University Business - September 2010 - (Page 52)

Have College Brands Delivered on Their Promise? distracting. Some five years later, there remains no tagline.” the brand. A brand is much more than awareness. A brand must be lived by those who work at and attend the institution. At Robert Morris, our brand promise ‘Change a Life and Yours Will Be Changed Forever’ will require us to evaluate how the lives of our students and employees have been changed by each other. If successful, how can anyone argue that helping someone change their life in positive ways is anything but a fantastic use of university funds?” There is a big push in higher education to measure marketing return on investment. How will you evaluate the success of your brand strategy? Bozeman: “We constantly evaluate how our brand strategy is working. We are repeating our key baseline research to evaluate not only whether our image has been enhanced, but What was the single most important also whether or not key student groups are ‘Too often, campuses fail factor in the success of your brand develmore interested in enrolling at UK. We also opment process? monitor more informal, anecdotal data—the to measure how well they Westervelt: “Data. Nothing is more convincinternal buzz that has been created on camare living the brand.’ ing to university personnel than cold hard pus. Our students have adopted ‘See Blue.’ —Mike Franz, Robert Morris University facts. I think most of the support we received You see it on T-shirts, on Facebook posts, was because we kept opinions out of the conon Twitter, and in our recruiting strategy. versation, and relied heavily on data, both inIt literally is everywhere. Even our athletic stitutional and external market data.” supporters—affectionately known as the Big Herman: “Build your brand on research. It Blue Nation—have bought into ‘See Blue.’ ” is so important to formulate the foundation Carroll: “Stetson uses three broad measures of any brand through the use of solid quantiof brand equity. First is our ability to get the tative research. Having a concise snapshot of class. Second is our ability to shape the class. The primary takeaways of a strong attitudes, opinions, and perceived strengths And third, consistent fundraising growth even brand strategy, this team of brand and weaknesses versus real strengths and experts noted collectively, can be during a financial climate that is volatile.” weaknesses offers opportunities to build and distilled down to seven key points: Westervelt: “We evaluate our brand strategy track the success of a strong brand.” • Have clear support from the in several ways. First, we track results through Carroll: “Do everything you can to get crosspresident and the senior team. Google Analytics, focusing on new, nonpaid institutional buy-in during the brand devel• Seek campus involvement at external visits to our site. We look at specific every stage. opment process, during the brand launch, keyword phrases related to our brand mesand as you execute the brand strategy.” • Conduct solid research. sage and our target geography. And we track Bozeman: “You must have support from • Seek meaningful differentiation. the time on page, campus visit submissions, the top. Our president has been the biggest • Integrate across multiple channels. and inquiries. Second, we survey all incomchampion of this project. He has given us • Live the brand. ing first-year students and ask them specific freedom and feedback, while also supporting • Continually measure the effecquestions related to our campaign, particuthe ‘See Blue’ campaign at all times.” tiveness of your brand strategy. larly what they were exposed to prior to enCercone: “Don’t bother trying to develop If we were to repeat these interviews rolling at George Fox. Third, we track aneca brand strategy without clear and ongoing in 10 years, the answers would likely dotal data. From admissions to advancement presidential support. Besides making the be very similar. to HR, we hear story after story of students, funds available for the initial investment, alumni, donors, and prospective employees and continuing to make funds available for repeating our core message—that we are a our marketing efforts, he frequently reminds the campus commutop-ranked Christian college—back to us and that the message was nity of our brand promise. He closely monitors the campus comimportant to them. munity to make sure we continue to live the brand promise. He On the advancement front, we had one of the biggest fundraisalso keeps a keen eye on any potential threats to that promise. Our ing years to date. On several occasions, our president has shared president gets it. If you don’t have that support and commitment with me how donors and donor prospects have viewed or heard coming from the top, I can’t see the endeavor being successful.” our message and how it influenced them. Franz: “Invest in living the brand.” We are expecting the largest incoming class in the school’s history this fall, and we have a waiting list for the first time. Right now, there are 29 deposited students on it. Our SAT scores and Robert A. Sevier is senior vice president of strategy at Stamats, Inc. To download a copy of his recent paper, “Understanding and Applying GPAs are both up, and we brought in a more diverse class.” Franz: “Too often, campuses fail to measure how well they are living mROI,” go to http://ow.ly/2jP6Z. Executing a Strong Brand Strategy 52 | September 2010 universitybusiness.com http://www.ow.ly/2jP6Z http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - September 2010

University Business - September 2010
Contents
Editor's Note
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Behind the News
Viewpoint
Financial Aid
Sense of Place
Internet Technology
Approaching Admissions Today
Three to Degree
Have College Brands Delivered on Their Promise?
Honoring Efficiency
EduComm 2010 Roundup
View from the Summit
Independent Outlook
What's New
End Note

University Business - September 2010