The AMA Steering Committee has received a few requests to be even more transparent about how papers are selected for the Symposium.  In fact, we’ve been encouraged to “overcommunicate” about how decisions are made. So, here are some details about the meeting of the Committee just yesterday to review the 148 paper proposals.

Generally speaking, the Committee read the proposals for relevance to the challenges that higher education marketing practitioners are facing today. Each one of the 8 Committee members reviewed the papers individually looking for those that addressed issues that were believed to have wide appeal among Symposium attendees. As we moved through the proposals, if one had 6 yes votes based on the individual reviews, it was automatically added to the program. But, there were only a handful in this category.

The reverse was true as well; papers with 6 no votes from the individual reviews were discussed only if a Committee member stepped in to champion it. Sure fire ways to get 6 no votes? A vendor submitting without a co-presenter from a campus. A 10 sentence session description that includes 9 sentences of marketing theory and a final statment that begins with “In this session, we’ll cover……” A narrow topic that might only attract 5 people to the session. A session description that is poorly written and seems like it was “thrown together” at the last minute. A “re-proposal;” same speaker, same topic from last year. A paper that sounds like it really belongs at eduWeb, UCDA, or NACAC.

What makes the proposal review process so interesting and fun is that my fellow Committee members have widely varying views of the proposals.  There were several that I marked a firm “yes” in my individual review that were NOT selected from the program. And, in all cases, I agreed with those decisions after hearing the comments of the Committee. There were also those that I marked a firm “no” as I reviewed the papers late into the evening one night last week, that WERE ultimately selected for the program. Other Committee members successfully argued they would add great value to the program. It’s this dynamic that really makes the steering committee approach work so well for the AMA.  Arguments are made and heard by Committee members that come from every segment of higher ed marketing; research, creative, strategy, corporate, public, private, large, small, digital, social, organizational, traditional….you name it, we have it on our Committee.

My best advice for paper proposers is to make sure your topic has broad appeal. Make sure it’s not too focused or “nichey.” Pull out the attributes of your story that can appeal to almost any higher ed marketer.  Consider this carefully as you draft your session title and description. Only 1 in 3 paper proposals was selected for the program, so quality counts.

Everyone is in for a fantastic AMA Symposium this year. It will be totally different than last year. The number of proposals on the Web and social media went down dramatically for the 2nd year in a row. They were replaced by more proposals on org structure, internal marketing, and strategy.

Go ahead and sign up for the Symposium now and make your hotel reservations early!

Elizabeth Scarborough

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If you’re looking for a little pick-me-up, check out this article on the “50 Best Success Quotes of All Time.” A compilation of quotes from the likes of Socrates, Abraham Lincoln, Steve Jobs, Maya Angelou, and John Wayne will definitely give you a mid-morning boost! Below are some of my favorites. And, if all else fails, remember that tomorrow is Friday!

1. “Identify your problems but give your power and energy to solutions.” Tony Robbins

2. “Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.” John Wooden

3. “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”  Maya Angelou

– Renee Daly

This week, the Steering Committee for the 2012 AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education has been buried in a review of 145 paper proposals. It’s an exciting, albeit exhausting, exercise! The Committee is chaired by Terry Flannery, VP for Communication at American University, and includes:

* myself (as immediate past chair)

* Teri Lucie Thompson, Chief Marketing Officer, Purdue University

* Hallie Sammartino, Ph.D., VP for Marketing and Communications, St. John’s University

* Ed Sevilla, Senior Counsel, Lipman Hearne

* Julie Ried, VP, The Ward Group

* Jenny Brower, Mission Control, Mindpower Inc.

* Deborah Maue, Associate VP for University Marketing, DePaul University

* Cassandra Robinson, Director, University Relations & Marketing, Bowie State University

* Bill Faust, Senior Partner & Chief Strategy Officer, Ologie

For at least the last 8 years, the Symposium has consisted of 4 paper sessions in each of 8 time slots. But, this year, the committee has the option of expanding that to 5 or 6 paper session in each time slot. This means that if enough papers are selected by the Committee, we’ll have a total of 48 sessions compared to the 32 we had last year.

The number selected depends on the quality of the submissions. Before the Committee meets in person on Monday, May  7th, each member will submit their individual choices to the AMA. The selections are identified with a simple yes, no, or maybe.  If the large majority of Committee members gives a particular paper a “yes,” it’s automatically added to the program and no discussion is required at the in-person meeting. About a third of the program is filled by these “auto-yes” papers. The Committee spends an entire day discussing and debating which papers should fill the remainder of the program.

What often happens is that there are seemingly duplicative papers. This occurs on the topic of social media relatively frequently. Two proposers will submit strong paper proposals on a similar topic and the Committee must read the proposals over and over and engage in a good discussion before deciding which one would be best for the program.

One thing that every paper proposer can be assured of is that every single paper proposal is considered carefully by the Committee. Our meeting on Monday will be a marathon event in which we painstakingly move through each and every proposal to make and hear arguments about why it should or should not be included on the program. While the primary goal is to select only the very best papers, a secondary goal is to ensure diversity on the program. We want the widest variety of institutions represented and the widest variety of topics covered so that all attendees of the Symposium will find value in the content.

In addition to meeting about the paper proposals, the Monday meeting will include a thorough discussion of the other sessions that will be offered at the Symposium. These include 5 keynote addresses, 6 advanced marketing sessions, 5-6 tutorial sessions, and a series of roundtables.  Needless to say, we have a lot of work on our plate!

To all of you that submitted paper proposals for the Symposium, thank you. We will be notifying all submitters of the Committee’s decisions by the end of May. Please keep in mind that, at best, just 1 in 3 proposals will be included on the program. With so many choices, I have no doubt this year’s Symposium will provide all attendees with the most useful professional development program of the year.

Elizabeth Scarborough

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SimpsonScarborough, a market research firm that works exclusively with colleges and universities, seeks a Project Manager for its Old Town Alexandria, VA headquarters office. Preferably, candidates should have at least three years of project management experience. Interest in market research and higher education is preferred.

The Project Manager is responsible for start-to-finish project management including maintaining effective communication with clients, establishing and maintaining timelines, preparing client correspondence, drafting moderator guides and survey instruments for qualitative and quantitative research, working with external data collection vendors, coordinating and conducting focus groups, writing reports, and presenting to clients.

The Project Manager will be expected to travel to client campuses. Travel time is estimated at 10% of the position’s time.  Salary range is $40,000-$50,000, commensurate with experience.

Please submit cover letters and resumes to Wanda Hoath at wh@simpsonscarborough.com. For additional information about SimpsonScarborough, please visit our website at www.simpsonscarborough.com.

There was a great article in Inside Higher Ed this morning about Warren Wilson College. There wasn’t one mention of marketing or branding….but the article describes a move by the College that is most definitely related to its brand identity. Starting in the Fall, Warren Wilson’s infamous service learning program will get a little facelift.  Students will still be required to engage in 100 hours of service in the region. But, they won’t be able to get away with pulling weeds for 100 hours without understanding why that’s important and necessary. Warren Wilson is essentially digging deeper; they are “leaning in” to their brand and getting ever more serious about the promise it makes.

I love stories like this. I’ll bet anyone $100 that this move by the College had absolutely zero to do with the College’s desire to enhance its brand. It sounds like the need for change bubbled up from within the College’s faculty and among its students and staff. It’s plausible that a marketing professional at the College may have raised the issue that many other colleges around the country are emphasizing service and that the College was losing competitive ground. But, it sounds to me that the change was pretty purely motivated by the desire to “transfer classroom experience into meaningful involvement.”  If I had to guess, those exact words (or something close) are contained in the College’s brand positioning statement.

Great example of living the brand…..in the most meaningful of ways.

Elizabeth Scarborough

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University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) commissioned SimpsonScarborough to conduct a marketing and communicatons assessment along with a comprehensive image and branding study in the Fall of 2009. As a result of the project, UMSL hired Ron Gossen, Senior Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Marketing Officer. We spoke with Ron to learn about UMSL’s progress since our project was completed in the Spring of 2010.

Q. What let UMSL to commission SimpsonScarborough?
A. Under the direction of UMSL Vice Chancellor Martin Liefeld, UMSL empaneled a faulty/staff/external review committee of marketing and communications experts from the St. Louis region to evaluate the need for contemporary market research and, if indicated, selected the most capable consultant. SimpsonScarborough was chosen from a highly competitive field to conduct brand research and to provide strategic guidance in addressing the findings. The result included the suggestion of creating an empowered chief marketing officer at the senior staff level. “Empowered” is a critically important term in the recommendations and in subsequent implementation.

Q. What has surprised you the most since coming to UMSL in the role of CMO?
A. Often, marketers in newly created CMO positions are handed a plate of chopped liver and told to sell it as steak. I was handed a filet mignon and told to make it sizzle. The combination of SimpsonScarborough’s brand research and their analysis of the UMSL marketing and communications functions encouraged the institution to adopt a “marketing orientation”.  When I came aboard, UMSL was convninced that both brand management and marketing were absolutely essential in our highly competitive (12 bricks-and-mortar higher-ed institutions) St. Louis market.

Q. Since SimpsonScarborough completed their assessment and branding identity, what outcomes has UMSL experienced?
A. By every measurable and metric, UMSL’s marketing and brand identity has made great strides. Over the past two years, attendance at our spring and fall open houses has doubled, and then doubled again to the point that we’ve added a second spring event. Our first-time freshmen and transfer applications have set records, with our applications for fall 2012 up 18% at this point. An independent brand awareness survey found that our SimpsonScarborough research-spawned positioning statement (UMSL: Serious Education. Serious Value) had more than double the top-of-mind awareness share of any competitor in the marketplace, that over 80% of the audience agreed that it “fit” UMSL “well” (versus 7.5% who disagreed), and that there was a 7:1 ratio of those whose opinion of the institution  had become more favorable, compared to less favorable over the year (27% more favorable, 4% less favorable).

I often wonder what the world would be like if everyone went to college (or if everyone had to be a waiter or work at a retail store – surely everyone would be a lot more considerate!). There’s no doubt society would be different, and whether you think the world would be a better or worse place if everyone went to college, there are a few facts I think many of us can agree on. The first is that people who don’t belong in college, as Judith Scott-Clayton says, are the ones who don’t want to go.

Scott-Clayton had some great snippets in her recent New York Times article, writing:

While college may be a great investment, it’s not like investing in the stock market: a prospective student can’t just fork over some money and let someone else worry about how to make it grow. For college to have any payoff, students must participate in the process by going to class and engaging with course materials, peers and instructors.

She uses a great metaphor of comparing investing in education by enrolling in college to investing in health by joining a gym. “An excellent idea, but only for those who will actually go and break a sweat.”

Of course, the most important part of the debate of whether everyone should be able to go to college is about access. As Scott-Clayton says, “we ought to at least aspire to a world in which the decision to opt out is well informed, unrelated to family background and not the result of unequal access to good institutions at either the pre-college or college level.” And I think that’s something we can all agree on.

Entrepreneur teamed with The Values Institute at DGWB, a Santa Ana, Calif.-based think tank that focuses on brand relationships, on a consumer survey that explored the reasons some brands manage to stay on top. According to the article, Secrets of the 10 Most-Trusted Brands, what became clear is that today’s must trustworthy brands have created relationships with consumers through experiences that trigger a visceral response.

Below is a summary of the tactics used America’s most trustworthy brands to connect with consumers. Read the article for the full description of how each brand listed lives out the tactic employed.

1. Get personal: Amazon

2. Sell happiness: Coca-Cola

3. Live up to your promise: FedEx

4. Keep it cool (and fun): Apple

5. Design an experience: Target

6. Stay consistent: Ford

7. Can-do attitude: Nike

8. Forge connections: Starbucks

9. Serve up the quirky: Southwest Airlines

10. Focus on the customer: Nordstrom

And because I have to, here is some background on the research methodology: The Values Institute, which conducted the study, identified five values that influence trust in a brand: ability (company performance); concern (care for consumers, employees and community); connection (sharing consumers’ values); consistency (dependability of products/services); and sincerity (openness and honesty).

A total of 1,220 U.S. consumers were asked to rate each trust value on a five-point scale, from “very unimportant” to “very important.” Additionally, five consumer perceptions were measured for each value; these included statements such as “They respond to feedback about their products and services,” and “They value my business and reward me for the loyalty.” Each respondent rated two randomly selected brands; those who felt strongly were also asked to provide individual comments. The result is the “Trust Index,” a composite score that indicates the level of trust respondents had with each individual brand in relation to the other studied brands.

– Renee Daly, Director of Project Strategy

The March 15th edition of the AMA‘s Marketing News had a great little piece by Jack Trout; the Mic Jagger of positioning, the Ghandi of branding. It’s a short (but great) little blurb that outlines the following 5 “important elements in the positioning process.”

1. Minds are limited - “In our over-communicated society, the human mind is a totally inadequate container, so you must be very careful with your message and be very aware of what is ALREADY in the mind about you and your competitors.” Such an important point for the ultimate over-communicators of all time……colleges and universities.

2. Minds hate confusion - “What’s the secret to being remembered? Keep it simple.” Another great reminder for higher education.  If you want to see simplicity, you better stay off pretty much every college/university Web site out there. NOT blaming higher ed marketers here. You don’t even control most of your Web site…..that’s a major part of the problem.

3. Minds are insecure - “Minds tend to be emotional, not rational.” Most of your current students are either unwilling or unable (more likely) to tell you exactly why they chose your institution.  That’s why you keep getting “it just felt right” when you do your research.  Same is true for alumni and donors.  When you ask why they give, they just say “I love the place” or “It’s the right thing to do.” We still need research so that we can understand that emotional mind as best we can….but we also need to keep in mind that understanding exactly how and why people make decision is an elusive quest.

4. Minds don’t change - “It turns out that we’re actually more impressed by what we already know (or buy) than what’s new.” That means that when you are developing a new program in Information Security, it’s better to go ahead and name it an MS in Information Security than to give is some new fancy name that is totally unfamiliar.

5. Minds can lose focus - Don’t fall into the line extension trap. Don’t market each of your colleges and schools separately.  You are just confusing your customers and they WILL lose focus of your core brand.

Thanks Jack….40 years later, you’re still a rock star.

Elizabeth Scarborough

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While it has been a very long day, it has been one I won’t forget. Today I took a bullet train from Tokyo to Sendai, a town 280 miles north. To give you an idea why they are referred to as a bullet train, it took an hour and a half to cover that distance…with one stop along the way!

My purpose of the trip was to visit Sendai University. This is a private university which knows its brand position. It is the only school in the north of Japan whose focus is on sports marketing, management and physical education. I was to give a lecture to the staff of Sendai and the Tohoku Institute of Technology on marketing of higher education. But first I received a tour of the tsunami ravaged coast. Sendai was one of the cities hit hard by the tsunami that occurred on March 11 of last year. The tidal surge advanced almost a mile on shore and did not leave too much standing in its wake. Where whole neighborhoods existed, now are only concrete footprints.

It was truly moving to see a  wrecked boat almost a mile inland sitting alone in a field or a tree perched on a rooftop of an almost demolished house.

The tour was preceded by lunch at a restaurant that specializes in beef tongue. When I say they specialize in it, I really mean they have nothing else on the menu. You could order beef tongue in an amazing number of varieties, including curried tongue! I was brought here as It was considered a local treat. The Japanese hospitality knows no bounds. Despite that, I don’t think I will be going down to the local market to see if I can replicate this meal anytime soon.

The lecture was followed by tremendous dinner at a downtown hotel. I got to know one of my hosts, Mr. Marty Kuehart, an American who has lived in Japan for over 40 years. Marty has been the general manager for a number of professional baseball teams here in Japan. His baseball stories in themselves made the trip memorable!

Finally, we headed back to Tokyo on the bullet train getting home after 11:00 at night. I am ready for bed also excited about what tomorrow brings!

Tom Hayes

Vice President and Partner