Hello…and thanks for being such avid readers of the eduWeb Conference blog, eduWeb Buzz! A lot of you are enjoying it and I’m pleased, so I’m sorry for being a bit late in posting something this new year! We have a change in Guest Blog Authors this month, instead of Sean Carton of idFive, it will be Rich Vallaster of Creosote Affects and his posting will come next.
Look for our announcement of Opening & Closing Keynote Speakers this Thursday, Jan. 17th and the launch for the Call for Papers. I’m looking forward to getting lots of great proposals for presentations this year and want to see all of you come to our new location in Atlantic City!
Talk to you soon!
shelley
January 14th, 2008
A big “hello” to eduWeb Conference folks. I want to begin by thanking Shelley for inviting me to be this month’s guest author on this blog. I’m looking forward to visiting Baltimore and meeting all of you readers in person and attending some dynamic sessions.
I read with interest Shelley’s interview with Bob Johnson of Bob Johnson Consulting, the keynote speaker at this year’s conference. He has some points that resonated with me and I would like to start my month-long authorship of this blog by expanding and/or reflecting on some of his ideas.
Let’s start by addressing the goliath we know better as the University of Phoenix. The December 1st issue of the Chronicle reported that they are the 7th largest online advertiser. Is it any wonder that they gobble up students in whatever market they are in? University of Phoenix has become the Goliath of adult learning in higher education. To compete, you either need to think like David to take down the giant or find the niche that they have not conquered. But first let’s understand Goliath a little better.
Bob Johnson said, “Branding programs can be good, they require elements of three things that many places don’t have: 1) willingness to change academic programs and student services, 2) substantial monetary resources, and 3) patience.” University of Phoenix has all three of these. They CAN more easily have all three components because they are a for-profit business.
University of Phoenix’s history does not constrict them. They have a commitment to their customers. They do not need to think about their customer’s spiritual development nor any long standing academic traditions in liberal arts, science or engineering as a traditional school does when it imagines change. University of Phoenix is a business, it is simple. They look at a market. Do the market research and find the need. It might go like this:
• In My Town there are four hospitals crying for nurses.
• The research they conduct shows that there is a legion of young people crying for jobs with meaning and purpose
• They open a campus to serve these two niches.
• They deliver an accredited nursing program at My Town campus, catering to the needs of their target audience
• It is no surprise that students graduate and graduates get jobs.
It is not so easy for the colleges that have constraints that our Goliath can only imagine. This is the area where people like Bob, and my colleagues Jim Paskill, Dave Black and Jeanne Gosselin operate. Our client, Christian Ivy, struggles in My Town to enroll 400 freshmen a year in a strong liberal arts program with an emphasis on service, in a faith-based community. If Christian Ivy could afford market research it would tell them where their market is, just like the University of Phoenix discovered. Does Christian Ivy need to find a way to do the research? Yes. Otherwise they continue to plug away at marketing initiatives hoping someday to stumble upon a tactic that will open a new market. Going back to Bob Johnson’s three critical elements, Christian Ivy needs to be willing to make changes in the academic offerings to address the current need, use what resources they have smartly, and give it the time to make it stick.
Whether you are the University of Phoenix, Christian Ivy, or Local Community College, identify the need, define the target audience, craft the messages and then assertively deliver. Everybody says “work smarter not harder” which you can do once the goals have been defined and a plan is in place. Like David, find the place where you can make maximum impact.
This is an incredibly difficult thing to do on your own when you are the enrollment manager in the trenches, managing a staff, and trying to meet the enrollment numbers.
To survive Christian Ivy College needs to compete by marketing to potential students who would value from their particular version of teaching. Some three thousand years ago, the priests at Delphi carved the words, “Know Thyself” in the stone of the temple wall. I am not sure which is more important, the idea of market research and knowing the market or the idea of knowing your institution. But I do know that to compete you need to do both. Bob Johnson, Jim Paskill, Dave Black and Jeanne Gosselin can often help by focusing people and their energy on attaining the goal by detailing the many small steps needed to successfully market today.
How does all this relate to the eduWebConference?
Integrated marketing used to mean that if you took all your publications; from admissions, sports information, advancement, graduate, or continuing education, put them all down on the conference room table and they all looked alike then you were doing really well. They were a family. Everything together told your public who you were. That has changed with the web – dramatically. You still need the family of publications but now it must be related to the web, your email, and your other new technology channels. Because the web is immediate, you can and should consider it a living document. It should change to reflect new messages. Print on paper is linear, while the web is dynamic. Most people start at the beginning of a book, you never know what page a person will land on when visiting you website. With all of these channels to manage maybe we should think of branding for most schools more like the suggestions in the old book “Dress For Success?” When it comes to the web the Dress for Success rules are encapsulated in a Content Management System.
Simplistically, Know Thyself, Know Thy Market and Dress for Success.
More thoughts later.
February 7th, 2007
Yes, our very own 2007 Keynote Speaker, for the eduWeb Conference, Bob Johnson, was quoted in Friday’s (Nov. 24th) New York Times. The article is titled “Erasing Divide, College Leaders Take to Blogging.” If you don’t already have a FREE account with the NY Times, sign up at: http://www.nytimes.com/ OR if you have signed up, read the article at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/22/education/22blogs.html?_r=1&oref=slogin .
November 28th, 2006
Our first posting, from Shelley Wetzel, Dir. of Marketing Communications & Conference Director, of the eduWeb Conference … and now, launching, the eduWeb Buzz Blog!
The first REAL posting will be an interview with our 2007 Keynote Speaker, Bob Johnson, of Bob Johnson Consulting. I’ve known Bob for almost 5 years now, originally meeting him at the AMA’s (American Marketing Association) annual Symposium on Higher Education, that time, in Chicago.
November 13th, 2006
