Larry D. Lauer

A higher education colleague and I were recently enjoying a Texas Rangers baseball game when he suddenly said: “Wouldn’t it be great for a university to do a series of symphony concerts in this wonderful ballpark?”  His remark reminded me of how imaginative fine arts and cultural programs and projects staged in unusual locations can make a major impact on the quality of life in a city… and at the same time, broaden and enhance an academic institution’s brand identity.

A few days later I was reading the blog of the CEO of the University of Warwick in the UK. In it he expressed great  surprise that more universities do not use their strengths in arts and letters to influence the cultural life of their communities in creative ways. This is surprising to me too, especially when doing so always uplifts an institution’s  stature and can dramatically expand its financial and word-of-mouth support.

The blogger gave several examples by referencing an artist’s “sound installation” in a London railroad station sponsored by a local university, a Shakespeare drama troupe that wonders from site to site around the city, a high visibility creative writing project led by a famous poet at his own university, and even a prestigious institution’s internet listing of “must read” books!

We in institutional marketing and communication are sometimes satisfied to promote the programs that others routinely offer. But far more often we should actually be taking the initiative to generate new ideas and big projects that are guaranteed to significantly enrich our communities. Such activities always enhance our brand, and are well worth our creative talents, time and effort. 

Of course, what we can effectively do in our cities must always be defined by seeing our particular strengths in the context of the particular character and culture of the community around us. But make no mistake, we will always benefit when we help develop special projects that clearly connect to those cultural features most treasured by our fellow citizens.

After all, marketing is much more than promoting programs already in place. It is about seeing how product, exchange of values, distribution, and promotion operate together.  And so we must always assume that our role is to help shape  innovative new “products” (or projects) that grow from our deep-rooted institutional strengths and connect to deep-rooted external strengths and organizations. 

We call this kind of strategic thinking and planning, “leveraging.”  And it is simply the art of seeing how an academic institution and its community can combine compatible strengths to broaden, clarify, and raise the visibility of, both brand identities in the world.