Everyone knows enough about marketing to be dangerous. College leaders are no exception. But it’s not what they know about marketing that can hurt them, it’s what they don’t know.
As a former chief marketing officer, I’ve participated in dozens of hiring interviews for marketing executives, from directors to VPs. One question I always ask is, “Tell me what your definition of marketing is and why you chose that definition?”
I’m always surprised to see candidates struggle to answer this fundamental question. But as you read these lines, maybe you’re wondering to yourself, “How would I answer this question?” As a college leader, I believe your answer will be a key determining factor to your school’s future success or failure. Here’s why: Marketing is about overcoming the obstacles that prevent people from buying what you’re selling. If someone on your campus doesn’t know how to identify and overcome these obstacles, you’re in big trouble. That’s how important marketing is.
When I share this definition of marketing with campus leaders, their eyes light up. Suddenly, marketing isn’t just about the website, or advertising, or publications. Instead, it’s about doing something that’s mission critical: addressing the real reasons why students aren’t choosing them.
We often make the marketing function unnecessarily complicated. In its simplest form, marketing can be broken down into what’s commonly referred to as the Four Ps: product, price, place, and promotion. When we think about marketing overcoming obstacles, the obstacles we are referring to are usually found in one or more of these Four Ps.
For example, people may not choose your college because they perceive it to be too expensive (price). Or, maybe they have issues with your campus location (place). Or, perhaps they don’t think your degrees are relevant (product). Or, maybe they don’t even know you exist (promotion). The role of marketing is to help the college overcome these obstacles.
Many colleges don’t have a chief marketing officer who is responsible for addressing the obstacles related to the Four Ps. That’s because they don’t understand the distinction between two types of marketing: integrated marketing and integrated marketing communication. Integrated marketing is where the chief marketing officer speaks into all Four Ps, including the creation of the product and the setting of its price. Integrated marketing communication, on the other hand, is where the chief marketing officer only speaks into the fourth P, promotion.
One of the challenges with “fourth P” marketing departments is that they engage in a multitude of promotional activities, many of which can be very expensive. When talking about marketing, college presidents can often sound like John Wannamaker, the famous 19th century retailer who purportedly said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” The inconvenient truth is that most of the money spent on college marketing is wasted. That’s because marketing is relegated to promotions and doesn’t speak into the other three Ps (product, price, and place).
The advantage of defining marketing as “overcoming the obstacles that prevent people from buying what you’re selling” is that it narrows the focus of your marketing efforts on the issues that matter most. This enables your chief marketing officer to more effectively prioritize their time and resources on the real issues confronting the university, especially as they relate to student choice. Understanding the powerful role integrated marketing plays is the first step toward long-term success for your college.
– Rob Westervelt is the founder of TG Three and currently serves as vice president of strategy and innovation at Lindenwood University near St. Louis. He is known for leading the turnaround at George Fox University in Oregon and for helping Christian colleges around the country increase their enrollments and net tuition revenue.
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