Last Sunday I was watching Meet the Press and at the same time preparing my travel schedule for an upcoming higher education enrollment conference in Seattle. The focus of the Meet the Press program was on the global financial crisis. Listening to the opinions of political and financial experts and getting ready for dialogues about admissions led me to think about the ways higher education might be affected by the ripples of the financial crisis.
For the past few years there has been much speculation among higher education senior administrators and enrollment people about the change in demographics in the United States and abroad, and how those changes might impact higher education. Namely, the fact that the number of high school seniors begins to spire downward this year, the increase in the percentage of Hispanic students, and the challenges in the ability to pay for an increasing number of families.
Now comes the tsunami financial crisis. Combined with the issues stated above, colleges and universities are in for trying times. From my experience, almost all institutions have undertaken a branding initiative in the past five years. Most have concentrated on creating taglines and trendy advertising campaigns. To date only a few have taken a broader brand development approach. Schools will need to think about brand and sustainability beyond external communications and carbon footprint campaigns, to long-term cultural and financial approaches. The need to recruit and retain brand champions will be as competitive as ever.
Is your brand positioned for the long haul?
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