The key to successfully marketing a college is "to determine the needs and wants of target constituents and to deliver the desired services more effectively and efficiently than competitors," according to Robert M. Moore, managing partner of Lipman Hearne, Inc. (LHI), a Chicago-based firm that specializes in communications and marketing services for higher education and nonprofit institutions.
    During his Presidents Institute address on "Measure Your Marketing: Three Ways to Tell If Your Marketing Commitment Matches that of the Competition," Moore explained, "The essential conundrum is how to balance the educational mission-orientation with the marketing-orientation necessary to attract your external publics." He explained that it is important to differentiate clearly, fairly, and in a distinctive way, an institution's position within its educational marketplace.
    "For example, one might position MIT as the primary higher educational institution dedicated to advancing technology in the free world, but many observers would not position MIT as the best university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Harvard resides," he said.
    In cooperation with the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), LHI surveyed campus communications executives at 420 institutions, including 120 CIC members. The survey analyzed how the institutions varied in size of staffs and budgets, overall application of resources, and outcomes of their integrated marketing communications activities. Findings enabled participants to benchmark their current marketing and communications programs among their peers.
    Among LHI's findings: 48 percent of liberal arts colleges in the study have campus-wide marketing committees comprised of significant officers inside the administration and faculty; 34 percent of liberal arts campuses have trustee-level alumni/trustee marketing committees. For the third consecutive year, about 60 percent of all surveyed institutions reported an increase in current marketing budgets.
    Moore also presented results from a survey of 10,000 high school-aged students who regularly use the World Wide Web. He noted that in 1996, only 4 percent of prospective students visited college websites. That number jumped to 58 percent in 1997 and 78 percent in 1998. Today, it is estimated to be more than 90 percent. Moore believes that interactive websites, with features such as special-interest chat rooms, online applications, and other attractions that appeal to traditional age recruits, should be at the top of each college's repertoire of recruiting activities.
    Presentation notes on the two reports, "LHI/CASE 2000 Marketing Survey," and "Web Site Effectiveness," are available through the CIC website at www.cic.edu.

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Last updated: May 28, 2001
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