IN A MOVE SOME MIGHT SEE AS unusual for academia, Northeastern University has turned to branding to create an image for the school and boost enrollment.
Boston-based Northeastern was almost bankrupt in the early ’90s, noted vice president of marketing and communications Brian Kenny. To turn things around, the school reviewed its admissions policy to bring in a better class of students and improve the campus facilities. When the school’s fortunes improved by 2001, the president decided it was time to tell the story through marketing efforts.
The first phase was creating a campaign based on the promise of what prospective students could expect from their Northeastern experience. This included major media buys in newspapers and billboard ads across the country, to create a nationwide presence for the school. Last year the second phase began, which involved targeting specific segments of its audience.
While 90% of Northeastern’s alumni are concentrated in the Boston area, the school hadn’t done a good job of staying connected with them. Likewise, it hadn’t kept up relationships with the countless companies that place students in jobs as part of the university’s co-op education program.
Marketing also is being done to presidents and administrators at other colleges and universities to improve Northeastern’s ranking among schools in the United States. Each year Northeastern targets 10 universities to cultivate relationships with, Kenny said.
Marketing in academia can be challenging, acknowledged Kenny, speaking at the New England Direct Marketing Association’s annual conference in Waltham, MA in June. Faculty members are skeptical about why dollars should go toward marketing the school rather than for upgrading classrooms or funding teachers’ salaries.
The school also faces technology challenges in that some information is stored on old mainframe computers. The data could be very useful to marketing, but is fairly inaccessible.
Northeastern’s marketing efforts also are decentralized. Kenny oversees the largest group, but every individual school and business unit within the university system has its own marketing staff.
This can make maintaining an integrated image for the school difficult. He cited as an example that numerous versions of the Northeastern Husky mascot exist across different parts of the organization.
To tie efforts together, Kenny instituted monthly communications council meetings to exchange ideas and generate a community feel for the marketing staffs. “About 50% of my job is going out and talking to people on campus with a marketing function,” he said.
Budgets are slim, he added. “We need to find ways to do more with the same — or less.” One way Northeastern is doing this is by evaluating how to leverage virtual marketing opportunities online. It’s a natural, Kenny said, “since students are so comfortable with technology.”
Maintaining a strong image for the school is essential because over the next year or so the number of high school seniors heading off to college will peak and then drop off for about the next eight years.
“Direct marketing is more important now that we’ve created the brand image,” he said.
