Resources
Thoughts from our team to help you differentiate and reach the next generation of learners.
Categorization in Higher Education Marketing Just like any product or service, prospective students and parents use categories to relate to colleges and universities. We know this innately because we all use categories as short-hand to talk to one another about different schools. Is it a small school or big school? Is it a 4-year school… Continued
Persona creation, in the realm of marketing, is like having a map that guides you directly to your customer’s needs and desires. It involves sketching out detailed profiles of ideal customers based on solid research and data from your current customers. These personas are more than just demographics; they’re a mix of motivations, pain points,… Continued
“If you aim at nothing you’ll hit it every time.” Zig Ziglar Suppose you were opening a high-end restaurant where you had hired a world-renowned chef from Paris, engaged an expert architect and interior designer to guide your multi-million dollar restaurant build-out, and secured exclusive relationships with the most sought-after food purveyors in the world. … Continued
Along the lines of infusing values into marketing, broadening your marketing efforts to focus more on customer needs and aspirations (instead of mere product attributes and features) can be powerful. To explain this, the late Harvard Business School Professor Theodore Levitt coined the term “marketing myopia” to refer to the tendency of organizations to be… Continued
So if leveraging values is good enough for Apple and Nike, why isn’t it good enough for higher education brands? All too often, colleges and universities tend to talk more about rankings, top-rated faculty, and statistical merits. The problem is that every college can talk about rankings, top-rated faculty, and statistical merits. That ultimately lumps… Continued
“Marketing is about values.” —Steve Jobs When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1995 after being fired only a few years earlier from the very company he founded, one of his first tasks was to reinvigorate a brand that, in his view, had been neglected. During his absence, Apple had seemingly lost its way—focusing on… Continued
The 80/20 Principle in Higher Education Marketing Since we know that the power of the 80/20 Principle is evident so many walks of life, we can safely assume that its presence and impact in the world of higher education is well worth understanding and exploring. And since marketing is so much about understanding where to… Continued
Introducing the 80/20 Principle If you’ve ever taken a serious look at the carpet in your home, assuming that it’s been there for any length of time, you’ll likely notice that some parts of it are much more worn than others. You might notice that the areas of the carpet near your most commonly-used entry… Continued
What Is Marketing? Even including a definition of marketing seems a bit presumptuous if not condescending. After all, most higher education marketing personnel are well-versed in the tenets and philosophies of marketing. That said, it’s interesting to learn from many in the industry about how their backgrounds are very much non-marketing in nature. I heard… Continued
There are all sorts of communication tools to reinforce how you are different. Conceptually, though, there is a particularly powerful one that cuts to not only the core of where your brand thrives, but how that relates to a deficiency within your competitor, creating a particularly large margin in the eye of your prospective student.… Continued
If there’s one thing we know about marketing it’s this: if we don’t build awareness we won’t have any customers. And while there are
Man is a storytelling animal. He is a teller of stories that aspire to truth. —Alasdair Macintyre The Hidden Stories Within I was once talking with a client
Along the lines of infusing values into marketing, broadening your marketing efforts to focus more on customer needs and aspirations (instead of mere product