Speakers: Larry Lauer and Tom Hayes

Lessons Learned: 

  1. It often takes a near crisis to launch a marketing initiative in many institutions 
  2. People find marketing like others find religion - in a crisis.
  3. The institution is often the product; which is why brand identity is so critical
  4. Image development takes time and consistent effort
  5. Price is the most complex issue in the marketing mix
  6. You probably can’t reduce financial costs of your institution so concentrate on the hassle convenience, social and psychological costs.
  7. Academic reputation gets you considered; other factors close the sale
  8. In higher education it is very difficult to achieve both relevance and distinctiveness, for many of us, it comes down to execution. 
  9. Promotion is now called “integrated communication” (integration, in their definition, means using all the tools in the toolbox….tools in this case is being defined as both advertising and PR instead of either/or.  no mention of new media)
  10. There is both a logical stage and an emotional stage when a student chooses a college/university; we need to address both
  11. Quality is both institution and consumer defined
  12. Service quality is much different from the quality of a physical good

I’m sorry, but these speakers are very old school.  VERY old school.  Even the PowerPoint template they’re using is old school! I remember it from high school.  I think with their positions, they have a certain perspective and that perspective is really tainting the information they’re giving out.  I’m sure they’re very good at what they do and don’t want to take anything away from them there, but let’s face it - what’s taught in the college classroom is VERY different than what’s being practiced out there (or, rather, what SHOULD be being practiced out there).   When I did my MBA I didn’t learn about any of the marketing tactics I’m using now.  MBA = old school, not new media.

With that, I bid Chicago ado. Lots of good content from this conference but also more than a few things that made me go “huh?”  Stay tuned for all my opinions on it in my reflections post!