Differentiation in the Higher Ed Market

Why the Fear of Being Different Is Hurting Your Institution

By Elaine Keough

 

Being a college in the U.S. is a little like being a teenager – you want to stand out and be unique,  but you don’t want to stand out too much or be too unique. That fear causes many institutions to blend together with no differentiators. Which as marketers, we know is a missed opportunity.

 

Alastair Hayes from Campus Sonar gathered several higher education marketing experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities of institutional differentiation. Viv’s co-founder and CEO, Suzan Brinker, joined panelists Nicole Szymczak, senior director of communications and marketing for Michigan State University Health Sciences, and Rob Zinkan, vice president for marketing leadership at RHB, to break it down. 

Give Marketing a Seat at the Table

Over the past several years, more and more institutions have seen the value of having a cabinet-level marketing position. Including a marketing voice in top-level decision making is beneficial for a few reasons.

1. Marketing is likely familiar with a robust set of data-informed student and influencer personas and can speak to the needs of a wide variety of stakeholders.
2. Hearing conversations around all the challenges facing a campus is informative and, as Suzan has found as Fractional CMO for Assumption University, makes you a better marketer.
3. Involvement in the strategic planning process from the beginning allows you to incorporate qualitative and quantitative data. Rob has found that nearly two-thirds of strategic plans do not incorporate formal market research. 

Embrace a Collaborative Process

Once an institution has decided to embrace the conversation around differentiation, it’s important to make the process as collaborative as possible. Not only does that ensure broad perspectives are heard, but it also helps with buy-in later in the process and ensures authenticity. 

Stakeholder Interviews

This means talking to as many stakeholders as possible – faculty, staff, students, researchers, community partners, and alumni. Rob points to a quote from author David C. Baker, “you can’t read the label inside the jar.” Leadership is often too close and insulated from the day-to-day of a campus and needs stakeholders to hold up a mirror to show what the real experience looks like.

Brand Anthropology

Suzan talks about conducting “brand anthropology” – understanding what made a campus different in the past and how the campus can carry that forward. This involves asking what has defined your institution from the very beginning and what parts of this distinctiveness remain relevant today. A great place to start is studying your archives and conducting focus groups with your students and alumni.

Hard Conversations, Lots of Listening

It is really hard work to build consensus at all levels of an organization. For a campus to differentiate itself means looking at its strengths and weaknesses, where the institution is and where it wants to go, and identifying the obstacles to get there. 

But it starts with the challenge of getting institutions to embrace what makes them different. There are common barriers that get in campuses’ way.

1. The tendency to be transfixed on aspirational peers, losing sight of their own distinctiveness.
2. Fear of leaving anyone out – putting a stake in the ground to embrace a particular program doesn’t mean the other programs aren’t good or don’t have a place in the messaging.
3. Understanding you can’t be everything to everyone. Suzan estimates as many as 30% of stakeholders may not agree with the messaging, and that’s okay. 

Then, as Rob says, it takes making a choice to embrace that unique DNA.

Talk the Talk, Walk the Walk

As a marketer, it can also mean having difficult conversations with leadership about potential gaps in perception and reality. As Nicole outlined to the president of Lansing Community College, if a campus wants to appeal to non-traditional students, services can’t be provided only between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. To deliver that brand promise, the campus needed to adjust its hours, think about childcare, and address how best to serve non-traditional students.

Don’t Forget Your OG Content Creators

Suzan notes authentic differentiation also means making sure the messaging can be tied back to academics – and by extension, faculty. This definitely doesn’t mean asking faculty to write your marketing copy, but conversations with faculty to draw out unique aspects of your programs, research, and wider impact can be a rich source of information.

Furthermore, this helps bring faculty onboard with new messaging initiatives. Many faculty still flinch when students are referred to as “customers.” For faculty to feel like the messaging resonates with them, it needs to be relevant to the teaching and/or research they are doing every day. 

 

Find Your Focus

There are colleges and universities who are successfully differentiating themselves in the marketplace. Northeastern University has long been known for co-ops and is now known more broadly for experiential learning. Babson College focuses on entrepreneurship. The University of Iowa touts its excellence in writing for all majors. The differentiator doesn’t have to be exceptional (though that helps!); your campus just has to be exceptional at it.

While the main differentiator is the primary message, Suzan emphasizes the value of  breaking down the messaging into a hierarchy to appeal to other audiences. 

Babson’s website is a great example. The first thing on the homepage is “Babson is Different,” followed by other adverbs and imagery to illustrate other differentiators. It states definitively, “We Build Entrepreneurial Leaders” followed by proof points. Under the section “Why Babson,” each audience is addressed: undergraduate, part-time MBA, executive education and educators for the Babson Academy. Using clear, concise language, Babson communicates what makes it different from other campuses. 

Differentiation in Four Steps

The takeaways are these:

1. Include marketing in cabinet-level conversations, and talk to all key stakeholders.
2. Thoroughly develop a messaging document that identifies the language, the proof points, and types of imagery that should be used to convey the differentiators – and be clear about what to avoid. 
3. Use storytelling to substantiate those differences. At the heart of good marketing is an emotional connection. 
4. Be consistent and disciplined. This might be the hardest part – especially if there isn’t true buy-in from the institutional leadership. 

Market penetration doesn’t happen overnight, so leadership needs to be prepared to use the messaging on repeat for a number of years.

 

Don’t Be Afraid to Lean In

If the differentiator is authentic to the campus, it will resonate with the faculty, staff, students, and alumni. This is when you lean in to ensure those audiences are great brand ambassadors and carry the messaging out into the world. 

Don’t expect that everyone will be on board. Suzan estimates as many as 30% of stakeholders won’t agree with the messaging. For marketers, it’s important to articulate that messaging hierarchy and the data to back it up. Show stakeholders where they are reflected in the messaging. 

 

Bring Your People with You

Nicole suggests communicating your differentiation as a partnership that supports sustainability for the institution, students, faculty, staff, community, and other stakeholders. Point out how a successful differentiation strategy can benefit everyone: more students means more revenue, which translates to programs, research, facilities, and more. A strong brand message benefits everyone.

Wondering how to differentiate your institution? Contact Viv Higher Education to start the conversation.  Watch the full roundtable.

 

 

Need Help?

If you’re looking to dive into marketing your alternative credentials but aren’t sure where to begin, we’re here to help! Send us an email or schedule a call for more strategies to get the ball rolling.