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Finding Your Voice: Communicating Sub-Brands
- 1. Finding your voice Developing a strategic sub-brand to bring your institution’s academic experience to life Peggy Conway, Director of MBA Admissions, TCU Shane Shanks, Senior Communications Strategist, Zehno Karen Buck, Senior Marketing Communications Consultant, Zehno
- 4. What we’ll cover ! How to make the academic experience the core of your marketing ! Different sub-brand strategies ! How to decide if a sub-brand is the right move for you
- 5. Sub-brand strategy #1: To build upon TCU’S FULL-TIME MBA PROGRAM: ! Needs to build on strong university brand. ! Distinctive program that needs to get noticed. ! Defined audience makes sub-brand campaign feasible (and compatible with overall brand). ! Works alongside overall TCU brand and college materials.
- 6. Situation for TCU MBA program ! Great things happening at TCU ! Built truly exceptional MBA experience ! Consistently surprised visitors ! But how to stand out in the highly competitive full-time MBA marketplace?
- 7. Who are full-time MBA students? ! Adults, professionals ! Giving up jobs (and salaries) to return to school ! Covering their own costs ! Career-focused
- 8. What matters to full-time MBAs? ! Career change/advancement ! Salary impact ! Access to opportunity ! Long-term ROI
- 9. Importing selling points in our favor ! TCU brand ! Dallas–Fort Worth: fantastic business location ! Outstanding ROI: immediate salaries/ scholarship opportunities ! Unique hands-on experiences to transform résumés ! Unique and meaningful networking opportunities ! Power of small
- 10. How we told our story in person ! Neeley & Associates Consulting
- 11. How we told our story to the masses “What good is knowledge if you can’t put it into action? Lots of people can read and take tests. The real test is how you perform in a business organization. Will you seek out new ideas and bring them to life? Will you form plans, take action, assume responsibility and manage outcomes? Will you work cohesively alongside different personalities? You will at Neeley, and not just in class. Companies turn to our MBA students as consultants to work on real-world projects, to identify challenges, evaluate opportunities and generate strategies. These projects intensify your business knowledge and sharpen your skills. They look pretty good on a résumé, too.”
- 12. How do we find our voice when we’re not in the same room? ! How do we talk about our experience to broader group? ! How do we tell our stories? ! How do we find a style that reflects who we are (and stands out)? ! How do we make it all mean something?
- 13. Process ! Analyzed MBA landscape and identified target markets ! Audited current communications and scanned the competitive marketplace ! Conducted focus groups and interviews with students, faculty, administrators and admissions staff ! Surveyed why students choose or don’t choose TCU
- 14. Brand vs. sub-brand ! Decided early on ! Distinctive academic experiences demanded differentiation from central brand ! Program-specific sub-brand needed to be compatible with overall TCU marketing
- 15. Key messages ! Experiential learning: stand and deliver ! DFW: learn here, go anywhere ! Small program = personal best ! Return on investment ! Career tools for life
- 16. Our sub-brand creative concept ! Stemmed from the experiential learning programs grouped together. ! Told stories so that people could see themselves in our program. ! Needed a style that would stand out, communicate what our program is about.
- 18. Stand and Deliver sub-brand
- 19. MBA viewbook
- 20. MBA viewbook
- 21. Stand and Deliver piece
- 22. Stand and Deliver piece
- 23. Microsite
- 24. Microsite
- 25. Email flow
- 26. Email flow
- 31. Facebook content strategy STORY TYPES: ! Experiences: China trip, corporate jet, etc. ! Company connections: interviewing, speakers, alumni, tours, etc. ! Hiring/interviewing announcements ! Alumni involvement and success ! Program brags and deadlines ! Family news: MBA babies!
- 32. Results – MBA applicants ! Stronger applicant profile in terms of test scores, previous colleges attended, well-roundedness ! Changed our competitive position ! Conversation changer ! Memorable pieces
- 33. Results – TCU MBA success
- 34. Results – TCU MBA success ! Ranked #5 for value at graduation (salary vs. debt) ! Stronger employer profiles ! Stronger employment results: 91% of 2011 grads had jobs within 90 days ! Ranked #12 worldwide for faculty quality in The Economist (and Top 40 for MBA program)
- 35. Sub-brand strategy #2: To affiliate VANDERBILT’S PEABODY COLLEGE: ! Vanderbilt or Peabody: which should lead? ! College’s key messages—creating knowledge, preparing leaders, supporting practice, engaging with the community—were compatible with overall Vanderbilt brand ! Works alongside overall brand
- 36. Situation at Peabody ! Peabody College of Education and Human Development ! Merged with Vanderbilt University in 1979 ! Five disparate departments ranging from special education to psychology ! Strong regional reputation ! In 2004, broke into the top 5 in U.S. News graduate schools of education
- 37. Situation at Peabody ! Brand continued to be Peabody College ! Vanderbilt overall making a move for further prestige, a new Southern Ivy, joining schools such as: – Duke – Emory – Rice ! But Vandy brand overall leaned toward undergrads
- 39. Peabody s goals ! Move reputation to the national stage ! Move up in the U.S. News rankings ! Increase applications to graduate programs (undergraduate admissions handled through central VU office) ! Increase test scores of applicants/selectivity= ! Fund more research ! Endow more professorships
- 40. Peabody s audiences ! National education decision makers (some who are U.S. News rankers) ! Prospective students for graduate and professional programs ! Funding agencies: federal, state and private ! School systems and hiring managers for teachers and other professionals ! Donors, alumni and prospective faculty
- 41. Peabody s reality: Staffing & budget ! Facts present, but story not being told ! Associate dean of external relations ! Director of communications ! Director of electronic communications ! Director of graduate admissions ! Assistant responsible for web updates ! Content support from VU Public Affairs office ! Ongoing partnership with Zehno – and other communications vendors on a project-by-project basis
- 42. Brand vs. sub-brand ! Decided during major website redesign ! Survey sent to students, alumni, prospects ! Assessed relative strength of Peabody and Vanderbilt brands ! Decision to go with Vanderbilt University s Peabody College of education and human development in all branded communications ! Qualitative comments/responses guided ongoing design and messaging
- 44. The Peabody Difference sub-brand ! Knowledge creation/research ! Preparing the next generation of education leaders ! Support of practitioners ! Community engagement ! The role of a world-class college of education and human development
- 45. Telling Peabody s academic story ! Re-purpose magazine and journal articles ! Interviews ! Overviews of breaking research ! Faculty Q&As ! Podcasts
- 46. Baby step: Web feature
- 47. Baby step: Web feature
- 48. Website
- 49. Peabody Reflections ! Short profiles of faculty, students and alumni ! Storytelling reinforces key messages
- 50. Content push + pull ! Current trend: use feeds, blogs with on-message content Calendar feed Blog feed University news feed
- 51. Viewbook
- 52. U.S. News banner ads
- 53. More banner ads
- 54. Big-picture results ! No. 2 and now No. 1 ranking for multiple years ! Graduate/professional apps up over 10%; largest enrollment in history ! 200 media placements in 2007
- 55. Web outcomes peabody.vanderbilt.edu 2001 2005 2006 2007 Total Visits 281,000 507,000 531,000 1,044,000 Page Views 1.09 million 1.75 1.88 4.97 Avg. pages viewed per visit 4 3 4 5 Avg. length of visit 2:43 3:21 3:23 5:46
- 57. Tips: Are you ready for a sub-brand? ! Is the unit’s degree/program/product/service truly different from the overall institutional brand? ! Is the unit’s target audience different— and defined? ! Does the unit have the resources to stand on its own? ! Is the unit’s story aligned with the overall brand? ! Is the unit’s reputation strong enough to go on its own?
- 58. Tips: How can you position your academic program? ! Don’t fixate on being 100% unique ! Look for academic “signatures”: – class, experience, instructor ! Think about basic details that stand out: time, place, durations, classmate characteristics, etc.
- 59. Final tips ! Define how your school’s academic experience stands apart ! Tell your key brand stories ! Work your campaign concept across all audiences using full range of tools ! Consider whether or not a sub-brand will build identity for your program
- 60. Questions? ! Fill out a card for free Zehno white papers ! Download our white paper: www.zehno.com/ white_papers/higher-ed-sub-brands-5-questions-to- test-your-strategy ! Pick up a sample of the TCU brags piece ! Contact us with questions: Peggy Conway, p.conway@tcu.edu Shane Shanks, shane@zehno.com Karen Buck, karen@zehno.com ! www.twitter.com/zehno
Hinweis der Redaktion
- SSS Pendulum swings back and forth in the world of university marketing • 1990s: Push was toward integrated marketing. Put our energy behind promoting the idea of one, central institution • 2000s: Renamed programs and building for donors. Emphasized the parts of the university rather than the whole. • 2010s: Focus on getting the balance right between the overall brand and the sub-brands. We want a strong central brand that builds our reputation and extends the recognition of our institution. But we also want a set of strategic sub-brands that help target understand the program offerings. What can you tell me about this institution? What type of school is it? (BIZ) Who went there? (TRUMP) What ’s it known for? Which institution is it connected with? Harvard? University of Chicago? MIT? (It ’s University of Pennsylvania.)
- SSS: It ’s University of Pennsylvania. Recently added U of Penn to logo COMPLEX TOPIC Pendulum swings back and forth: building strong overall brand vs. sub-brands The savviest institutions are realizing that a single, supreme brand lacks nuance. Some of the institution ’s most distinctive programs are getting lost in the overarching brand. what ’s a sub-brand? It ’s an affiliated brand that tells a specific story to a specific audience segment. Sub-brands are different chapters of the same book, and they fit with the overall plot. Many schools have developed sub-brands for individual colleges, professional programs, community outreach programs and athletics. But if the institution at large has decades or even centuries of history and name recognition, the central brand typically has a head start in leveraging itself — not to mention the biggest budget for marketing and communications. A sub-brand is strategic, it echoes the themes of the institutional brand and it exists to highlight reputation-building programs aimed at specific audiences. Successful sub-brands might change up the university slogans or styling, but they tell the same institutional story.
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- SSS Sometimes sub-brand is smart because it defines your unit within the main university brand. You build a sub-brand atop to overall brand to help people understand your brand. • TCU is established brand; we ’d be crazy to not capitalize on it. • Because program is different, some of the program’s distinctiveness may not be coming through. • Defined audience lets you spotlight the program without muddying up the overall brand.
- PEGGY Here ’s where we Gotten program together: exceptional—and surprising High
- PEGGY For those of you who haven ’t worked in MBA world, it’s a little different than for undergrads. This is what matters to potential MBAs: • Career change, not just advancement: ex change to different business sector, even orchestra conductor • ROI • Meeting my goals • Etc.
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- PEGGY Home to American Airlines, Frito-Lay, Radio Shack, Exxon-Mobil, Kimberly-Clark and 10,000 other corporations. Balance of high-tech, healthcare, energy, finance, transportation and other industries means that, even when other regional economies tank, Texas continues strong. It delivers top internships with major companies, face time with execs during class presentations and serious career possibilities in practically every business sector. A perfect launching pad for your post-MBA career, no matter where you want to land. Alums around the world including chocolates alum!
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- PEGGY That ’s when partnered with Zehno.
- SSS Heard what Peggy needed, but we also needed to learn about the program and the market. So these are things we did: Wasn ’t even my first day.
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- SSS Settled on seat of strategic key messages, but the most important was the first. Stand-and-deliver experiences: Lots of programs have some experiential learning, but TCU has a fuller range AND as student you have access to participate in as many as you can squeeze in DFW: learn here, go anywhere: Economic powerhouse. Home to more than 10,000 corporations. #4 Fort Worth and #5 Dallas: “best cities for jobs” ( Forbes). #1 metro area in population growth. America’s #2 best “fresh start” cities (Relocation.com). #9 best place to live and launch a business (CNNMoney.com) .Fort Worth ranked among top 13 of “America’s most livable communities.” Small program = personal best. You have to bring you ’re a game. Return on investment. Excellent scholarships, but also strong salaries. Look at debt—TCU ranks in national top 10. Career tools for life: makes connections, teaches you lifetime tools. SSS • Don ’t fixate on being 100% unique: doesn’t mean your curriculum isn’t available at any other school • Look for a signature class (or the way it ’s taught): capstone course taught in interesting way, internship (Ex. Pacific’s humanities scholars) • Locate a signature experience (travel, consulting, internships, service, capstone course, etc.). Ex. IP • Signature instructor: with personality, expertise, different teaching style. • Basic details that stand out: time offered, time required to complete, place offered, instructors, classmates, etc. • Consider whether to group or ungroup your academic signatures. (At TCU we group all the experiential programs together for a stronger impression)
- SSS Stems from academic program Individually the experiential learning programs were strong,. Collectively they were amazing. All programs grouped together make the experience This is where the good stories are: When you graduate from the program, your resume can say: • I brainstormed with Fortune 500 execs at Frito-Lay • I have international experience on a social entrepreneurship project in Guatemala. I talked business opportunity with the Accenture VP in India. • I worked as a consultant for world ’s #2 beverage co (Pepsi) and #1 retailer (Walmart) • I ran a million dollar investment fund and earned better returns than Wall Street. • Etc.
- SSS At TCU Colleges, schools, centers and institutes are allowed to build their own identities, but always within the overall brand framework. This concept is often discussed mathematically: 85 percent of the project can look like the individual school or unit, but 15 percent has to look like TCU. The sub-brands should also echo TCU ’s overall brand platform and competitive advantage. That’s things like: • Personalized environment • Strengths and resources of a large institution • Global perspective • Mentors and academic programs that foster discovery, creativity and leadership Our campaign definitely echoes TCU ’s brand. Compatible with overall brand in: • Look: Logos, TCU, purple, similar typefaces, overall quality. Above the 15 percent. • And in message: Our key messages — about learning through real business experiences, receiving personalized attention from professors and mentors, etc. — align with the university brand’s competitive advantages. “ TCU learning to change the world” is about the experience you’re going to have
- SSS: Stand and deliver: phrase used in the report that resonated. Business card image • cards on day 1 • Presentations to recruiters before classes start. • Before first class, you ’ve worked with career coach, identified some target companies and starting to change your career. SSS: 3 key style elements: • Beat up type: Been around the block (a little bit rock and roll) • Bold headlines: pulp fiction style, “Roll up your sleeves” • Use of “alternate” stats: impressive in different ways. Might be brags about national ranking, could be about how much you’ll sweat during a presentation to a CEO. We packaged the full-time MBA program as a strategic sub-brand campaign, but it still has relationships with TCU overall branding through logos, color, and overall messaging. Talk more about that later. Defining the sub-brand: Concept needs to work when applied across different communications tools. Needs to be adaptable for different audiences. Concept also has to be true.
- SSS: Inside the viewbook (FAST) Bold message: learn here, go anywhere (with short list of alums all around the globe). National audience Used stats, the language of business
- SSS (FAST) Varied style of spreads for reader interest: this one is photo about Frito-Lay smart lab, a top-secret place studying consumer behavior (brainstormed with execs while there) Statistics: 3 hours to Wall Street, 120 meet with Warren Buffett
- PEGGY (FAST) Explains each of our stand and deliver programs Attention grabbers. Read copy. Always paired with list of companies you ’ll work with. Career connections
- PEGGY (FAST) About consulting (ready copy) Company list: you ’ll consult with
- SSS: (FAST) Microsite tells the stories, gives a flavor of the experience Organized around the key messages. Rotating screens pitch the messages in a different way. (Roll up your sleeves for experiential learning).
- SSS (FAST) Student profiles show what the experience is like Melissa: • Came from California, realized DFW was major career advantage. • Worked on major consulting projects, great internship, international travel, the networking queen. Landed job in aerospace where fringe benefit is frequent flyer miles to visit family in South America • Love this quote about small: Won ’t have to flip through some notebook.
- PEGGY (FAST) Shape key messages in different ways to: • Beefed up e-mail communications • Match where students will be in decision process; early ones are short, provocative. Gets you to start thinking about TCU
- PEGGY (FAST) Later e-mails relate to student ’s concentration: Longer, more depth of information. Helps you decide if our program matches your personal goals Over course of e-mail campaign: Hear from professor, career coach, alum, program director. Shows different facets of our program. Helps you learn about the team of people working for you.
- SSS (FAST) Added new audience: employers Positive peer pressure: your company should be on the list Flips the concept of stand and deliver into what employers want: market-ready grads.
- SSS Market ready Talks about career service from employer ’s viewpoint: because of stand and deliver, our grads will hit the ground running at your company.
- SSS (FAST) Positive peer pressure •Shows big-time companies, not just a regional program • Asks what will our MBAs bring to your company?
- PEGGY The cover says it: We don ’t mean to brag, But we will Mix of serious and fun: • Faculty awards • Ross Perot ’s jet • Also bragged about MBA basketball team that beat the undergrads.
- PEGGY Peggy ’s story types on Facebook: • Experiences: China trip, riding on corporate jet, presenting consulting recs, etc. • Alumni involvement and success • Hiring/interviewing announcements • Company connections: interviewing, speakers, alumni, tours, etc. • Program brags • Deadlines • Family news/MBA babies to show personal connections in program • Other
- PEGGY Overview
- PEGGY Over last two year, big increase in ranking
- Peggy Results beyond the class itself
- KB Sometimes sub-brand is smart because AFFILIATES WITH the main university brand. PEABODY Peabody College became part of Vanderbilt University more than 30 years ago, but the institution still struggled with what its lead brand should be in the marketplace. Couldn ’t just rest on the undergrad-leaning Vandy brand framework, nor could they afford to ignore the input of decades of Peabody grads who see it as an independent institution. Everybody knows Vanderbilt; not everyone knows Peabody.
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- SSS Is a sub-brand the right decision? Starts with a reality check If your institutional brand is strong, sub-brands can make sense because they help audiences understand the full range of your programs. They create a more vivid picture of why your institution matters. But if your institutional brand is out of control, the last thing you need is more sub-brands. So before a unit breaks away with a new sub-brand, it ’s important to do a reality check. Ask yourself these questions: 1. Is the unit ’s degree/program/product/service truly different from the overall institutional brand? If not, a sub-brand isn ’t necessary. The unit will get more mileage out of remaining aligned with the broader brand. 2. Is the unit ’s target audience different — and defined? If the audience is clearly defined and distinct, a sub-brand might make sense. If the audience segment is only interested in this unit ’s specific program, a sub-brand won’t generate dissonant “noise” for the overall brand. For example, many bachelor ’s-completion programs for adults align themselves with the overall institutional brand, yet their core messages must speak very specifically to the needs of adult students. If the messages are carefully crafted and the audience clearly defined, these sub-brands don’t dilute the overall brand. 3 Does the unit have the resources to stand on its own? It takes a full campaign — not just a lone brochure or a cool billboard — to anchor a subbrand in the minds of the audience. Plan to spend 50 to 75 percent of the overall institutional branding budget — and maybe more in the early years — to establish a sub-brand separate from the main institution. 4. Is the unit ’s story aligned with the overall brand? If so, a strategic sub-brand can be a new chapter in the same book. If handled so that your sub-brand echoes the themes of the main brand, you ’re not rewriting the institutional story, you’re making the story more vivid. 5. Is the unit ’s reputation strong enough to go on its own? Wharton and a handful of top-tier professional schools have stellar name recognition. But let ’s be honest: Not everybody knows which university Wharton is part of. Harvard? University of Chicago? MIT? (It’s University of Pennsylvania.) And what about Annenberg? Broad? Kellogg? Olin? After years of naming schools for donors and then marketing the academic programs as separate from their home institutions, the trend is to bring the sub-brand in line with the core brand. At highly ranked “name” programs, logos are being tweaked and nomenclatures altered to cuddle up with the overall brand. At many of these programs, the institution name is rising in prominence, even if it doesn’t yet get top billing. Want proof? Wharton now includes “University of Pennsylvania” in its logo.
- SSS • Don ’t fixate on being 100% unique: doesn’t mean your curriculum isn’t available at any other school • Look for a signature class (or the way it ’s taught): capstone course taught in interesting way, internship (Ex. Pacific’s humanities scholars) • Locate a signature experience (travel, consulting, internships, service, capstone course, etc.). Ex. IP • Signature instructor: with personality, expertise, different teaching style. • Basic details that stand out: time offered, time required to complete, place offered, instructors, classmates, etc. • Consider whether to group or ungroup your academic signatures. (At TCU we group all the experiential programs together for a stronger impression)
- SSS Academic experience: This is your core product. So take some time to position it and show what it means for students. Brand stories: define your key messages by being part of an overall narrative. Build a content strategy that ensures that you stay on message. Audiences: Choose a concept that has legs. Shape the message for each audience. Roll out the audiences in priority order. Sub-brand: But before you start a sub-brand, make sure you ’re different, make sure you have a budget, make sure you have a clearly defined audience
- PEGGY Mention A to Z