Marketing the Community’s College
(continued)
Everywhere You Turn introduced a remarkable lineup of successful and
prominent professionals, all trumpeting their roots at MDC. Their faces
appeared in both English and Spanish print media and shone down on the
commuting public from billboards across the county. Once the campaign
took hold, soliciting alumni involvement was no longer necessary; they
surfaced in overwhelming numbers, asking to be included in the
campaign. Ads integrated the capital campaign's message of Opportunity
Changes Everything into the copy as well as placing the logo in the
corner of a banner. The banner also contained phone numbers for those
who wanted to enroll, donate, or join the alumni association.
MDC's public affairs and marketing department spearheaded design of the
campaign. The particular people and the range of professions, changing
and growing as the weeks unfolded, gave rise to the I had no idea
exclamation on countless occasions. Congressional representative,
ambassadors, doctors, lawyers, fire and police chiefs, corporate CEOs,
Olympic gold medalists, and big-league ballplayers brought the college
product into the light of day.
Though Everywhere You Turn didn't translate easily, Spanish ads played
on a well-known Hispanic saying; the headline read, “Dime donde
estudiantes, y te dire quien eres” which loosely translates to, “Tell
me where you studied and I'll tell you who you are.” The English
equivalent would be, “I can tell who you are by the company you keep.”
The campaign contained numerous additional features that promoted not
only alumni accomplishment but selected programs as well. Each week in
the Business Monday section of the Miami Herald, the college placed an
advertorial called “The Exchange” (in Spanish, “La Solucion”), which
focused attention on programs of interest to the business community.
The college's new downtown Emerging Technologies Center of the Americas
(ETCOTA), the region's most advanced IT, engineering, and internet
training source; the Hospitality Management program; partnerships with
Florida Power and Light; the Translation/Interpretation program; and
seminars at the North Campus' Entrepreneurial Education Center piqued
the business community's interest and reaffirmed the college's
workforce commitment.
PUBLICATIONS
Miami Dade's Millennium Commencement was a springboard for Opportunity
Changes Everything. The logo was pervasive, on the cover of the
invitation and program, as well as on a number of specialty items.
Around the same time, two new publications were launched that served
both internal and external constituencies. Both publications embraced
the Opportunity Changes Everything logo and highlighted the programs
and people making a difference at the college. College Forum is an
informal and colorful monthly journal with short articles highlighting
college activities. MDC Magazine is a four-color magazine that provides
more in-depth coverage, often branching out to profile well-known
alumni. Besides these publications, distributed collegewide, faculty
and staff receive a monthly e-newsletter titled The College Connection;
it offers additional items about the internal family. And MDC's three
largest campuses publish a monthly student newspaper.
HARVESTING AWARENESS
For many public colleges and universities, the past several years have
been a time of economic reckoning. True to form, the weak economy has
delivered increased enrollment, and state legislatures have continued
to slash allocations. In the learning business, with its increased cost
per student, this is a roadmap to mediocrity. Conceding that the
disparity was likely to grow worse, a more pointed message to MDC's
constituencies was in order.
While the Successful Alumni campaign had opened some eyes, there
remained a disconnect between the excellence suggested by the college's
alumni and the willingness to donate or enroll one's own children. It
became obvious that MDC suffered from an image problem. The community
seemed to take for granted the college's broad and enduring
contribution.
With the help of a South Florida advertising agency, the college once
again set about addressing the dual challenges of image enhancement and
funding. The campaign strived to reconcile contrasting components by
marketing the college's excellence while stating the case for maximum
public support. The message needed to convey that this level of
excellence could not be sustained without increased public support.
Call Us Essential – Call Us The College
Call Us Essential – Call Us The College is a simple message that
reminded the community of the institution's importance and provided a
name reference that reinforced the college's essential role.
Implementation rested on several promotional steps:
Establish institutional identity, marketing the essential importance of
the college and clarifying the excellence of its mission.
1. Use diverse media and creative messaging, a range of electronic,
print, outdoor, and direct-mail media with varied messages for
different constituencies;
2. Enhance relations with media. Beyond the daily stream of news
releases, offer innovative storylines and develop new relationships
with national media to support the quality recognition of the college.
3. Expand internal communications. Coordinate messages via electronic,
print, and personal communication; use the branding concept to develop
T- shirts, mugs, and other collateral materials.
4. Refine and enhance the college's web resources. Coordinate with the
marketing campaign and provide specific pages for prime aspects of
college functioning, serving internal and external constituencies.
The campaign spoke to the breadth and quality of MDC's academic
mission, the college's indispensable value to the community, and the
college's limited resources and the imminent possibility that students
would be turned away to preserve quality.
Each aspect of the overall message needed to reach particular
constituencies. Certainly, the message needed to connect with the
general public on all points. Two-thirds of all households in the
county enrolled a family member at some point in MDC's history. These
were the people who might someday support a local revenue source. The
notion of academic quality, confirmed by the new baccalaureate degree
programs and the Honors College, needed to reach parents, teachers,
advisors, and students. The fact that the college trained two-thirds of
the county's nurses, all the firefighters, emergency medical
technicians, and police officers needed to resound with the community's
civic leaders. And corporate executives, who could steer substantial
resources to the college, needed to recognize that a talented workforce
began with MDC.
Educating and influencing legislators is a central aspect of an
institution's marketing responsibility. The same information capsulated
in media promotions must find its way into appropriately formatted
communications to those who influence the day-to-day operations of the
college. As MDC reached out to educate its community, the institution
remained mindful of persuading its Tallahassee and Washington contacts
of pressing needs.
Finally, MDC's internal community needed to embrace the message and
feel the pride of ownership. After years of innovation and success, it
was time for the teachers and learners to be fully recognized as
difference makers in the community.
Since MDC embarked on the campaign in late 2002, the trends in funding
and enrollment in higher education have continued, intensifying the
crisis facing colleges and universities in Florida and across the
nation. The campaign has laid the groundwork for resource development
that will be crucial in maintaining MDC's contribution to the
community.
Public colleges and universities must articulate
breadth of their offerings and ensure that their
appreciate that such excellence comes at a cost.
realities of our time that marketing and funding
partners.
the excellence and
various publics
It is one of the
are full-time
As the vanguard of accessibility, public colleges and universities have
become central to America's productivity and prosperity. The test now
is to survive and flourish under the weight of success. Articulating
the essential nature of these institutions is crucial to accomplishing
this transition.
Eduardo J. Padrón is President of Miami Dade College.