Larry D. Lauer

Colleagues often ask me how to handle opinion leaders, department heads and executives who won’t cooperate with initiatives to integrate institutional marketing.

I tell them that the biggest mistake I made in my work was to think that I would have to convert the critics before I could move ahead with my planning.

Early in my work with academic institutions, I came head-to-head with a very influential business school dean who decided to be an outspoken critic of my efforts. Clearly, he wanted others to think that, under his leadership, his school could step out in prominence and bring the rest of the university along with it. My belief was, and still is, that an individual school or program can only become as prominent as its university, and that building a distinctive program (sub-brand) reputation can be most effectively accomplished by simultaneously advancing the overall institutional brand. 

Building distinctive sub-brands, which tie to consistent institutional brands, is what integrating marketing really means. It is accomplished with multi-platform communication, and orchestrated group dynamics.

The lesson I learned was that converting determined critics is often impossible. They can become even more vocal, and many actually enjoy putting you on the defensive. It took a long time, but I eventually learned that I could form a team of those who saw benefits in cooperating with me, and together we could move an integrated marketing program ahead.

The key is in harnessing the power of group dynamics: Use your team to get the branding messages into the internal environment.  And when that happens, even when important people are not on board, the train will begin to pull out from the station. Now, the institution is on its’ way!

Make no mistake, on a given day it can seem like it is all crashing down around you.  Give it several months, and then look back. You will be amazed at how far you’ve come.