Blame my degree in Organizational Communication for this, but I essentially bullied my director into allowing me to lead a discussion about our department’s brand.  It was a lengthy presentation that ended up being split into two parts, but I believe that our leadership team came out of that meeting with a better understanding of what differentiates us from other departments.  Below is a “concise” version of what we covered:

Foundation – What you need to know about your department before getting to the good stuff.

• Brand Definition:  “A name, term, sign, symbol, design, or combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competition.” – American Marketing Association.
• What services do/should the department offer?
• Who are our target audiences?  This part of the discussion took nearly an hour.  While it’s natural to want to target the entire university, is it realistic?  We (eventually) narrowed it down to about seven segments, many of which overlapped.  Doing this allows us to better serve and understand that population.
• Note:  This does not mean we prohibit students in non-targeted segments from engaging with us.
• Who/What’s our competition?  Now that we know who we’re targeting (and we know a little bit about them), who or what else relies on these same targets?  A couple givens are class and work, maybe Athletics or the local bars if you do evening programming.

Positioning - Now that we’ve agreed about what we do, who we do it for, and who the competition is, we can position ourselves in a way that shows our target audiences why they will benefit from us.  Think of it like this:  consumers (in our case, students) have this bookcase in their brains, and there’s a shelf for everything.  When they see a department on campus, they put it on one of the shelves.  If we’re lucky, they’ll put our on the shelf we belong on.  If not, we could end up in that miscellaneous shelf on the bottom.  Positioning gives the book a definitive book cover.

• Creating your “Essence”:  This is a three-word phrase (adjective, adjective, noun) that is the very core of what your brand is about.  It shouldn’t change over time.  My favorite example is Post-It:  Fast, Friendly Communication.  What this essence does is opens them up to do anything that involves Fast, Friendly Communication.  Imagine if it was Sticky, Yellow Paper.  There’s only so much they could do with that.  In my office, we decided on Interactive Learning Experience.  It’s a bit broad in my opinion, but this is something that we now consider with every program that we do.
• Creating your “Promise”:  The brand’s promise is a one-liner that is unique to the department.  As author Brad Van Auken says in “Brand Aid” (for the record, Brand Aid was my best friend during this time):  The promise drives budgets and stops arguments.  An example is “Only the [dept. name] delivers [benefit] to [target audiences].  This promise should be echoed in your mission, your services, the way you communicate, and everything else.
• Creating your “Personality”:  This is a list of five to ten adjectives that describe the type of organization your department is.  Why is this important?  Because people relate to brands very similarly to the way they relate to people.  If you’re conscious of this, it pays off.

Identity – This step makes the book cover we just created attractive through the use of sensory components.  These allow you to project everything that you’ve created internally in a way that tells students what you are and how you’re different from your competitors.

• Department Name:  typically, we don’t have too many opportunities to change this, but we know we want it to clearly state what we are about, and ensure that the acronym isn’t anything derogatory.
• Logo:  Three Rules–easy to read from afar, recognizable in black and white, and meaningful.
• Slogan:  This communicates your office’s position in a way that’s powerful, succinct and memorable.
• Note:  Other things to consider are your hold music, any music played in the front office, the way your staff answers the phone, and your policy on email signatures and voicemails.

This discussion was eye-opening for us because it was nothing the department had considered, and on a large campus with a huge population of 1st Gen-ers, the more attractive we can be almost directly correlates with the number of students we can assist.  Have any of your departments undergone any kind of branding discussions?

I spent some time at Carnegie Mellon University visiting a former intern last week. As we walked through their beautiful University Center, I noticed a large number of campus clubs with tables set up trying to solicit students to join their group. Every table was covered with reading material and a bowl of candy to entice students to come closer. My mom taught me when I was really little to never go towards a stranger handing out candy . We also passed several bulletin boards littered with posters for upcoming events. It all reminded me of an advertisement I saw for a marketing class I was invited to attend…

“If you market it, they will come.”

I don’t agree. Both in business and for student groups. I prefer this slogan…

“Show not tell.”

Instead of an info table for your organization, set up an interesting or creative activity related to your topic, in a place with high foot traffic. You’ll get a 1000x times more curious onlookers by showing what you do verses telling people what you do. If nothing else, you’ll have spent your time doing something verses just talking about it from behind a table.

Let’s stop marketing to prospective members and start engaging them.

Recently a marketing consultant visited our campus and reported that the “branding” trend is over. I interpreted this to mean that 1) I can cross personal branding off my “to do” list, and 2) our campus can eliminate its struggling branding committee.

Oh, don’t cancel the committee meetings yet. The new trend reportedly is…authenticity. Say what? At first I was irked to think that authenticity was being commandeered as a marketing trend. Then I said to myself, “It’s about time.”

I probably should have seen it coming. Domino’s, for one, has gone “authentic.” Its commercials show customers condemning the old product—bland sauce, crust like cardboard–with corporate execs committing to addressing these issues. Okay, so maybe I’ll give their pizza another try.

I recently visited a campus that I’d been reading about in journals and hearing about at conferences. With its spectacular Web site, this institution is obviously working to craft an image of quality and innovation. This university is motivated to get out of the shadows of a better-recognized sister institution. However, the “truth” isn’t quite the image the campus is projecting, at least not yet. What I experienced, though, is that this campus is unique and wonderful in its own right. Students love it because of what it is—not because of what it’s seeking to become.

We owe our students authenticity. And, in fact, the students on our campus, and probably yours, know very well what we’re about (regardless of our brochures and Web sites). Students like our park-like setting, size, and non-party atmosphere. They say they enrolled here for the “three T’s”: trees (we’re surrounded by an arboretum), toilets (all residences have private bathrooms), and tunnels (our academic buildings are connected by concourses). Sometimes they’ll add a fourth T: teachers. Faculty and administrators cringe at students’ descriptions. I would, too, if I didn’t also know that our students are receiving a high-quality education at an affordable price. Try representing all of that with a brand.

A colleague of mine once described our state’s residents as “hardworking, family-centered, traditional, obedient, accepting: that is, not expecting too much, and not being too disappointed when not too much happens.” Perhaps this is a bit of an exaggeration, but it is anchored in truth. Our campus, perhaps not surprisingly, reflects our state. It’s a comfortable, safe place with solid students who are involved, who don’t get bothered by much, and who ultimately want decent-paying careers. We can connect best with prospective students by giving them a genuine, multi-dimensional perspective of our campus. They will decide whether it’s a good fit.

Has your department or campus defined its “brand”? If so, how has it impacted your institution? In light of budget cuts and declining enrollments, is your campus looking into changing its identity or changing how it represents its identity?

[With all this said, our community does enjoy a bit of a national reputation, built around a certain professional football team. But even the team is considered by many to be “authentic” (or more authentic than most). Community members (the team is owned by the community) shun diva-like behavior. Still, we’re a polite and forgiving people who will give a hero’s welcome to our misguided former quarterback, when he returns home to retire his number.]

This was a sad day. One of my favorite stores let me down.  Target, how could you do this?

My colleague at Bridgewater State posted this photo on his Facebook expressing his disappointment at this marketing approach and I took the liberty of sharing it with the student affairs community on Twitter.

The result was a flurry of “Retweeting” and conversation and many people wondering if this was a one-time mistake by a manager in a location that shall remain anonymous in Millbury, MA or a company approved display approach for their “off to college” season.

Needless to say, this is a huge disappointment to see a major retailer advocating for binge drinking and targeting (pun intended) families of incoming students in a store’s attempt to be “fun.” A large retailer like Target is in an outstanding position to support student success on college campuses and I would hope we would see support for the goals of higher education instead of this slap in the face.

I really hope that incoming students and their families out there who are going back to school shopping are savvy enough to realize that the list of “campus essentials” need not include ping pong balls, solo cups, and a folding table. If you don’t believe me, please consult your campus’ student handbook to find out what potential student conduct sanctions we may need to discuss.

One additional interesting piece of this whole dialogue has been the lack of response from Target to what I believe was a significant level of conversation over the course of a day.  I posted this picture in a tweet at 11:15 a.m. EST and the message was mentioned or retweeted more than 65 times over the course of the day in my Twitter feed alone.

The Target corporation has 29,213 followers so I am quite sure they have a long column of @ Mentions. However, 65 mentions on the same topic should probably be worth noticing, even if over the weekend. This is a great example of why any organization should be monitoring their online brand. One response to my tweet at some point today may have helped to quell some of the dissatisfaction.

On another note, another colleague emailed Target with a complaint about this display and in a matter of hours received an email reply  that included the following quote:

“We try to represent our merchandise in a manner reflecting our company philosophy and image as a fun, family-oriented store, while serving many guests with diverse tastes and interests. Of course your thoughts and comments are a big help to us, and I’ll be sure to let our Advertising executives know what you’ve had to say.”

Oh, Target. I’ll refrain from writing about your claim of “family-oriented” while we are talking about what is clearly a beer pong display. Instead, I will ask you to learn a little more about what it takes for students to be successful in college.  We need you to play a supporting role in helping young people to get the best possible messages about what it takes to succeed in college.

The student affairs community can play a great role in educating retailers about ways they can help us to promote positive messages about college student success.  How do you think we can best share our expertise?