Inside HigherEd has an interesting article about recent marketing campaigns by American University, Purdue, Drake and others.
Brand New Dilemma looks at the pitfalls and motivations behind branding campaigns--how they are perceived by students and alumni, the general public, and marketing pundits. One audience I would have liked to hear from are faculty.
Here at Minnesota we've just launched the new "Because" campaign, which is Driven to Discover v.3 or 4. Like the campaigns discussed in the Inside HigherEd piece, some people love it, some hate it. In light of these responses to marketing campaigns around the country, what do you think of "Because"?
The Inside HigherEd was an interesting read. Campaigns need to have substance behind them -- programmatic, cultural, intellectual, whatever supports the campaign concept. And there needs to be sound reasoning behind doing such a campaign.
ReplyDeleteBut read this statement:
"As former marketing chief at the University of Maryland at College Park, she watched stakeholders attack the “Fear the Turtle” campaign at its 2001 launch, only to find students and alumni “furious” when the university considered a new direction seven years later."
This type of reaction to marketing campaigns is found throughout the piece. It seems like a common reaction to anything new or different and bordering on "fancy." People see it for the very first time. People aren't going to like it. Over time, if it is successful, or they just get used to it, then more people will support it -- and when you want to update it they won't.
Doesn't that mean you shouldn't do new things?
Regarding you question about the Because campaign, Kelly...
ReplyDeleteI would be interested in hearing more about the genesis of the Because campaign. There seemed to be a lot more of that when Driven to Discover and We are all search engines first came out. But maybe I missed some programs on it or something!