Speaker: Dr. Robert A Sevier, Senior VP, Stamats

URL for the slides: www.stamats.com/buildingbrandawareness

The important part about integrated marketing is the “integrated” part - getting people to work together is THE hardest thing and the less inclined they are to work together, the more money you’re going to spend. 

The purpose of your brand is to generate awareness - it’s not an art it’s commerce.  They make your recruiting and fundraising strategy look good. 

Direct marketing is always better when it’s preceded by a branding strategy.

In higher education right now, retention is flat and declining - it is not hard to recruit a freshman.  A freshman that wants to become a sophomore?  That’s hard.

Internal communication - how do you keep internal people aware of what’s going on? 

You can’t run integrated marketing from the marketing office.  It’s an institution-wide commitment.  The marketer is the conductor of the orchestra - he’s not playing every instrument.

A brand is not just a look - it is a trustmark, a warrant and a promise.  

A brand is a valued and differentiating promise collece, university, or school makes to its most important audiences to meet a need to fulfill an expectation.

Perry Forester: “A brand is a promise expressed as a benefit that your target audiences value”

Rob Frankel: “Truly successful brands are perceived by the target audience as the best, or even old, solution to a particular need.

If you’re not differentiating yourself, you’re forcing your students to do it based on something else (which will probably be price)

You don’t have students from 49 states - you really have students from three states.  Honesty is the first step towards progress. 

80% of organizations believe they deliver a superior customer experience, but only 8% of their customers agree - Bain & Company

If you don’t have the dollar capital to build a brand, than you will need the political capital - you will need the presidents/senior leadership to be deeply committed to the undertaking. 

Vision + Communication = Shared Purpose

Does your faculty and staff understand the brand strategy? Can they communicate it effectively? Do they understand how it should impact how they do their job? 

How are you building your internal brand?

  • Did you launch or leak the brand strategy?
  • Tie directly to mission and vision?
  • What training have you conducted?
  • Who are your brand advocates/brand evangelists?  Influential people within the organizaiton who understand and embrace the brand strategy; develop these people as “change agents” who can generate excitement and reduce anxiety
  • What resources have you made available?

The first place to express your brand is where you are already spending money.  Most effective brand strategies are not about spending new dollars. 

A good marketing person is channel agnostic - all they are interested in is results. 

 

A creative brief is the fastest way to get to a good creative

  • singular target audience
  • what is the one thing this audience is likely to say about us now, based on research
  • after this campaign is over, whats the one thing we want them to say?

Three different design strategies: predictable, surprising, courageous.  If you show them courageous, they’ll get scared and be more likely to pick surprising.

You don’t want your creative to imply something that you’re not. 

Learn from IKEA: In the old days 10% of the creative dollar was spent on the idea and 90% on the placement.  Now, 90% is spent on the idea and if the idea is good enough, the placement is free. Get off the “we need to buy advertising” kick.  When advertising agencies want new clients, they go to PR.  You can never build a brand with just good advertising.

The only thing faster than the internet is word of mouth

When students visit your campus, what they’re really looking for is a way NOT to go to your school - don’t give them a reason. 

If you don’t make your messages so simple that people immediately get them, they won’t stick around for the complex ones. 

An extraordinarily good campus photographer is worth $3,000/day. 

When students say “technology” what they mean is wireless; When faculty say “technology” what they mean is Powerpoint

The campus visit is about closing the deal.

If we were delivering the experience as promised, the students would market to each other. 

The more distributed a brand becomes the stronger its management needs to be.