PS&L Blog

Buzz University, Clock Tower U, Generica; our cartoon mocks the branding messages we all wear but your brand is no laughing matter.

When you put your good name, image or logo on sportswear or anything else it speaks to everyone about the promise your institution holds. Your name evokes thoughts, feelings maybe even passion in those who come across you name, whether you like what they think or not.

One of my favorite books still, is the 1980’s best seller, Positioning – The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout.  They say your brand sits on a ladder positioned between your competitors, unless you are top dog in which case you need to figure out how to stay there.

The only way to battle this constant competition for position in your audience’s mind is through institutional knowledge.  Who is above me?  Who is below me?  Why?  You must develop your niche, find your creneau and consistently communicate why your school is best for this particular spot.  You are truly successful when someone sees your logo on that sweatshirt on the beach and thinks exactly what and who you are.

Great market research and creative communication used thoughtfully; both strategically and tactically can help you find that position, develop your own niche or creneau to make your logo and brand mentally describe your position.  Owning your position and branding it is the shortcut you need in today’s over communicated society.  See logo, think great brand story.

* Isn’t creneau a great word?  It is the hole a rock climber finds to insert his piton, the little device that helps them climb up a mountain face.  If you don’t have a niche you need to find the creneau in your prospects mind, the chink in your competition’s brand and exploit it to strengthen your position and brand.  Hard work but worth it.

My grandparents lived in Juniata, one of the nice row house neighborhoods of Philadelphia. When I was a kid, my family would drive our one car down to visit them from the suburbs. I used to think it was cool that when we finished our visit that our car was covered in soot. This was in the early ‘60’s and the soot came from the coal powered electric plant near their house.

So much has changed since then. Their neighborhood is run down, and the neighborhood where I grew up is not the suburbs anymore. The coal fired power plant is gone, but there’s still soot. It comes from the 2 to 4 cars for every house and all the dirt that we create. Yuck.

At lunch today I was talking with my friend Dennis about the green movement. His general comment was that money and economics drive everything, not regulation or policy. If we want to decrease fuel use, increase its price. Really high gas prices will force people to drive smaller more fuel efficient cars, take more public transportation and create a whole class of people that will try to make money by helping people get around affordably.

Maybe he’s right, but when it all about money or economics, greed usually creeps in. In Europe, where they already have really high gas prices, smaller cars and better public transportation they have scandals over people stealing carbon footprint credits

When I point this out to Dennis, he just says, “It’s all good,” and then he switches topics. It won’t be easy as we struggle towards a greener future for all of us. Hopefully we’ll keep our sense of humor as we move forward.

Here are some carbon fun facts from http://www.nature.org/

# The average footprint for people in United States is 20.40 metric tons
# The average for the industrial nations is about 11 metric tons
# The average worldwide carbon footprint is about 4 metric tons
# The worldwide target to combat climate change is 2 metric tons

Meet Jayne and Molly – a pair of 2010 high school graduates entering that once in a lifetime summer -that lull before college matriculation – that post-high-school-pre-college era of personal metamorphosis.  Molly and Jayne (their names changed to shield them from admissions paparazzi) are daughters of friends of mine, but it’s important also to note that they don’t know each other.

So how did they make their college choices?

On paper, they looked identical. Both set of parents have college degrees, with older children enrolled in colleges. Both students had above average grades, SAT scores and an impressive list of extracurricular interests and achievements.  Both wanted liberal arts and the traditional experience of exploring, learning, growing and the mind expansion that comes along with that. In other words, they were academically prepared, they had intense family support, requisite financial planning, and a clear vision of the value of a college degree.

Their decision process was similar. Beginning in the 10^th grade they prepped for the tests, went to the college fairs and sought advice from their high school advisors.  They followed the prescribed college decision timeline. They both confessed to reading the brochures that came in the mail and they spent time on the websites.  Within the haystack of information they received, details about their majors was priority.  Combined, they visited and toured 17 campuses and submitted 13 applications.

But when all was said and done, two things stood out. Their relationship to specific college admissions staff and phone calls from alumni. They each felt a direct connection to those colleges whose staff and alumni actually paid attention to who they were as individuals. Jayne was looking for an emotional connection to a school, while Molly was more practical and logical during her evaluation. Jayne said that her chosen college was “Green, beautiful and friendly.” Molly said hers “Fits my needs and expectations.”

Here’s the twist. They are both going to the same college.

Clearly the admissions staff listened to both girls and altered their “sales” pitch to reinforce certain aspects over others. My guess is that they carefully chose the alumni to call them, and these alumni picked up quickly what was important to the girls.

So in this social media, online marketing world, when it came to choosing a college, these bright and sought after college applicants made their decisions based on their personal contacts with the college – their one-on-one meetings and phone conversations.

As the saying goes, enrollment is all about one student at a time.