How to build support for brand marketing: first, get the right people on the bus

University Business, June, 2005 by Robert A. Sevier

Sooner or later on most brand marketing projects I am asked this question: How do we build support for the brand marketing process? Before I answer that, I first want to make an important clarification. The goal in the brand creation process, just like any change initiative, is to build enough support to make things happen. The goal is not total support. Like total consensus, total support, is illusive, and in almost all cases, all but impossible to achieve.

With that in mind, let me offer five steps that will help you win internal support.

STEP ONE: GET THE RIGHT PEOPLE ON THE BUS

The first step, borrowing from Jim Collins' Good to Great, is to get the right people on the bus. For our purposes, there are two kinds of right people: the guiding coalition and the actual planning team.

An ideal guiding coalition has eight to 10 people all of whom have an appreciation of what brand marketing can do for the institution. They may not all have technical understanding, but they have the larger vision. And importantly, they also have the ability and willingness to influence their peers. All are senior administrators and senior faculty. In all cases, it is better that this group be cohesive, rather than large. The purpose of this group is to get the project off the ground and to run interference for the day-to-day planning team. In this capacity, they:

* Meet with other campus leaders and set the stage for the brand marketing process

* Begin to address resource issues (time, talent, and dollars)

* Help overcome territory problems

* Develop the "need statement" for the brand plan

* Develop the timeline for the plan's creation and implementation

* Oversee the brand launch

* Periodically evaluate progress

Importantly, the members of your guiding coalition also "talk up" the need for a strong brand and the brand development process among their formal and informal constituencies. If the president has a direct role in the brand creation process it is as a member of the guiding coalition.

The second group, the planning team, are the people who actually develop and, in most cases, implement the plan. They conduct the assessments, undertake the research, develop the initial brand promise, and oversee the plan's implementation. The planning team likely includes some individuals from the guiding coalition. The planning team reports to the guiding coalition. The guiding coalition provides approval at the key steps in the brand-building process (see below).

STEP TWO: CLARIFY WHY STRONG BRANDS ARE IMPORTANT

Most faculty, staff, and administrators know, intuitively, why strong brands are important. They may not be comfortable with the word "brand" but they are very comfortable with the idea of being known for something of value.

Without overstating the case, strong brands help you attract:

* Better students and faculty

* More full- and fuller-pay students (that's the whore rationale for brand equity)

* More students who will persist

* More donated dollars

* More media attention (have you ever noticed that NPR, when interviewing people from a college, always chooses people from well-known colleges?)

We also know that strong brands generate more alumni support and more positive word-of-mouth. Furthermore, institutions with strong brands spend far less on direct marketing. Finally, recent research, including our annual Stamats ParentsTALK study, suggests that parents are very unlikely to send their child to a school with which they are not already familiar.

On the flip side, here are some indicators that you might have a brand problem on your campus:

* Tuition revenue is flat or declining (there is an inverse relationship between a strong brand and your discount rate)

* Prospective students and parents have undue price sensitivity

* Alumni involvement and giving is flat or declining

* First-year to second-year retention rate is below norms

* Job ads fail to attract best candidates

* A pronounced negative word-of-mouth

Strong brands, by definition, increase the flow of resources--prospective students, donated dollars, public and media attention, better faculty and staff--to an institution. The only purpose of a brand is to increase that flow of resources, and all measures of brand effectiveness must include a measure of that increased flow.

STEP THREE: BUILD CONFIDENCE IN THE BRAND-BUILDING PROCESS

Now that you have made the case for brand marketing, it's time to begin building confidence in the brand-building process. This step involves addressing five issues:

* Help the campus understand the process

* Clarify their rote in the process

* Build confidence in the process

* Give the campus community access to the process

* Clarify the role of campus members in building and sustaining the brand

First, the campus must understand the process.

While there are a number of processes, or models, for building a strong brand, the one outlined below is one of the most simple, yet powerful:

* Make a brand promise that matters

* Communicate your brand promise

* Live your brand promise

* Strengthen your brand promise