social Media
Well, it’s time to get back at it. After taking an unexpected hiatus from my blog while I’ve been building my team and marketing program, I have thoughts, perspectives and ideas that are begging to get...
View ArticleFive Questions to Ask Before Hiring in Marketing and Communications
In building a marketing and communications program, as Jim Collins says, it needs to be “First Who, Then What.” It’s vital that I get the right people on the bus and in the right seats. Fortunately,...
View ArticleBrand Differentiation Down The Funnel
It’s common to hear marketing consultants complain that there’s a lack of brand differentiation in higher education marketing. “Viewbooks all look and sound alike!” is usually the complaint. Well, in a...
View ArticleCase Study: Establishing Brand with the Undergraduate Viewbook
In our undergraduate admissions communications plan at Concordia University Irvine, a viewbook still plays a key role in branding our university from the inquiry phase and down through the funnel. We...
View ArticleCase Study: Transitioning Brand from Print to a Web UX Design
In my last post, I talked about using our signature print piece to determine brand messaging and design for all other media. In this post, I’ll show you how we took that design to the web. At the end,...
View ArticleCase Study: Website Content Strategy
At the Lawlor Symposium this past week, I spoke about about leveraging the market dynamics of paid, owned and earned media content, and specifically social media content, which was my topic for the...
View ArticleCreating Brand Empathy
I’ve been thinking for some time about revisiting a post that I wrote in 2010 about the power of creating brand empathy. What especially makes the post worth sharing again is the Cannes award-winning...
View ArticleManaging Social Media Community Managers in Higher Education
Social media in higher education. Is it marketing, communications, or PR? The answer is that it’s all three. In our Marketing and Communications program at Concordia University Irvine, social media is...
View ArticleMajor League Baseball, Instant Replay and Technology-Empowered Fans
Major League Baseball (MLB) announced plans this past week to aggressively institute instant replay for its ballgames beginning in the 2014 season. The plan, which does not include instant replay for...
View ArticleThe Market Rules
I haven’t been in the habit of writing about successful enrollment seasons, choosing instead to talk about the strategies and tactics that lead to them. But the reality is that we live or die by the...
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