Uncovering the Alignment Gap
Higher ed is not short on data. Institutions track campaigns, monitor clicks, and report on engagement with growing regularity. And yet the questions coming from presidents, boards, and senior leadership are outpacing the systems built to answer them. Reputation. Perception. Trust. These are the metrics that matter to institutional leadership, and they are precisely the ones most marketing infrastructures were never designed to measure.
Measurement systems have grown in silos, owned by different units, optimized for different goals, and disconnected from the enterprise-level questions leadership is asking. CMOs are expected to provide clarity about long-term institutional health using tools built for short-term campaign reporting. This chapter examines where that gap is widest, what the data reveals about measurement priorities and barriers, and what it takes to build infrastructure that closes the distance between what leadership asks and what marketing can credibly answer.
Chapter Insights
Leadership has moved on from activity metrics. Nearly half of CMOs say reputation is the top non-enrollment issue leadership asks marketing to address, and at large public institutions that number climbs to 64%. The questions have evolved. The measurement systems largely have not.
CMOs know what they need to measure. They face structural barriers in doing it. 38% cite reputation as their top measurement priority, 31% cite perception. The challenge is not conceptual. Limited budgets, fragmented systems, and lack of shared baselines are the obstacles, and they are institutional, not departmental.
Brand looks strong on the surface. The infrastructure beneath it is still catching up. 80% of institutions rate visual brand consistency as good or excellent. Only half report strong performance reporting. Institutions have invested in how they present themselves. They have invested far less in operationalizing that identity across systems and experiences.
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