MHE 645Higher Education Marking & CommunicationsDayna L. Boyles-CarpenterBay Path College – NMP 650E-Portfolio Assignment #2 – Week 311-14-2013

Components and Considerations of Marketing & Communications in Higher

EducationTypically, higher education marketing & communications offices can be made up of the following components or areas:

0 Public Relations/Community Relations0 Enrollment Marketing0 Crisis Communications0 Publications0 Alumni Communications0 Development Communications

Selling the Intangible

0Higher education is an intangible commodity.0We face challenges of selling an experience vs. selling

a product.0Students are subjective and they define success.0Students are both the consumer and the product of

higher education.0While higher education is an intangible commodity,

customers still seek tangible clues to help them assess the value and quality of the service (Hayes, 2009, p. 25).

Branding in Higher Education

In higher education, brand refers to the perceived quality and reputation of a college or university.

“Think of a college or university brand as being synonymous with the institution’s personality – congruent with its mission, defined by its values” (Black, 2008, p. 2).

When developing a brand, a college or university should ask itself the following questions: 0 Who do we serve and what are their needs?0 What elements of what we currently do define who we are?0 Where/what do we aspire to be?0 Who is the competition?0 What are our current challenges or limitations?

Market Driven vs. Mission DrivenInstitutions

0Mission Driven: An Institution that is fully focused on “the curriculum and academic program of the institution” (Anctil, 2008, p. 1).

0Market Driven: An Institution that is market driven responds to the wants/needs of its consumers. It operates with an outside-in orientation that “develops and maintains all the marketing activities necessary to read the marketplace and to create service that answer what the market asks for and anticipates emerging markets and their needs” (Hayes, 2009).

AudienceEnvironment• Marketplace• Competitors• Partners

Message• Benefit Exchange• Honing the

Message• Delivering the

Message

Action

Katya Andresen’s Robin Hood Marketing Arrow Model“Marketing good causes with a corporate mind-set delivers results”

(Andresen, 2006, p. 6).

(Andresen, 2006, p. 10)

10 Robin Hood Marketing Rules

0Robin Hood Rule 1 – Go beyond the big-picture mission and focus on getting people to take specific action.

0Robin Hood Rule 2 – The most important values are those of our audiences, not our own. The closer we align ourselves with our audience’s values, the higher our chances of motivating them to take action.

0Robin Hood Rule 3 – Recognize and react to the forces at work in the marketplace. We must identify the forces influencing our audiences’ actions and harness those that work in our favor.

10 Robin Hood Marketing Rules, Continued

0Robin Hood Rule 4 – Stake a strong competitive position in the minds of the audience. We want to make our competitive advantage as clear to our audiences as if we’d adorned it in gold thread.

0Robin Hood Rule 5 – Build partnerships around mutual benefits or you won’t be partnering at all. Partnerships should yield clear wins for each partner and, most important, the partners should share a customer base or have complementary bases.

0Robin Hood Rule 6 – Case first, cause second. The reward, and not our own mission, most effectively makes the case to our audience to take action.

(Andresen, 2006, p. 87-132)

10 Robin Hood Marketing Rules, Continued

0Robin Hood Rule 7 – Messages should establish a Connection, promise a Reward, inspire Action, and stick in Memory. CRAM is the key to getting our distracted audience attracted to our cause above all others.

0Robin Hood Rule 8 – To get to audiences, go to where they are.

0Robin Hood Rule 9 – Approach the media as a target market, not as a mouthpiece for the message.

0Robin Hood Rule 10 – Good marketing campaigns focus on spurring one audience to a single action.

(Andresen, 2006, p. 165, 186, 218).

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

1. The Law of Leadership2. The Law of the Category3. The Law of the Mind4. The Law of Perception5. The Law of Focus6. The Law of Exclusivity7. The Law of the Ladder8. The Law of Duality9. The Law of the Opposite10. The Law of Division11. The Law of Perspective (Ries & Trout, 2003)

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Continued

12. The Law of Line Extension13. The Law of Sacrifice14. The Law of Attributes15. The Law of Candor16. The Law of Singularity17. The Law of Unpredictability18. The Law of Success19. The Law of Failure20. The Law of Hype21. The Law of Acceleration22. The Law of Resources

(Ries & Trout, 2003)

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

1 – The Law of Leadership – It’s much easier to get into the mind first than to try to convince someone you have a better product than the one that did get there first.

2 – The Law of the Category – If you didn’t get into the prospect’s mind first, don’t give up hope. Find a new category you can be first in. Forget the brand. Think categories.

3 – The Law of the Mind – It’s better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace. If marketing is a battle of perception, not product, then the mind takes precedence over the marketplace.

(Ries & Trout, 1993, p. 1-14)

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

4 – The Law of Perception – Marketing is not a battle of products, it’s a battle of perceptions. All that exists in the world of marketing are perceptions in the minds of the customer or prospect.

5 – The Law of Focus – The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect’s mind. An [organization] can become incredibly successful if it can find a way to own a word in the mind of the prospect.

6 – The Law of Exclusivity – Two companies cannot own the same word in the prospect’s mind.

(Ries & Trout, 1993, p. 15 – 39)

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

7 – The Law of the Ladder – The strategy to use depends on which rung you occupy on the ladder. There’s a hierarchy in the mind that prospects use in marketing decisions.

8 – The Law of Duality – In the long run, every market becomes a two-horse race. Early on, a new category is a ladder of many rungs. Gradually, the ladder becomes a two-rung affair.

9 – The Law of the Opposite – If you’re shooting for second place, your strategy is determined by the leader. In strength there is weakness. Wherever the leader is strong, there is an opportunity for a would-be No. 2 to turn the tables.

(Ries & Trout, 2003, p. 38 -51)

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

10 – The Law of Division – Over time, a category will divide and become two or more categories. The way for the leader to maintain its dominance is to address each emerging category with a different brand name.

11 – The Law of Perspective – Marketing effects take place over an extended period of time. The long-term effects are often the exact opposite of the short-term effects.

12 – The Law of Line Extension – There’s an irresistible pressure to extend the equity of the brand. Line extension is a process that takes place continuously, with almost no conscious effort on the part of the [organization].

(Ries & Trout, 2003, p. 56-69)

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

13 – The Law of Sacrifice – You have to give up something in order to get something. There are three things to sacrifice: product line, target market, and constant change. The generalist is weak.

14 – The Law of Attributes – For every attribute, there is an opposite, effective attribute. It’s much better to search for an opposite attribute that will allow you to play off against the leader. The key word is opposite – similar won’t do.

15 – The Law of Candor – When you admit a negative, the prospect will give you a positive. Candor is very disarming. Every negative statement you make about yourself is instantly accepted as truth.

(Ries & Trout, 2003, p. 76 – 89)

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

16 – The Law of Singularity – In each situation, only one move will produce substantial results. History teaches that the only thing that works in marketing is the single, bold stroke.

17 – The Law of Unpredictability – Unless you write your competitors’ plans, you can’t predict the future. Marketing plans based on what will happen in the future are usually wrong. Failure to forecast competitive reaction is a major reason for marketing failures.

18 – The Law of Success – Success often leads to arrogance, and arrogance to failure. When people become successful, they tend to become less objective. A trend is like the tide – you don’t fight it. (Ries & Trout, 2003, p. 92 – 107).

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

19 – The Law of Failure – Failure is to be expected and accepted. Too many organizations try to fix things rather than drop things. Admitting a mistake and not doing anything about it is bad for your career. A better strategy is to recognize failure early and cut your losses.

20 – The Law of Hype – The situation is often the opposite of the way it appears in the press. When things are going well, a company doesn’t need the hype. When you need the hype, it usually means you’re in trouble.

21 – The Law of Acceleration – Successful programs are not built on fads, they’re built on trends. One way to maintain a long-term demand for your product is to never totally satisfy the demand.

(Ries & Trout, 2003, p. 110 – 123).

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

22 – The Law of Resources – Without adequate funding an idea won’t get off the ground. You’ll get further with a mediocre idea and a million dollars than with a great idea along. Ideas without money are worthless.

(Ries & Trout, 2003, p. 124-129)

Jones’ 7 Actions that Encourage a Rewarding & Mutually Beneficial Partnership

1. Serve Alumni – Institutions should offer a portfolio of alumni services, including connecting or reconnecting them with other alumni, keeping them informed about and in touch with former faculty and advisers, and offering continuing and other education opportunities.

2. Allow alumni to serve the institution – Alumni frequently say, “We only hear from you when you want money.” The annual fund will always be there, but alumni can do plenty of other things for their institutions, such as recruit and mentor students, identify internship or job opportunities, advise academic programs and administrative offices, advocate before governmental bodies, and open doors to fund-raising opportunities.

3. Ask and measure – It’s far better to know what alumni really want than to fall back on the “Field of Dreams” strategy we historically have employed: Build it and hope they’ll come. Market research can help determine the programs in which institutions should invest. User surveys and focus groups help us plan and follow up on major programs and communications efforts.

(Jones, 2006)

Jones’ 7 Actions that Encourage a Rewarding & Mutually Beneficial Partnership

4. Allow participation in governance – Give alumni a chance to shape the future of their institution. If they are a minority on the governing board, they might feel marginalized. Also, ensure strong links (such as shared members and formal communications channels) between the alumni and governing boards to solicit input and provide a symbolic statement about the importance of alumni.

5. Open channels for two-way communication – Our goal should be a dialogue, not a monologue. By sharing administrative e-mail contacts or publishing letters to the editor in the alumni magazine, we are encouraging a healthy give-and-take that grateful alumni are likely to meet with meaningful and useful responses.

(Jones, 2006)

Jones’ 7 Actions that Encourage a Rewarding & Mutually Beneficial Partnership

6. Be candid – If alumni sense we don’t trust them with bad news, will they trust us enough to believe our good news? Jerold Pearson, director of market research at the Stanford Alumni Association, recently surveyed Stanford magazine readers on this topic. Ninety-one percent of respondents said “the willingness to include articles that might touch on things that could be considered unflattering to the university demonstrates integrity and honesty, which in turn strengthens [our] connection with the university.” Just 3 percent said “the willingness to include such articles is counterproductive and undermines [our] connection with the university.”

7. Ensure commitment from the top – Alumni engagement does indeed start at the top, and institutions whose trustees fail to heed that lesson might be consigned to languish at the bottom.

(Jones, 2006)

Future Considerations0 Online Education – It has been expanding at an unprecedented

rate. Development professionals seeking to understand what motivates alumni of Internet-based distance education programs frequently bemoan the lack of reliable tools for cracking the code.

(Pulley, 2008)

0 Return on Investment – Anecdotal feedback, quantative benchmarking, focus groups, and annual giving dollars are all measurements for alumni engagement . . . Alumni professionals vying for limited budget dollars much prove the value of their programs to campus leaders.

(Meyers, 2006)

Hice’s Approach to Crisis Communications

“If a crisis hits your institution, news and video reports, as well as photography could end up on the Web within minutes. And with social networking Web sites, things can spread even more easily via electronic word of mouth.

Whether you like it or not, this is the age of invasive and pervasive transparency – and nobody can hide. In the networked world in which we live, planning is critical” (Hice, 2007).

0 Assess and prioritize risks; don’t wait for a crisis to begin.0 Honestly examine operations and processes.0 Evaluate and catalogue assets – people, facilities, and equipment.0 Keep it simple – bigger is not necessarily better.

(Hice, 2007)

Crisis Communications: What is at Stake?

According to “Risk Management Basics,” an online resource produced by the Nonprofit Risk Management Center, at-risk institutionl assets generally fall into the following categories:

0 People – students, faculty, staff, board members, volunteers, clients, donors, and the general public;

0 Property – buildings, facilities, equipment, materials, copyrights, and trademarks;

0 Income – sales, tuition, fees, grants, and gifts; and0 Goodwill – reputation, stature in the community, and the ability

to raise funds and appeal to prospective students, faculty, staff, and volunteers.

ReferencesAnctil, E.. (2008). Selling Higher Education: Marketing and Advertising America’s Colleges and Universities. ASHE

higher Education Report, Volume 34, Number 2. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Andresen, K. (2006). Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes.

San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Hardy, R. (2009, June 15). Marketing Higher Education Brand Communities. Retrieved August

4, 2013, from buildingmarketingstrategies.wordpress.com/2009/06/15/marketing-higher-

education-brand-communities/

Hice, Joseph. (March, 2007). “Hiding in Plain Sight.” CASE Currents.

Jones, Mark. (January, 2006). “It’s the Alumni, Stupid.” CASE Currents.

Kirp, D. (2003). Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher

Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Meyers, Harriet. (January, 2006). “Come Together.” CASE Currents.

Pulley, John. (September, 2008). “Natural Attraction.” CASE Currents.