MARKETING HIGHER EDUCATION A monthly electronic Newsletter to help you market your school, community college, college, or university. Vol. XIII, no. 4, April, 1999 -------------------------------------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS A special Marketing Higher Education HEADS UP..... Electronic Self-induced Marketing Fragmentation by Robert "Bob" S. Topor and Elizabeth "Liz" Pollard A "How-To" for Marketing Higher Education by Robert "Bob" S. Topor & Elizabeth "Liz" Pollard -------------------------------------------------- A special Marketing Higher Education HEADS UP..... Electronic Self-induced Marketing Fragmentation by Robert "Bob" S. Topor & Elizabeth "Liz" Pollard As colleges and universities flock to the Internet, and as WWW becomes a more common initialism on campus than the school acronym itself, we see the result, which is what we call "Electronic Self-induced Marketing Fragmentation." The Problem The problem is defined as the proliferation of Web sites linked to the institutional name when one executes a search for the institution. This is exactly the problem we have historically experienced with publications and traditional print media. Due to political and budgetary decentralization, many educational institutions are vulnerable to this problem: individual departments and other sub-units of the academy have the political "power" and "authority" to communicate. This, of course, is supported by the idea of "academic freedom" (which, incidentally, we strongly support and defend). However, this freedom now invades the Internet and an Internet "surfer" is confused and inundated with often conflicting and confusing marketing information. Sometimes it's hard to know which information is authentic and can safely be acted upon. As with most basic freedoms, a certain basic responsibility goes along with this one, to coordinate and present a unified image to the public. Often this information covers details about the academy which may be important to the department or individual sub-unit but obfuscates the overall academy message. The overpowering result is a very convoluted image! You see the problem! A recent search for "Cornell University" on Netscape resulted in dozens of items including: individual departments; the bookstore; cycling; animation projects; rugby; law publications; African writing; hippies and Woodstock; labor and employment; civil rights; money management; leadership training; and so on and on and on. You will also find a college or university name showing up for the authors of books and articles, simply because the author is an alumnus, which have no official connection to the institution! In addition, whenever the institution is mentioned in the text of another document on the Web, the reference to that item is likely to show up in a search on the name of the institution! The problem is made even worse by the fact that single words are taken out of context when they are indexed by search engines. Indeed, confusion reigns supreme! Test your school. We recommend you execute Internet searches for your school name and find what turns up. You may be surprised! We often find long lists of entries when we do educational searches. This may be a problem for a potential student, seeking information about admissions or financial aid, or an alumnus searching for information about her/his alma mater. Be sure to use different search engines in your quest (since search engines often deliver different results). You might also consider a Meta Search engine such as Mamma (http://www.mamma.com), which combines the databases of many other search engines into one search strategy. Tips for Searching for Your Institution on the Web One of the problems in executing a uniform search for the same institution on many Web search engines is the inconsistency in handling of terms and combinations of them by the search engines themselves. Unlike commercial databases and the search engines designed for reference use, there is no authorized list of key words, no controlled indexing vocabulary, so one concept may appear under a multitude of near synonyms. Thus, our first tip is: Start your search with a list of words in hand that mean close to the same thing ("university", for example, and "academic institution" and "college") This is not as important with a specific school name as it is in a search for a general concept, but typos can still be made when entering terms for a database. Second, make your search as specific as possible, not difficult to do with an actual institutional name, but important to stress. Rather than looking for universities in a certain area, or universities in the plural with a school name, put quotation marks around the name of your school and enter it exactly as it is authorized (i.e. "University of Notre Dame"). Most, if not all, of the major search engines allow the use of phrase searching in this fashion, or they may have a specific button to push for searching a phrase. Third, be aware that Web search engines use a different method of combining terms than the more familiar Boolean logic used in most reference databases like Dialog, ERIC, or Lexis/Nexis. Most use the plus and minus symbols for "and" or "not," but "and" usually does not mean you will find only records with BOTH terms, as it does in Boolean searching. Instead, in some search engines, it means you will get all records with EITHER term in the citation. In other engines, those records with BOTH terms will appear at the top of the results list, and those containing EITHER term will follow. It is also important to know that most, if not all, search engines assume AND between words entered separately, and what you will end up with is a list of citations with EITHER of the two terms in them. The plus and minus symbols are used immediately before a term to indicate whether to INCLUDE or EXCLUDE it from your search, so here's a far better technique to use. In front of each term which MUST appear in the citation, place a plus, and in front of each term that MUST NOT appear, place a minus. This rule INCLUDES the FIRST term in your search string. Otherwise, all the results will include the second term, but not necessarily the first. Examples: +university +oklahoma (NOT university +oklahoma) OR use "University of Oklahoma" +idaho +technology +college (NOT idaho +technology +college) OR use "Idaho College of Technology" +agricultural +mechanical +university -college (for records containing the word "university" but NOT the word "college") Of course, even with carefully structured searches, some garbage will fall in with these combinations. Often, there will be records where both "oklahoma" and "university" appear in the record, but not together! In most cases, therefore, it is better to search on the exact name of the institution than to combine terms for such a specific subject. There are many other tricks that will help with general Web searches, but all of them fall apart with a search engine like Yahoo, where one must use the categories in which the term is classified. In this particular directory (not really a search engine), it is best to "browse" the categories first, as they suggest in their instructions. Likewise, the name of a particular institution is much easier to pin down as a phrase search, where other strategies are better for a subject. Does your search turn up web sites for sub-units? Are those units linked to the master institutional web site? Or are they presented as autonomous bits of information (confusing to the web surfer)? Or do some of them appear only under an alternative name of your institution (i.e OU for University of Oklahoma)? This may be a case for the argument that less is more! What can you do about this? You can sit back and sarcastically say "so what else is new?" Or, you can suggest a system to engage the president and take a stance based on an institutional mission statement. We suggest you draft a mission statement for your institution's Internet presence which is in concert with your overall mission statement. Of course we know how difficult this can be on many campuses, especially ones which have allowed the proliferation of communications over the years, or have intentionally decentralized budgets as a way to "control" costs. However, the marketing losses may now and in the future far outweigh past savings. How we can help you. One of our services involves professional audits of Web sites for higher education. The studies we perform can be used on campus to initiate action. We can be the "bad guys" on campus. We will take the blame. You can use our audit to justify action to focus your Web work and sharpen marketing efforts. Find out about our Web audit service by calling Bob at (650) 962-1105 or Liz at (405) 247-2251. (We will work from your PO number). Direct WebAction service... We (Bob Topor and Liz Pollard) are available to come to your campus and address your internal audiences about the importance of a Web site that contributes to your integrated marketing plan with a focus on admissions. We will bring our knowledge and experience to help you convince others about the importance of your Web site to your academic mission. Bob flies from San Jose, California and Liz flies from Lawton, Oklahoma. We do work in many states in the U.S., and provinces in Canada and regions of Mexico. We prefer not to fly in bad weather into poor climates and prefer to schedule activities during pleasant times. If you are interested in this personal service call Bob at (650) 962-1105 or Liz at (405) 247-2251 and ask about our WebAction service. ***** -Bob Topor & Liz Pollard ***** NOTICE: As a subscriber to this electronic newsletter, you have permission to reproduce and use this article on your campus. All others please note ©1999, Topor Consulting Group International. Comments about, or requests to reprint should be directed to Bob Topor at topor@marketinged.com. ********** SPECIAL OFFER For Marketing Higher Education newsletter subscribers ONLY. Download the updated second edition of Bob's "classic" book, Marketing Higher Education - A Practical Guide, directly from his Web site at http://www.marketinged.com Special Deal: As a subscriber to this newsletter you have permission to make copies and distribute on your campus... a great aid for marketing committees! Make as many copies as you like (limited to your campus). You can get this book from the Home page on Bob's web site. It costs $40 (U.S.) It is easy to download to your computer, then you can reproduce it in your print shop or make photocopies. The first edition of this book has been one of CASE's best selling publications and has been used around the world. If you have questions call Bob at (650) 962-1105. NEW! "The Complete Guide to Focus Group Marketing Research in Higher Education" book is now available for downloading to your computer... Bob Topor's 55-page practical guidebook for running focus groups is now available for downloading. As subscriber to this electronic newsletter you have permission to purchase this book and make unlimited copies for use on your campus (copyright free). Regular cost is $32 in printed copy. You can purchase it for only $25. It is a great guide for how to do focus groups and has been Bob's best selling book ever! Don't miss this special offer! It's easy to order (secured credit card) and download... just log on to Bob's web site at http://www.marketinged.com and find it on his home page. Questions? Call Bob at (650) 962-1105 or e-mail him at topor@marketinged.com NEW! Download "Wasabi & Ginger" ($35.95 US) .... a book by Bob and his partner Dr. Moshe Engelberg .... for life development. It combines ideas from the business world with ones for personal satisfaction and success. You can use these ideas both in your business ventures as well as your personal life and success activities. Bon Appetit! This book is easy to download from Bob's web site: http://www.marketinged.com -------------------------------------------------- A "How-To" for Marketing Higher Education by Robert "Bob" S. Topor & Elizabeth "Liz" Pollard This is a brief and simple plan developer for newcomers (and seasoned professionals) to help you develop an aggressive educational marketing plan. 1. Conduct an image audit - look at the messages your school is sending, and what they "really" say, and to whom they are directed. The old principle about walking a mile in a man's moccasins before you judge him also has an application in self-evaluation. Try to look at your school from the viewpoint of a prospective student and what s/he looks for. Evaluate individual departmental efforts. Study how they relate (or don't) to the school's overall institutional image. Include admissions, development (fund raising), news, alumni efforts. 2. Conduct a SWOT analysis of the academy. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are key to marketing and curricular development and eventual success. This should include accreditation reviews of your academic programs. 3. Conduct a competitor SWOT analysis - identify your "real" competitors, as well as their perceived consumer strengths and weaknesses. This effort especially involves seeing yourself from another's perspective. Too many schools rely on popular phrases like "the Harvard of the South" or other catchy nicknames. Identify your competitors accurately by being ruthlessly accurate in identifying your strengths and weaknesses. Position your school amongst comparable competition. How is your institution DIFFERENT from the competitors who are its closest likenesses? Remember, your school is known by its DIFFERENCES; not similarities. 4. Conduct a market assessment, projecting where your academy will be heading over the next 12 to 18 months; then, map out what it will have to do (from a marketing/PR/communications context) to "be there" where the market is going. This includes trends in telecommunications (for your Web site and for networking with the world, an important goal to pursue to improve your position in today's market), as well as trends among prospects and competitors. Evaluate your curriculum as it relates to new directions. 5. You need to know: a. Who your customers are (and who they are not). Be sure to identify "customers" in broad ways... current students, potential students, students you have lost (to attrition), faculty, administrators, staff, alumni, firms in the area and employers elsewhere who often hire your students, and all the people who relate to your academy. b. Why students selected you - and why they've stayed with you. Your current "customers" are your best indicators of your successes (and failures). What attracted them to your institution to begin with? Despite the weaknesses you've already identified, why do they stay with you? What advantages did they find to offset the disadvantages every school has? c. Why your former applicants selected - then rejected - your academy. What weaknesses did they find so daunting that they were repelled and discouraged from continuing at your institution? d. Who are the admission prospects that got away - and why they selected another school. The best way to understand your school is to talk to those who reject your offerings. What were they looking for that your institution didn't provide? What did the other school have that attracted them to it instead? 6. Identify the "kinds" of applicants you will want to pursue over the next 12-18 months; and along with that, identify what those applicants will be looking for in educational opportunities. What is the demographic, intellectual, and aspirational profile of your "ideal student?" 7. Identify specific prospect-targets (hot, warm, cool) you would want to pursue in the near future. These targets should cover the breadth of your institution: admissions, fund raising, alumni, internal (faculty, students, parents, friends), external. Determine how they fit into your institution's mission and goals. Is it possible you have been reaching for the wrong targets? 8. Identify the prospecting and courting techniques you'll use, as well as promotional materials you'll need (from power-point demos on a laptop to collateral brochures, high school visits, participation, etc.). How will you highlight those strengths you identified? Are there other strengths you've been ignoring? How can you add those to your repertoire of recruiting methods? 9. Pay close attention to technology and implications for distance education, Web site development and maintenance, and communications within and outside of the institution. The key to the future is technological. Be sure you not only have the equipment, knowledge, and resources to take advantage of it, but know how you plan to emphasize these in your recruitment strategy. ***** -Bob Topor * Marketing Evangelist & Liz Pollard * Smoke Signals Enterprises ***** NOTICE: As a subscriber to this electronic newsletter, you have permission to reproduce and use this article on your campus. All others please note ©1999, Topor Consulting Group International. Comments about, or requests to reprint should be directed to Bob Topor at topor@marketinged.com. ********** -------------------------------------------------- Original posting: 4/30/99 Marketing Higher Education Newsletter is published by Topor Consulting Group International (http://www.marketinged.com). Newsletter posted by WEBB Internet Marketing & Consulting (http://www.firstchapter.com). copyright 1999 Topor Consulting Group International