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IU Marketing Leaders Conference
Improving Marketing Effectiveness and
Efficiency at Indiana University
Dan Smith
Dean and Professor of Marketing
Kelley School of Business
IU Marketing Leaders Conference
Agenda
• First principles: What is marketing and why does it
matter?
• How to build the overall IU brand yet recognize
unique competitive environments of individual
academic units?
• Improving marketing effectiveness and efficiency at
Indiana University: A few concrete actions
IU Marketing Leaders Conference
What is marketing?
• A “constituency-focused” approach to running an organization
– Goal: Maximize the mutual lifetime value of relationships
with key constituencies
• Based on:
1. Understanding the important problems/needs facing key
constituency groups
2. Developing programs/initiatives that address those needs
better than competing options
3. Communicating your points of value-added benefits in a
credible way
IU Marketing Leaders Conference
Why does it matter?
• Forces us to examine the ways in which we are truly
differentiated (or not) in terms of how we add value
to constituencies we serve.
• Principle #1 in marketing efficiency and
effectiveness: Do you really have something
compelling AND unique to offer to key constituency
groups???
• Every academic unit/program should have
compelling value propositions aligned with each
audience they serve.
IU Marketing Leaders Conference
Why does it matter?
• Value propositions are at the foundation of
marketing effectiveness and efficiency.
• Basic format:
“For people who [describe the target constituency
group and the need/problem you address], [your
service] provides [state the benefits that are truly
unique compared to competitors].”
IU Marketing Leaders Conference
Why does it matter?
• Value propositions are “internal” statements that
should guide how you communicate to a desired
audience.
• Example: The Kelley Direct MBA
“For bright professionals who want to improve their lives
by advancing their careers yet are not inclined to attend a
traditional part-time MBA program, Kelley Direct provides
the quality and prestige of a world renown MBA using the
most flexible in-residence/online format in the
marketplace today.”
IU Marketing Leaders Conference
Differences in marketing in the private and
university sectors
• Indiana University:
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Prospective students
Parents of prospective students
Current students
Parents of current students
State legislature
Alumni and prospective donors
Prospective faculty
Current faculty and staff
Organizations that hire our students (and those that do not)
Research funding organizations etc.
IU Marketing Leaders Conference
Differences in marketing in the private and
university sectors
• Larger number of constituencies leads to larger number of
people who are engaged in “marketing” … even though we do
not call it “marketing” … even though we may not have many
“marketing-related” job titles.
• Examples:
– President McRobbie, Chancellors, Deans, Program Chairs,
Center Directors, etc.
– All of our government outreach team
– Student recruiting functions (IU, Campus-specific, unit)
– Alumni relations (IU, Campus-specific, academic unit)
– Development operations
– Etc.
IU Marketing Leaders Conference
How to create a coherent IU brand and yet recognize
the unique needs and competitive challenges of
individual academic units?
• Analogy:
– IBM “Building a smarter planet”
– Every division and product line within IBM has value
propositions that fit with and reinforce the larger concept
yet address their respective unique competitive
environments
• Indiana University?
– We have established differentiated missions
– Now ... move toward value propositions for campuses and
units within each campus
IU Marketing Leaders Conference
How to create a coherent IU brand and yet recognize
the unique needs and competitive challenges of
individual academic units?
Indiana University Value Proposition
• Campus value proposition: Why IU-B is special v. peers
• Campus-level constituency
value propositions:
Why parents should select IU-B over
peer institutions
Why alumni should support IU-B over
other not-for-profits
• Unit-level value proposition Why the Kelley School is special v. peers
• Unit-specific constituency
value propositions
Why parents with kids interested in
business should select Kelley over
other undergraduate options
IU Marketing Leaders Conference
How to create a coherent IU brand and yet recognize
the unique needs and competitive challenges of
individual academic units?
• Where/how to begin?
- Top down
- Bottom up
Summary of Recommendations
Shared with Trustees
IU Marketing Leaders Conference
First principles
• Objectives:
– Effectiveness: Did a given marketing initiative achieve the desired
objective(s)?
• Related: Are objectives somehow linked to financial outcomes?
Improve impression of
IU among leaders of
peer schools
Improve reputation-based
media rankings
Reduction in student
recruiting/acquisition cost
– Efficiency: How do we achieve the greatest impact per dollar
invested? Or … How can we achieve a desired target level of
impact for the least investment?
• Note: Goal is not always to “reduce” spending … but rather to
allocate it in ways that have the greatest impact
• Example: Kelley Direct circa 2005
IU Marketing Leaders Conference
1. Branding IU
• Objectives:
– Succinctly communicate points of meaningful uniqueness
– Provide general guidance for individual units
– Long-term improvement of marketing efficiency
• Actions:
– Bottom-up approach
– Develop/refine value propositions for individual academic
units using professional guidance
– Identify common threads/themes that shape overarching IU
positioning
IU Marketing Leaders Conference
2. Unit-level marketing plans with clear objectives and
accountability for assessing impact
• Objectives:
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Leverage “accountability” aspects of RCM
Encourage thought before action
Recognition of opportunity cost
Address marketing professionalism issues raised by Accenture
• Actions:
– Central feature of annual budget meeting
– Develop “format” for presenting marketing objectives and results
• Must demonstrate actions to bring about material productivity gains
– Training session for key staff on how to develop marketing plans
and assess performance
IU Marketing Leaders Conference
3. Forum for sharing effective practices
• Objectives:
– Vicarious “learning by doing”
– Create a true “learning organization”
– Reduce/remove repetition of ineffective practices
• Actions:
– Create format for recording marketing initiatives
– Compile examples – not limited to “success stories” as we also
need to know what has not worked well in the past
– Organize by objectives
– Illustrate how performance was measured
– Explicitly highlight general principles of success or lack thereof
– House on searchable intranet site
IU Marketing Leaders Conference
4. Reduce printed materials for non revenue-generating
support units + increased centralization of their
marketing activities
• Objectives:
– Reduce/eliminate materials that simply “talk to ourselves”
– Migrate “fact reporting” to web
– Migrate “update/event” notices to electronic media
• Action steps
– Training session(s) on how to develop marketing plans
– Budget presentations should include plan for dramatic reduction in
use of printed materials
– Budget meetings include plan for migrating most (if not all)
marketing activities to centralized service
IU Marketing Leaders Conference
5. Centralization of “predictable” strategic marketing
activities for revenue-producing units
• Objectives:
– Capture efficiency gains of thoughtful centralization
– Improve effectiveness of planned marketing actions
– Not lose flexibility of decentralization of appropriate initiatives
• Action steps
– Units create inventory of marketing initiatives
– Identify those that are “predictable” and can be planned in
advance … these are handled by central service
– Office of Creative Services (OCS) develops “account manager”
model
– OCS evaluated on customer service and cost efficiency
IU Marketing Leaders Conference
Questions and Discussion ….