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Archive for the ‘Integrated Marketing’ Category

Lesson 210 What’s Happening to Print?

Posted in Branding, Integrated Marketing, Lessons Learned, Media Literacy, Strategic Communication on March 27, 2014| Leave a Comment »

No communication medium ever totally disappears. When a new medium becomes dominant, the roles of the others change.  So in this day of new and social media, what is happening to print?

Over the past ten years the challenge for institutions has been to determine which new media are most effective, and what are the implications for continued large investments in print publications. Truthfully, there is little reliable data on social media effectiveness, mostly because use patterns appear to be changing every day. And there are also different use patterns for each audience.

Nonetheless, there are some generalizations we can make that might be useful:

1. With regard to digital technology, searching websites is clearly a preferred method for finding detailed information, and social media can be extremely effective in motivating widespread response.

2. With regard to print, publications are still effective as tangible symbols of institutional commitments… tangible because constituents can feel a visceral connection by holding them in their hands, and they can then display them on their coffee tables and elsewhere as a way to let others know the pride they feel in that connection.

For example, in the university world (or even corporate world), a colorful general brochure can still be an important tangible connection with, and commitment to, an institution. In this new media environment, however, what has changed is that a brochure’s art and design is almost more important  than its’ content. This is because compelling photography or illustration can stand in “virtual” place of the institution itself, and text now is best used to “drive” readers (or brochure “skimmers”) to the website for more in-depth information.

In addition, in our new media world a magazine can also serve as a regularly appearing tangible symbol of an audience’s identification with an organization. Cut-lines allow readers to skim content, and well-designed and illustrated covers reinforce the brand. And so, just as the four-color general brochure,  displaying that magazine becomes an additional continuing source of personal pride.

Generalizations certainly can be misleading. But my experience these days suggests that while print rarely can take a lead role in communicating institutions, it still functions as a powerful symbolic identity reinforcement for many people.

 

 

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Lesson 203 “Boutique” Colleges

Posted in Branding, Higher Education, Integrated Marketing, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on February 7, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I imagine a world where a large number of innovative small colleges become the “boutique agencies” of higher education. They will use the advantage of their size to become quite nimble and highly innovative as they design totally new approaches to address the competitive realities of the future.

Such small, lean and highly creative boutique groups have emerged in the advertising and public relations industry to compete head-to-head with the well established, large, high-priced, high overhead  and cumbersome agencies. In response, small teams of professionals and creatives have come together  with little or no overhead to produce very innovative project and branding solutions, make compelling use of digital media, and serve clients with a price that makes sense.

The boutique college idea came to me at a recent conference as one president reported how she was able to align her tuition price directly with what it actually costs to deliver her college’s special kind of undergraduate education experience. Thus, she refreshingly will no longer be stating a higher tuition in order to maintain a high discount rate.

Discounting is the common practice in all of higher education that has enabled significant financial aid for some… which really amounts to a discount on the price. But the practice has evolved to where it confuses virtually everyone about what an education actually costs to deliver. Now there is at least one small college that is creatively addressing the problem.

Diversity of institutional type has been the hallmark of American higher education. Even so, in this age of intense competition and economic hardships, many have predicted the decline and fall of small colleges. “Boutique colleges,” however, with talented leaders who maximize the creative possibilities of their size, just might be able to show the rest of the world that American institutional diversity can and will  continue to lead higher education into the future.

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Lesson 197 Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Posted in Branding, Integrated Marketing, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on December 28, 2013| 1 Comment »

In previous posts I suggested that countries, institutions and even individuals can best articulate their distinctions by using easy to understand stories, or narratives. They should be inspirational, and as such they also have the potential to become “self-fulfilling prophecies.

Critics suggest that too many narratives stretch the truth too far, and become mere “spin.” But legitimate self-fulfilling narratives combine current strengths, values, cultural traits, location distinctions, and missions into a vision for a bigger and better future. A self-fulfilling prophecy uses current facts to inspire an institution or country to a new and higher level of achievement. Credibility is maintained because the vision is believable.

An America that is truly democratic, with opportunities for everyone, and protects each individual’s freedom has been a credible and enviable narrative for many years. It is inspirational, and promises a believable self-fulfilling prophecy. But polarization, infighting, unsolved economic problems, and confusing international behaviors are seriously threatening the credibility and believability of this narrative.

When you think about it, we all resent it when surrounded by truths that are stretched too far, or hear narratives that no longer ring true. Yet, we still yearn to be inspired by an institution or country we care deeply about. We will accept narratives that stretch us beyond the present. We will buy into exciting self-fulfilling prophecies. But such motivational narratives require consistent and credible champions.

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Lesson 194 Finding Our Narrative

Posted in Branding, Integrated Marketing, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on December 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

While scanning Book TV on C-Span last weekend, one of the authors speaking about conflicts in Israel commented: “We have lost our narrative!” I immediately knew exactly what he was trying to say. And from a communication dynamics perspective he was making a very astute observation.

All those years I spent helping institutions clarify their brand identities I was really helping develop their narratives. I would ask executive leaders to identify exactly why their institutions were founded. I would then suggest that the reason probably was to meet a need that was not being met. This starting point would become their unique competitive advantage, which would also be the essence of their brand identity, and fundamentally their founding mission. Over time, they would add a compelling vision grounded in that mission, and collectively all this would make up their basic story, or narrative.

Individuals have narratives too. Most of us have a driving purpose, even if at times it’s vague and elusive. Authors of memoirs bring a timeline and specifics to the telling of their story, and thus add substance to their narrative. Some are able to add a vision to complete their narrative. Understanding narrative is what keeps our identity and life purpose in tact.

Institutions and countries also have narratives.  And just as the Israeli author observed, we in the US may have lost our national narrative. The very “idea of America” may be getting lost in confused and prolonged angry polarization. We hear angry polarizing voices loud and clear. But where are the keepers of our narrative? Without a narrative we are lost.

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Lesson 184 The Presidential Address

Posted in Branding, Integrated Marketing, International, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Planning, Public Affairs, Strategic Communication on September 28, 2013| 1 Comment »

A major address by a president or CEO can be a powerful brand clarification tactic if it is followed by a carefully crafted and coordinated strategic communication and integrated marketing plan.

I came to understand the power of the carefully prepared and orchestrated  presidential address over many years of practice, and it caused me to ask whether or not President Obama’s United Nations address this week has the potential to be the foundation of a long-awaited clarified U.S. Foreign policy.

Such a speech standing alone will not accomplish this goal.  But if that speech contains a limited number of differentiating themes that can be lifted and later reinforced over time, the goal of a clarified policy or brand identity can certainly be reached. But it takes coordination, repetition, and the realization that such clarification only happens over time. Later speeches must repeat these themes in different contexts, and related  department and agency heads and staff must do the same thing.  In fact, all official and daily communication should find ways to reference those themes.

I analyzed the printed transcript of Obama’s UN speech this week and came up with  five such differentiating themes, and one overall perspective.  Overall, he asserted that all nations must stop focusing of what they are against, and begin immediately to articulate what they are for. Then within that perspective, I found these themes:

(1) National security. All nations, including the U.S., will act first to protect the security of their citizens. This explains how and why awkward affiliations and partners can occur.

(2) Universal opportunity. The U.S. believes all people are created equal. Therefore, everyone on the planet should have an opportunity to achieve what they are capable of achieving.

(3) Preserving the planet. Circumstances require that all nations must immediately focus on solving food, water, disease, air quality, land use, and energy crises.

(4) End nuclear weapons. The world must quickly accomplish this together. We simply have no choice.

(5) World peace. We must learn to accommodate various forms of democracy, governance, cultures and religion. We are one interconnected planet.

Are these themes complete and differentiating enough to constitute an entire U.S. foreign policy? If we can agree this is feasible, then to make it work a highly experienced chief strategic communication officer will have to be fully engaged in all White House deliberations, and also have the authority and access necessary to  coordinate all foreign policy communication, and communicators.

In addition, the 24/7 news cycle must be fully accommodated so that all daily messages reinforce those themes, and all action decisions are made taking the speed of daily news demands into account. This also means that operations must be made efficient enough to prevent the leaks and uncoordinated messages that have been undermining the president’s credibility.

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Lesson 174 Look Back…Then “Onward”

Posted in Integrated Marketing, Lessons Learned, Planning on July 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Looking back seems to be what my mind has been doing in recent days. Now that I am in the transition from vice-chancellor and professor to vice-chancellor emeritus and senior teaching and research fellow I have been looking back with both my academic and professional colleagues almost every time we meet.

That was certainly true this week at this year’s Council for the Advancement and Support of Education’s (CASE) Annual Leadership Summit. I led the team that redesigned the annual CASE meeting a number of years ago to be a “leadership summit” that surveys the big picture issues higher education is facing and their implications for university advancement professionals. Looking back, I had to concede that this year’s team made it much better than I had imagined!

Looking back is a good practice at regular intervals all along our professional journey.  Questions such as these can lead to reinventing oneself… a critical  long-term survival skill:

What have I done in recent years? What worked? What didn’t? What should I do more of? What should I avoid? How can I build on my inherent talents? Answer these and other questions… and then move on.

A friend of TCU, and a founder of the PBS News Hour, Jim Lehrer, responded to a congratulatory email I sent him upon his recent retirement. Besides saying thanks, he signed off with one word: “Onward.” Many say, Sincerely Yours, Cheers, Best Regards, or simply Best. But I had never seen Onward… and I liked it. This word is strong. It conveys determination. It’s about leaning into the future and pushing ahead through whatever we find.

You will note that the links above have all been rewritten with my eye on the future. On these pages I will continue to explore the impact of new media, the critical need for media literacy, the future of the academy, advancing institutions, and the cross-cultural understanding potential of US public diplomacy and international higher education.

Lessons learned will continue to be my theme, but only as a framework for looking ahead. Reinvention time is over. Now it’s time to say, “Onward!”

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Lesson 169 International Branding

Posted in Branding, Integrated Marketing, International, Lessons Learned on June 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Next week the Worldview Conference on Media and Higher Education is taking place in Toronto. I will be on two panels, one of which is interestingly titled, Branding and the Sophistication of the Communication Culture in Universities.

What makes this panel especially compelling to me is that it, along with the entire conference, is truly international and the implication is that brand identity is not only a signficant issue for universities everywhere, but communication initiatives are also becoming much more sophisticated.

My remarks will be built on my lessons learned over years of struggling to define brand for extremely complex academic institutions.  In the process I have come to believe that a powerful institutional brand is composed of the four or five most differentiating characteristics that distinguish it from others. Once they are effectively summarized and condensed into a simple statement, they become the institution’s brand identity. And eventually they come to be collectively symbolized in consistently used elements of design.

These institutional defining brand characteristics tend to be a combination of program strength, type of campus experience, cultural characteristics, commonly held values, and geographical location features. For them to be enduring over time they must be totally anchored in reality. Otherwise they only function temporarily as promotional hype.

It seems to me that brand identity will become even more important to competitive success in a global market than it has been in a domestic one. The more differentiated the brand the more likely an institution will stand out visibly in this new media world. And as student and faculty migration becomes more global, it is only natural to conclude that overall institutional characteristics will govern location choices.

In addition to this acknowledged international importance of institutional brand, this conference is a very strong affirmation of how international our industry is becoming, and how this reality is changing the game for everyone.

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Lesson 168 Transforming Organizations

Posted in Integrated Marketing, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Planning on June 8, 2013| Leave a Comment »

There are three dictionary definitions of the word transform:  (1)  change in form, appearance; or structure; (2) change in condition, nature, or character; (3) change into another substance.

I encountered the term again this week when I read a seminar promotion that claimed it could show me how to transform my institution. I realized that I had also made this assertion in the past. But for some reason when I read the claim this time it made me uncomfortable. What do we really mean when we say this?  And do we need to be more clear about what we mean?

If the word means changing an organization into a totally different place, that would rarely be our objective. This is simply shutting down one institution and launching another. In the case of marketing and communication this is not an example of transformation. Rather it is announcing the creation and start-up of a new organization.

What then is transformation? Characteristics that differentiate an institution are almost always found in its founding mission. New organizations are generally established to meet a need that is not being met. So when we intend to transform an existing organization we usually mean we intend to build on and modernize its founding mission. So extending the original differentiating mission creatively into the future is what I think most of us mean when we use this term.

Therefore, I believe transformation is a word used by most of today’s marketing and communication professionals to mean totally re-energizing an institution and the people who manage it. The most effective plans re-articulate founding mission, vision and values in such as way as to explain them with a bright new vision for the future. Importantly, they feature suggestions for revitalizing both  leadership and program initiatives, along with a complete set of tactical tools to achieve new levels of visibility within critical target markets.

This kind of transformation is not only possible, it is periodically necessary for most organizations.

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Lesson 167 Communicating the White House

Posted in Integrated Marketing, Lessons Learned, Public Affairs, Strategic Communication on June 1, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The way the White House has been dealing with the recent crises in the state department, justice department and the IRS is certainly fueling the argument that the government is too large to govern efficiently. That may be so. But my experience would suggest that an important element of strategic thinking and planning just might be missing.

A complicated and rapidly developing competitive environment in higher education a number of years ago is what caused me to begin thinking about bringing integrated marketing concepts into our strategic communication practice. Bringing more sophisticated communication tools into marketing had been underway in business for some time. But bringing marketing thinking into strategic communication had not yet happened, at least to my knowledge. Yet it was coming to my mind now out of necessity.

There are many components to integrated marketing.  But one that can make a huge difference in crisis situations is facilitated group analysis and planning. Many people don’t think more meetings are feasible in a fast-moving setting. But my experience has been that taking enough time to get everyone on the same page before acting can really pay off. And these meetings can be quickly organized and effectively managed if an experienced trained facilitator is close at hand.

Admittedly, the larger the organization the more complicated the challenge. And it’s true that many executives are just not patient enough to work through appropriate group process in any situation. But when things go badly, as they have now at the White House, it takes even more time to work through an ongoing growing mess.

First the commitment to try must come from the top, as well as an understanding of how to go about organizing the initiative. In the case of the White House, the president and chief of staff would have to give some careful thought to who from the various involved segments of government must participate, and who has the skills to lead it. It could be the communication director, but he or she must have the facilitation skills… and many do not.

A working group like this has three specific tasks: First, identify all the relevent facts and get them on the table. What actually happened? What are we doing about it? Second, determine the most complete and yet concise way to tell the story. Stay focused on the heart of the story, but all of it must be told. Otherwise pieces always will continue to dribble out. And finally, choose the most credible and confident spokesman for this particular situation. The more important the story, the higher the level the  spokesman. In crisis situations this is often not the press spokesman, or even the communication director. It is the highest level person closest to the events. And in cases as important as this one, it’s likely to be the president.

For the White House, the need to concisely clarify its primary national policy “brand” themes and reinforce them in everything that is said has also become critical. Priority audiences’ interests must be understood and directly addressed. And they must now be carefully targeted. The most efficient interactive tactics for reaching each must be launched by experienced new and social media practitioners. One thing is certain: A circle the wagons and defend the fort mentality simply will not work in crisis situations.

Breakdown is inevitable. But broadly planned strategic and facilitated group message coordination, together with audience targeting and focused interactive communication, can effectively address critical issues and systematically move institutions and nations ahead. It’s clear now that the White House needs a new approach. What they are currently doing is not working.

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Lesson 163 Brainstorming Publicity Ideas

Posted in Branding, Integrated Marketing, Lessons Learned, Planning, Strategic Communication on May 4, 2013| 1 Comment »

How many times have I been in meetings with small nonprofits listening to volunteers make long lists of ideas for how staff can improve visibility and recognition?

Most of the time I just wanted to tell them that anyone can think up more stuff to do, and more stuff to send out. Doing that is not even helpful. The key is to know exactly the right messages, the right audiences, the best tactics, and a feasible way to evaluate effectiveness… and then to make sure there are enough people available to do the work, and an adequate budget.

This is not rocket science. For marketing and communication professionals, it’s difficult to comprehend why people in general don’t understand all this. Too many people think more is better, and they really have no idea what professional public relations practitioners actually know and do.

Simply put, it’s never a matter of making lists of things for the current staff to do, and then making assumptions that they never thought of these things! Trust me, they have. Rather, it’s a matter of going through a systematic planning exercise to determine what not to do, as much as knowing what to do. Sending out more stuff only contributes to an already saturated environment, even when your organization has adequate staff and expertise.

First, you need to identify a set of message points that differentiate the organization from other similar ones. Collectively, these points define brand identity. Then, a few manageable priority markets must be identified, along with the media that each of them prefers. A simple survey mechanism also must be identified to assess market needs, as well as communication effectiveness. And finally, any added work needs to match the size and talent of available staff. Volunteers and interns are helpful, but not reliable over time.

It is very important to remember that more is never automatically better in communication. Less communication, well done and focused, can move organizations ahead. Small organizations must settle for baby steps. But regular and persistent baby steps do lead to  growth and recognition. It’s smart planning, rather than just more activity, that produces results.

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