Contents

from Roy D. Adler and Thomas J. Hayes, University Marketing Mistakes: 50 Pitfalls to Avoid (CASE 2008)

Introduction

1. Taking an Outside View
   1.1 We don't do marketing here
   1.2 We have no serious competition
   1.3 When is the new viewbook coming out?
2. Assuring Inside Support
   2.1 Putting the cart before the horse
   2.2 Don't make promises you can't keep
   2.3 Resistance is futile, go with the flow
   2.4 Next, world domination!
   2.5 Yet another "Best Kept Secret"
3. Identifying a Differential Advantage and a Target Market
   3.1 The "me too" university
   3.2 Pictures of old guys talking to students
   3.3 Hispanic students? Like ... those who speak ... like ... Spanish?
   3.4 After providing tacos, then what?
4. Building and Maintaining Brand Equity
   4.1 Everything you learned in school is wrong
   4.2 Love those cheap adjuncts
   4.3 You only get one chance to make a first impression
   4.4 Hail to the Spitting Cobras!
   4.5 Retention through grade inflation
5. Researching Important Issues
   5.1 We will do marketing research when we become more successful
   5.2 Empire Building 101: More of everything is good for me
   5.3 Let's include everyone's input
   5.4 Student research will, indeed, provide data
   5.5 We've already done that research
   5.6 The focus group fallacy
   5.7 That's my information! You can't have it!
   5.8 Simplicity is beauty
6. Selecting Your Message
   6.1 Information overload
   6.2 Is this the same school I toured last week?
   6.3 You are not paying your electric bill!
   6.4 Send in the clowns
7. Communicating Your Message
   7.1 Consider the source
   7.2 What kind of school is our university this year?
   7.3 We advertise in the New York Times
   7.4 But it was such a good deal
   7.5 We respond like clockwork
   7.6 We care about you as a person
8. Using the Web
   8.1 That is so yesterday!
   8.2 Techsite Webology
   8.3 It's easier for whom?
9. Recruiting Prospective Students
   9.1 What is the benefit for me?
   9.2 Tangibilizing the intangible
   9.3 There ain't no substitute for being there
   9.4 If you see the trash, you own the trash
   9.5 Making wonderful promises
10. Dealing with Parents and Alumni
    10.1 Penny wise and pound foolish
    10.2 If you come to Beckinsdale, we will increase your tuition
    10.3 When you need a friend, it is too late to make one
    10.4 Show me the money
11. Assuring Competent Staff
    11.1 Getting out of the rat race
    11.2 We don't need a strategy. We have tactics.
    11.3 A university should be a safe place
    11.4 Crisis! Crisis! Who's handling this crisis?
12. Making Marketing Work at Your School
    12.1 Hey, marketing is not my job.
    12.2 Sharpen the saw

Final Thoughts

About the Authors