Customer Service in Higher Education

So you are headed around town running errands and you pull into a burger joint for a quick lunch.  The order-taker is talking to a co-worker and doesn’t acknowledge you’re standing right in front of her. When she does, she’s abrupt, as if you’ve interrupted her conversation. The cook makes faces as he slaps your food together. The tables are messy, the floor is dirty, and the bathroom we’ll say is “eeeewwwww”. After a time that challenges the “fast-food” category, you finally get your order. There’s no cheese on your burger and the fries are soggy and over-salted.

Question:  When you think of that burger joint, will you remember their TV ads, or the treatment you received on your last visit?

Truth is, customer service will make or break your brand in a matter of minutes. And the corporate world takes customer service very seriously.

QSR Magazine routinely ranks America’s Best Drive Thru’s. They time, measure, and rank speed of service, order accuracy, speaker clarity, and menu-board appearance. In 2009, Wendy’s was the fastest and had your meal to you in 134.09 seconds, Chick-fil-A was 96.4% accurate when you ordered.  Chick-fil-A also had a 99.5% pass rate in speaker clarity.  Whataburger was tops in menu-board appearance.

These are all important audience touchpoints in the fast food world.  But few brand managers in higher ed give audience touchpoints the attention they deserve.

Some additional touchpoints outside the realm of fast food and that I come into contact on a regular basis is when I call my doctor, I am greeted with a message about patient care and satisfaction. When I worked in the residence halls, all the desk attendants were given customer service training. When I leave a tip at Cold Stone Creamery, they respond with a thank you song. I have heard from waiters that they are given times for which a patron is greeted (0-3 minutes), a patron is seated or listed (3-4 minutes), have their drink order taken (4-6 minutes) and so on.

Many may be surprised to learn that these customer service encounters are scripted and sometimes timed to ensure customer satisfaction and often times brand messaging. These touchpoints don’t just happen; they are planned and implemented around the companies brand drivers.

There are the common knowledge customer service points like be kind, courteous, professional, helpful, timely, knowledgeable, etc. about the service/products being offered. That is where the desk attendant customer service training mentioned above fell into.

But there is also another point often forgotten in higher ed – branded customer service touchpoints. Many of the retail and restaurant examples mentioned above fall into this category. Here are some touchpoints where some branded customer service could come into play on in higher education

• Phone greeting: for example when a student calls the admissions office. “You’ve reached the admissions office of Utopia University, the state’s premier research institution, this is Travis. Can I help you?”
• Prospect inquiries: for example, all inquiry emails must be responded to within one business day. Also, email signatures should all be similar (like the campus business cards) and could contain a fun fact based on the brand’s key messages.
• Follow-ups: many have questions in the financial aid area, so again for example, a response should be given by email or phone within a one business day by someone who knows the ins and outs of the service. And at the end of the call, the financial aid representative could say, “Thank you for calling Utopia University’s financial aid office. Have I answered all of your questions? (Student’s response…) Great thank you and have a nice day.” Many may recognize something like this from Dell’s tech support.
• Walk-ins: Place several framed quotes or images from branded speeches or images around the desk where students sign in. For example in the lobby area of an advising office have a framed quote from the dean “Our graduates go on to work for the world’s greatest research labs in the country.” Be sure that the student is greeted warmly and professionally at the advising front desk and seen in a timely manner (less than 15 minutes to wait, for example).
• At events: be sure your customer services representatives are given the above-and-beyond customer service training. Add in the branded customer service also. For example, Utopia University is holding a student leadership luncheon. A hot dog and hamburger buffet with paper plates will send the wrong impression. For the premier research university in Utopia, a plated event with a wait staff may send a more appropriate branded message.
• Recruiting: recruiting events are similar. To add brand flair to the event, for example, you may want a script for your recruiters and a list of timed events that the recruiter must do once the event is over. The recruiter could send a personalized branded letter or hand written postcard within one week of the college fair to those who provide their mailing address.  And another one after a month.
• Campus visits and tours: we all know the standard campus tour. Add some branding by pointing out campus-specific tidbits based on your brand drivers. For example, “We are now entering Utopia University’s biomedical research lab. This is where Dr. Wiggleworm created the cure for the common cold.”

Customer service is another piece to the branding puzzle. With so many possible customer service touchpoints on campus, it is almost impossible to ignore. One bad experience with a staff member could alter the perceived brand of the college. Remember the adage about the customer service experience, if someone has a good experience, they tell one person about it. But if someone has a bad experience, they tell 10 people about it. So creating high quality branded customer service could be a sustainable key to your brand.

Thank you, and happy holidays!

When It Rains, It Pours…A PR Nightmare at UNM

Ever have “one of those days?” Well, UNM Athletics is having “one of those semesters.”

UNM Athletics has been hammered by issue after issue making the national and international news – none of them in a good way. Bear with me as I recap the incidents briefly.

The first dealt with Lobo head football coach, Mike Locksley, who was hired in December 2008 and since then has created controversy left and right.  According to a California news website a former administrative assistant “accused Locksley of sexual harassment, age discrimination and retaliation. The plaintiff’s lawyer said Locksley told the woman she was too old to be attractive to recruits.” According to the NCAA Football Fanhouse (click here), the issue was resolved out of court and “All EEOC claims have been withdrawn.”

Then there was a terribly misguided September ad campaign tying Lobo Athletics to a local casino promotion: Lobo Loco ads blog (click here).

Next came an incident that recently played itself out over national ESPN interviews, where Locksley was accused of hitting an assistant coach. See this Associated Press article.   This was followed up by the thorough bungling of the investigation of the fight incident by the UNM Athletics department, as painfully described in this ill-advised and poorly executed press conference by UNM President David Schmidly and VP of Athletics Paul Krebs

As of Tuesday night, I understand the issue is now under further investigation by the UNM staff committee. All of this on top of UNM’s on-field troubles of a 0-9 losing football season.

And now comes the BYU vs UNM soccer incident that has again made the international news. I will let the video clip below from ESPN’s Sports Center speak for itself.

The player has been suspended indefinitely, issued a written apology, and has gone into hiding due to wide release of and strong negative reaction to the incident.  There have been many articles regarding the situation. Here are a couple of them:

• A letter to the editor of the DailyLobo (UNM student newspaper) by a BYU student
• UK’s Sky News call player “dirtiest” soccer player ever
• Brisbane Times calls incident an internet hit

UNM had no way of preventing or controlling this series of events, of course. Every school has or will have unforeseeable issues that plague them like this, although this non-stop series of one after the other has got to set some sort of record.

Yet several of UNM’s recent wounds were self-infllicted.  The Lobo Loco ad campaign, for example, was misguided from the start, and should never have seen the light of day.  And the press conference in which the UNM President and VP of Athletics tediously slogged through a laundry list of what UNM did wrong in the Locksley assault case was badly mishandled.

In fact, there has been scant evidence of any judicious, well-planned issues management from the institution.  Here’s what we all might take away from this unfortunate series of events:

1. Have an “issues management plan” (not just a “crisis plan”) in place that defines policies, procedures, and responsibilities.  Responses should be directed by a small team of the most experienced and trusted communicators on campus, rather than departmental (in this case, Athletics) staff.  Make sure administrators approve the plan in advance.
2. One clear, credible spokesperson should consistently deal with the media throughout.
3. Create talking points and guidelines for those who need to know regarding policy issues and the institutional responses and solutions.
4. Resolve the issue quickly, completely, and decisively the first time, rather than trying to “contain” or “compartmentalize responses. Letting issues trickle on is the worst possible approach.
5. Never allow the CEO to “own” all the problems and errors, only the solutions.
6. Act fast, act honestly, act comprehensively.

Hopefully this will mark the end of issues for UNM Athletics and they’ll be able to move forward with academics and athletics more productively.  We hope so!

Out of State, Much in Mind

As the snow started falling like crazy in Colorado on Wednesday of this week,  I came across an article about the ski industry in Colorado. Due to lingering effects of the economic downturn, the ski industry has shifted its marketing strategy from marketing nationally and internationally to marketing in-state and  regionally. People aren’t driving as much, aren’t planning to go too far from home and aren’t spending that much money on a luxury like skiing.

Similar, but not exactly the same issues are being felt in higher education. Rising tuition, lower income, loss of jobs are being faced by many families. Which is one reason why I was surprised to see many universities last week mention they are going to start, are thinking about, or are being to pressured to increasing their out-of-state admissions.  UC Berkeley, University of Colorado, and the State University of New York are thinking of ways to increase out-of-state and international student numbers.

A couple notes before I begin. While I understand the  state funding issues and other budgetary issues revolving around this  issue, I want to mention some of the  marketing issues these schools may face in the near future as they move forward in their decision, at least in the short term. Also, this is not a bashing on the schools strategic decision, but more of a brain dump on potential issues.

• Costs families have to weigh. Students and their families, for the most part, have less money and may not be able to be accepted for a loan. This means that many students and families will have to debate whether they actually can afford some of the additional costs of an out-of-state education:
  • housing
  • transportation, both for local driving and back-to-home visits
  • transportation,  family visits on campus
  • long-distance communication
  • parking
  • out-of-state tuition
• Scattered audiences. While there are still many families doing “okay” and are able to afford or receive loans for many of the items listed above, being able to market to them en-masse may be difficult.  So money will be needed to boost marketing for a more scattered and widespread audience.
• Angering the local stakeholders. Community members, alumni, donors, and others may feel slided by the nearby university’s decision to target more out-of-staters. Some may disagree with the idea their higher education institution is not educating their local community. Some may even feel so strongly about it, they will no longer donate to or cut ties with the school.
• Reworking marketing materials. Many organizations have a single search mailer or viewbook they send to prospective students and they often tend to focus the style, language, and voice to match their major audience. Depending on where they shift there attention to grab out-of-state students, the schools above may need to rework their marketing materials to effectively reach their new audiences.
• Understanding and communicating with new audiences. To increase out-of-state enrollment, many will have to look to new markets and new audiences to reach their goals. This means that marketing research should be done to find  potential students and understand their motives.  Also an increase in out-of-state or international recruiters may be needed.
• Increased competition. Trying to sway a potential student away from a less-expensive,  in-state  university may be hard sell. Also, many institutions have been increasing their marketing capabilities to reach the increase of potential students (via – more higher ed students during poor economy). They are also trying to protect the markets they themselves consider strongholds.
• Educating new audiences. Many schools have market strongholds where the audiences know them fairly well. The audience knows about the school, have been on the campus a couple times, have considered going there, and have friends or family members that have gone there. When shifting markets, especially out-of-state markets, the marketing will have to start from scratch in many areas and educate the audience about the school.

Many universities have done almost the opposite based on their situations. They are bunkering down and, as mentioned, protecting or solidifying their current markets often with great benefits. They may even be venturing into a few newer markets to look for potential students.  Seems like a risky time to be frustrating current market strongholds and venturing heavily into new markets.

This is a risky move by UC Berkeley, University of Colorado and State University of New York with several potential issues, but only time will tell if  the benefits will outweigh the costs and if this is a strategy they plan on keeping in the long-term. All the luck to them and others facing this type of situation.

Tiny Turtles and Those Darn Sponsors

Within 10 minutes I came across two topics I couldn’t pass on discussing especially since I touched on both of the subjects recently. The first is about Terp pride at the University of Maryland and the second is about another sponsorship debate at the University of Kentucky’s Sex Week.

First, I came across a recent blog post on The Old College Try: Marketing Higher Ed, about one of my favorite subjects, guerrilla marketing, as mentioned in one of my previous blogs. The University of Maryland is currently implementing an internal marketing tactic to boost Terp pride and calm fears that the popular “Fear the Turtle” calling was going to be retired.  The University hid 570 tiny plastic turtles for students to find throughout the campus. Once a student finds a turtle, they can enter a code found on the plastic figure at the companion Fear the Turtle ‘09 website. Based on the code, a “tile” is flipped on the campus map on the Fear the Turtle website and the student has a chance to win a prize. According to an article in University of Maryland’s Independent Student Newspaper, “prizes range from ice cream cones, Starbucks and Applebee’s gift cards to iPods, T-shirts and tote bags.” There is also a “grand daddy” prize that has yet to be revealed. It was mentioned in the article that posters were placed around the campus to explain the tactic. As of writing this, 461 turtles have been found.

This is an excellent example of using guerrilla marketing that brings in many people in a non-traditional manner. It is fun. It coincides with the university brand. It uses a web-centric approach and also has the ability to share news on social networks. It brings the campus community together. Kudos to the University of Maryland team!

Moving on… last week I wrote about an odd sponsorship of a university athletic program and concerns about how that sponsorship was being portrayed. Before going on, I want to mention that the rest of this post talks about sex and may be uncomfortable to some.

This week, we find yet another odd sponsor of an educational event called Sex Week at the University of Kentucky. The Sex Week says that the week long event is to “increase sexual literacy by initiating an informed, open, and sustained dialog about human sexuality throughout the campus community.” As we all know, this is a great topic for a campus community that has been making the news recently as some universities are taking steps to regulate sexual activity in dorms, according to an article in U.S. News and World Report.

However, I heard in the local news, that one of the sponsors of the event is Pure Romance. The company is an “in-home party company which offers an exclusive line of heighteners, lubricants and bedroom accessories for relationship enhancement.” According to the event website, on Monday October 5, “Pure Romance will tackle myths and misconceptions surrounding bedroon accessories. Discover the truth before getting naked.”  While the sponsorship itself is a bit odd, the session itself may sound a bit more like a sales pitch than an learning opportunity. Also, according to news article published in Kentucky, it was suggested that some of the sponsor’s products promote violence against women.

Both the previous blog post about the athletic sponsor and the sponsor in this blog seem to suggest that there may be a concerning growing fad of allowing any sponsors in without worrying about whether or not the sponsor is actually appropriate to the audience, setting, brands, etc. As long as they have the cash, then it is okay to let them sponsor.

Could it really be possible that the NFL has more standards regarding advertising/sponsorships than some higher ed institutions? Below are NFL advertising guidelines found in their media kit,

The NFL will NOT accept advertising promoting the offering of or making reference to any of the following products or services (partial list)

• Distilled Spirits
• Tobacco Products (including cigarettes, cigars, tobacco, chewing tobacco and snuff)
• Contraceptives
• Feminine Hygiene Products
• Fireworks
• Firearms and Ammunition
• Lotteries
• Gambling (including Horse or Dog Racing and products or services relating in any way to gambling)

High Flying Advertising and Sponsorships

As an undergrad and grad student in Albuquerque I have always loved this time of year because the beginning of October means it is time for the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. This annual gathering of hundreds of balloons is often considered the largest gathering of balloons in the world (about 750) and the most photographed event in the world. I have about 140 movie clips and photos of being there a couple times. Also, the pictures in the post are pictures I have taken during my past visits.

I have attended this event many times over the last ten years. But a hot air balloon flying around that had a banner attached to it for The University of Phoenix a, couple of weeks ago, got me thinking. You can see many balloons with advertising or sponsor logos and message in this post’s pictures: Wells Fargo (the wagon balloon and regular shape balloon), AOL, Star Wars (Darth Vader balloon behind the two bees), Creamland Dairy (cow shape behind the two bees), Oust spray can, Energizer, and various other companies. This is not to mention the other advertising/sponsorships on the ground at the event.

The part of The University of Phoenix balloon that got me thinking is – why does higher ed not sponsor/advertise at large international family-oriented events like the Balloon Fiesta? Events like the Balloon Fiesta, are great opportunities to spread your message to local, national, and international audiences.  Every state has some large family-oriented gathering that will allow advertising/sponsorships. At many events and at a certain price, of course, you can setup your own tent or “corner” to put materials out or do your own semi-related sub-event.

Here are some things to keep in mind when thinking of sponsoring or advertising at large events

• Who is the audience? What is the age, state/country of residence, purpose for coming, how are they getting there, how loyal are they (do they come repeatedly), etc? For example, at the Balloon Fiesta many retired couples travel to the event by RV and stay in a nearby RV park – a growing population that often goes back to classes.  Also, many international and national families travel into the local airport.
• How big is the event? For example, at the Balloon Fiesta, the event overflows off the event grounds and takes over Albuquerque for the entire week. While beer companies really don’t feel it is appropriate or can’t advertise in the event, one beer company places banners around the city and at restaurants welcoming balloon pilots and balloon fans.
• Get into the details of the event. What is the main event, how will it take place, who can see it,  For example, at the Balloon Fiesta, because of the Albuquerque Box, a balloon can stay over the city for a fairly long period of time and can pass over a certain location several times. Also, not only can the people in the event see the balloons, but people all over the city can see it. Imagine if there were advertising on one or more of those balloons. Also, certain roadways become clogged in/out of the event grounds near many billboards.
• How can you tie the main event to your institution? Is there something that makes more sense to advertise. For example, at the Fiesta, your sciences department could host/sponsor a tent at the event for hands-on experiences or experiments about the physics of air balloons for school-age kids or the history department host/sponsor a tent on the history of hot air balloons. Also, several other events take advantage of the large population influx, but are not on the Fiesta grounds or tied to the Fiesta in anyway. Both the Grecian Festival and the Rio Grand Arts Festival take place during the same week and pull in many Fiesta-goers.
• What is the bottom line? What is the goal of advertising or sponsoring the event. Is it to reach the international crowd, increase inquiries, increase applications, etc. Make sure you can measure the effectiveness and put a reasonable goal on the sponsorship. In the physics tent example above,  the goal could be to increase local science related inquiries for a particular age cohort. Then you can determine if you want to sponsor/advertise/hold an outside event again.
• Who else is sponsoring. Guilt by association could play into your advertising/sponsorship if you find yourself in a wrong crowd of fellow advertisers/sponsors. Again, at the Fiesta for example, beer and alcohol is kept to a minimum or is in certain location and not seen widely during the event. This makes the event more family friendly. However, if alcohol is a big deal at the event, you may want to reconsider.

Advertising/sponsoring at a large event could provide your institution an audience from around the country or world and it could be right in your own back yard.

The Athletic Image

As many of you out there know, the athletics marketing team typically operates separately from the academic marketing unit  And we have been faced many times with the question of how the core brand should interact with the athletics brand. Sometimes the athletics brand is part of the core brand and sometimes it becomes an independent brand and at times it is somewhere in between. However the athletics image is connected to the core academic brand through brand architecture, there is a connection between the two entities in the minds of your audiences.

Back as an undergrad, I remember there was a team meeting for athletes that talked directly about how an athlete should conduct themselves and when and where they can wear university logos, sportswear, etc. For example, it was mentioned that no athlete should wear any athletic or university logos when going to a party or out to a casino or other non-favorable places. We were told that we were representatives of the school and should behave as such.

All of this came flooding back into my head when I recently came across a series of fan contest materials for the University of New Mexico. The idea is great, a “who-is-the-biggest-university-football-fan” contest to see who is Lobo Loco. Lobo fans are awesome and very loyal and the contest is a great way to pull them even more into the Lobo teams. So, I kept digging into the contest and saw who was sponsoring the contest.

The contest is sponsored by a local casino, with television commercials of a skimpy-clothed blonde and the university mascot.  The commercials are sexual in nature and the promotion directly ties the athletics program to gambling. The Lobo Loco promotion site says “The action continues all season long with Lobo Loco Free Slot Tournaments every Wednesday night throughout the season inside the Route 66 Casino. Players can sign-up at the Ultimate Rewards booth absolutely free. More than $7,000 in prize money will be given away each week”. Pure sponsorship would have been ok, but to directly tie the athletic image to a casino in a sexual nature is taking it a bit over board. Below are two commercials for the promotion:

After the meeting mentioned above and the athletic scandals at other nationally known universities in the past several years, I was surprised to see the athletic department itself sell its image to the casino. While there is no direct connection to the academics in the marketing materials, it is hard to separate the perceived connection between the athletics and the academic brand of the University.

After hearing some buzz from the school, I understand the University of New Mexico’s marketing team is going to launch a new branding effort in the near future and I doubt they were expecting this.  I also doubt that some of the messages put forth in the commercials are part of the University of New Mexico’s new brand. As this contest is only about a month old, I will interested to see how this will effect the academic brand in the near future.

So what does a university marketing team do to avoid this kind of issue with, not only, the athletics unit, but other university units and departments. Here are some helpful tips:

• Brand dialogue. While athletics marketing teams are familiar with branding, athletics is apart of the university’s core brand in some shape and form. There should be a discussion so both units understand each others goals, strategies, and tactics.  Also, to understand how the two units should interact together.
• Provide some brand tools. While the athletics marketing unit has its own materials and resources, they still need some brand tools to help consolidate messages and some of the creative elements (based on the brand architecture).
• Constant dialogue. Schedule some regular meetings to catch up on the two unit’s progress and how each other can help.  Is there some room for cross-over or collaboration?
• Set guidelines. With any brand, including the core, sub, extension, or independent brand, there are  guidelines to follow. How, what, where, and when each unit is to express their brand?

Also, while the sponsorship has been hailed as one of the largest sponsorships in Lobo athletic history, it doesn’t give the sponsor the right to go nuts. There must be some collaboration between the athletics, academic and sponsoring brands about what is appropriate and not appropriate so the sponsorship is a win-win for all entities involved.  How should the brands look, how they should interact together, etc? After awhile, a negative image, similar to the one portrayed above has the possibility to tarnish both brands.

I am interested if any else out there has had similar issues.

Analyze This

I have yet to see the results of one of the Notebook Polls so one-sided, until this poll.

The question posed last month was “Which website analytics tool does your institution use?” It seems that “Google Analytics or other free analytics” was the main response (86% of respondents).  I am assuming that most responses where focusing Google Analytics and not the “other free analytics” part of the response.

Not surprisingly, the people who took the poll did not choose any of the following options that were available as a response.

• ClickTracks, WebTrends, WebSideStory HBX Analytics, Omniture’s SiteCatalyst or other non-free analytics
• None
• Don’t know
• Don’t care

And a slim 14% mentioned they use “Urchin, AWStats or Webalizer or other analytics provided by your web hoster”.

The chart below provides the full story.

We all know that keeping track of your website stats is now key data that any marketer should keep a close eye on. While there are many tools out there to track this data, they are are similar and most do a good job. Google Analytics is, by far, the fan favorite and is a very powerful tool. It takes some training to get used to, but it is well worth it.

It is good to know that everyone who took the poll pretty much agrees with this and no one mentioned that they “don’t care” or don’t have any web analytic tools.

Some key data to watch on a regular basis

• Bounce rate: how many are leaving a certain page to view a completely different website. The lower the percentage the better.
• Average Time on Site: how long users are staying on your site. The higher the better.
• Percent New Visits: how many new visitors are viewing your site. A good number to watch when running advertising designed to point lots of new people to the website. During an advertising campaign, the higher the percentage is good a sign the advertising is working.
• Pages per View: shows how many pages a viewer is looking at. The higher the number the better. It shows your audience likes your content and wants to see more. It could also mean your content is too hard to find but is still needed by the viewers.
• Traffic sources: where viewers coming from. Again, good to watch if running something like AdWords or some internet advertising. Or to know if someone has added a link to their website.
• Pages: which pages are the most viewed. In many cases, it is the home page that is the most viewed page. This is good to know so you know what content people want the most on your website.

With many of the analytics tools you can mix and match the data to get a cross section of a certain page or a certain viewer domain or of a certain day.

Some things to keep in mind when watching the data trend.

• Quick trend shifts: If you haven’t made a change recently to your website, find out why there is a quick change in the site stats. It could mean a page has crashed or a new browser update isn’t compatible with certain site functions. A sharp positive shift  in site trends could mean certain content is needed or someone has linked to your content.
• When making changes: If you plan on making changes, make incremental changes to your website and then take a break to watch the stats. If you make a small shift in the website and notice  a positive change in the data you can continue to make more of the same type of changes. If the change creates a negative reaction, revert back to the version of the site before the change took place. If you make large multifaceted changes, you won’t know what works and what doesn’t work.
• Seasonal shifts: Keep an eye on seasonal shifts in data. As we all know certain audiences on and off campus will need certain content on a seasonal basis and if you see a seasonal trend in the data you can make seasonal changes to match the needs. For example, during football season you can make your team’s scores and game times easier to find and after graduation you can make new alumni information easier to find on your site.

While it seems many use Google Analytics to track their website usage, most have their own favorite data trends to watch. I am interested to know what data people try to keep an eye on that we haven’t mentioned above.

And give us input on how the H1N1 flu is affecting your campus in the new Notebook Poll on the right panel.

Hey, That’s My Tagline!

Several of our clients within the past year have been surprised to learn that the strategic taglines and campaign themes we created for them were compelling and popular enough that competitors began using them, too!

So now what? While imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, stealing your thunder is going a little too far. But there are lessons to be learned here.

The first institution in question had protected their tagline by registering it as a trademark of the university. About a year later they learned that another institution had started using the same tagline as a campaign headline. Since the phrase had been trademarked, the university attorney was equipped to send a cease-and-desist letter to the offending institution. The competitor demurred. Case closed.

Truth is, you can’t legally stop others from using your marketing idea. Headlines and taglines can’t be copyrighted, and a trademark protects only the execution of the tagline as it’s associated with your name, not the words or the idea themselves.

However, trademark establishes ownership. It plants a flag in the ground, and stamps a date on it. Most offending institutions, when alerted to a prior claim like this, wisely choose to drop their use without further ado.

Now consider a second case. This client launched their campaign using a consistent high-impact branding theme – they didn’t trademark it as a declared tagline, but simply used it is as a prominent recurring headline and guiding theme.

They learned a year later that a direct competitor had started using the same headline in their ad campaign. Which college owned the idea? From a marketing perspective, the key is “ownership” in the public perception.

One choice, for example, would have been to simply abandon the campaign theme to the competitor and create an alternative. Yet we advised the opposite.

Since this institution had a significant investment in the brand – months of intense research, consensus building, and a strategic rollout, a strong identity was already built around the branding concept. They owned the idea among internal stakeholders. We recommended that they quickly build robust opportunities for external audiences to see their decisive “ownership” of the phrase. Put it prominently on the Web, use it for SEO keywords and adwords, create banners, give it to faculty and recruiters as a primary talking point, use it as branded event theme, and in advertising. Connect themselves to it.

If a campaign theme is important to expressing your brand, it’s a matter of who best “walks the talk”? And when an institution establishes this level of ownership, competitors who use the same theme end up pretty much advertising for you. In short, while the idea may not be legally protected, “ownership” of the tagline and the essence behind it can carry the day.

But the real moral of the story is this: If a branding concept, tagline, or campaign theme is important in defining and supporting your brand promise and you would like to use it for several years or more, protect it through trademark as a strategic tagline. Internal legal counsel can do this for you.

It’s easy to check for prior trademark protection to see if any higher education institutions or large corporations have already laid claim to your phrase or idea. Just go to United States Patent and Trademark Office website or the Canadian Intellectual Property Office website and search for the phrase in question. If it’s not being used, pounce on it!

Opportunities Galore

I am sure most of you out there feel that time flies by and many are extremely busy day in and day out. Also with a world that is as connected as ours is today, news and opinions seem to change almost instantaneously. With each change comes new opportunities for marketers to draw in new some new eyes or bring back some old eyes on their products/services.

Everyone has heard the “Cash for Clunkers” phrase over and over and over again these last couple of weeks. That is no accident. But the cheer is not coming from the government as much as it is coming from the dealerships that can take advantage of the opportunity. It seems everytime I hear or see an ad for a local car dealership it incorporates “Cash for Clunkers” or some similar saying.  As we have all figured out, the dealerships are making sure everyone will bring their clunker and buy a car from them using the extra cash.

Not only are the car dealerships taking advantage, but so it Conan O’ Brien and Lexus with his “Conan, Please Blow up my Car” contest. I will let the video do the explaining, check it out (click here). The contest is based around tv viewers sending in videos of their clunkers, the clunkiest car will get blown up and while the owner will receive a new Lexus hybrid.

Recently, I read an article about a hotel in downtown Minneapolis that is taking advantage of Brett Favre’s arrival as a Minnesota Viking.  The hotel created the Brett Favre package where guests stay a couple nights and donate, to the hotel, an old Brett Favre Packer’s jersey and the guest will get a special rate for their third night. The jerseys are then donated to the Boys and Girls Club.

The video below EMG produced for the  Edward R. Murrow School of Communication at Washington State University when the movie Good Night, and Good Luck came out in 2005. The video below was seen in theaters right before the movie played and was also played at the movies debut in several local cities.

Here are some helpful hints that may help you and your staff catch some opportunites:

1. Eye on the news – keep an eye out for possible upcoming opportunities that may make sense
2. External connections – local business leaders and influencers tend to have some good insights into local news.
3. Internal connections – connect with campus leaders who may have an opportunity that may have “legs”
4. Social networks – watch Facebook, Twitter, and other networks for chatter and buzz about upcoming events or big things that your stakeholders may be putting together or may feel is important to them.
5. Discuss amongst yourselves – make it a point talk with your staff to make the mental connections between the external and internal opportunities. One staff member may have the external opp while another may have the internal opp. Keep the lines open for discussions.
6. Pen to paper – write down several favorite opportunities so that you don’t forget. It may take a awhile before the entire opportunity comes into view, so be sure to take notes on your thoughts and possibilities.
7. Reserves – we all know budgets are tight, but you never know when the big golden opportunity may come available. Keep a little budget for the one opportunity you just can’t pass up.

With some much going on in today’s world, it seems like there are endless possibilites out there.

Recognize Me?

My 2 year old son has recently been watching PIXAR movies. He can already recognize the beginning sequence with the lamp bounding across the screen and jumping on the “I”.  He excitedly smiles and points at the TV because he knows  he is about to watch one of his favorite movies.

We all recognize and are familiar with hundreds, if not thousands, of marketing images around us. As we all know, the most easily recognizable marketing image is typically the logo.

Many of us have run into some of these games that you guess the company based on only a portion of logo or wordmark.  Take a stab at naming the company based on the portion of the logo seen below.

You may recognize several of the logos and you may also start to have ideas pop in your head for what the company behind the logo stands for. As we all know, the logo is only one aspect of the visual representation of the brand based on lots of research, data, and testing. But as illustrated above, logos can be a powerful representation. Even just a small part of the logo can be recognizable and bring up an emotional or thought provoking response.

Below are 16 logos of large state and internationally known higher ed institutions in the U.S.  Try and take a guess as to what school these logos/wordmarks belong to.  Does the small portion of some of the logos below bring up some kind of response? Is the response as strong as the responses from the corporate logos above? Can you describe some of the schools brand as well as you could for some of the corporate logos?

How many can you get right? Write your answers in a comment below, after a while I will let you know if you are right.

How does this help you, you ask? First, here are some questions to ask yourself about your current logo.

• Is your logo unique?
• Is your logo recognizable?
• Do you have identity and logo standards?
  • Color?
  • Font?
  • Use in different scenarios?
  • Size/shape/proportion?
• Does your logo bring up the appropriate response that you want it too?
• What emotions/thoughts does your logo bring out?
• What do internal and external audiences of your university/college think of the logo?

As mentioned earlier, the logo is only one aspect of the visual representation of a brand. If the logo doesn’t match the brand, your stakeholders may not be getting the full and correct visual and emotional response that is intended of the brand. In the end, having a “correct” visual and emotional response to an easily recognizable logo is one aspect that can help bring in like-minded stakeholders.

The corporate logo games above came from http://www.joeykatzen.com/alpha/#guess and http://www.bizzia.com/brandcurve/game-name-that-brand/