Lincoln and Christian College Branding
I saw Spielberg’s movie “Lincoln” over Thanksgiving weekend. Wonderful screenplay by Tony Kushner and amazing acting by Daniel Day Lewis, Sally Fields and Tommy Lee Jones. I was struck by the parallels...
View ArticleDivision III: Less is More
When St. Thomas University and the University of Mt. Union meet in this coming Saturday’s Division III NCAA football championship — the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl — we don’t expect higher education...
View Article5 New Year’s Higher Education Marketing Resolutions
While higher education marketing professionals traditionally equate the “new year” with the turning of an academic calendar, starting in September, the approach of 2013 gives us good reason to offer 5...
View ArticleSpeaking in Subtle Tongues
Today, we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology—where each worker may bloom,...
View ArticleThe hardest part of branding higher education…
…isn’t taking data from research reports and discovery sessions to come up with creative ideas for a campaign or a tagline. Honestly, that stuff is quite easy. The hardest part is letting go – of...
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Pinterest gets a new look
After a three-month test period with select members, Pinterest announced Monday that it will begin rolling out a new site design to the rest of its 48 million+ users. The design changes are relatively...
View ArticleCreating Mid-21st Century Higher Education Branding
One of the tensions we hold at Elliance has to do with the pros and cons of specialization. While most of our work focuses on higher education marketing — where we have deep experience — we also meet a...
View ArticleCan higher education branding deliver value for students?
The closer my son gets to college age (t-minus three years) the more I ask myself: “Does the work I do listening for and giving voice to higher education brands actually help prospects and parents make...
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Higher education marketing strategy for shrinking budgets
Increasingly, colleges are finding themselves in tough situations: budgets are shrinking, competitors are multiplying and academic offerings are expanding. So what should a college do? One gameplan to...
View ArticleHigher Education Branding: What’s Hockey Got to Do With It?
Our beloved Pittsburgh Penguins may be the most brand-savvy and well-run organization in sports, with exemplary practices from free pizza for the huddled masses waiting in the student rush line, to...
View ArticleHigher Education Marketing — Who’s Counting?
Anyone involved with higher education branding and marketing has used such shorthand as “four-year liberal arts college” or “four-year degree.” Likewise, most colleges and financial aid sources will...
View ArticleQuick tips on buying higher education brand work.
As a firm steadily building a reputation for higher education marketing and branding, we often receive phone calls and RFPs from colleges who quickly disclose a sense of urgency — “we need help” —...
View Article5 brand “signs” worth stealing from the Pittsburgh Pirates
Tonight, the Pittsburgh Pirates host their first playoff game in more than two decades, just a few blocks away from Elliance headquarters. What might anyone involved in higher education branding take...
View ArticleColleges and The Metropolitan Revolution
While we heed one alarm after another signaling the decline of higher education as we know it (brick and mortar campuses made irrelevant by more, better and cheaper online courses and degree programs)...
View ArticleInto the Great Wide Open of Higher Ed Branding
Colleges, and those charged with articulating why institutions matter, seldom lack for words… yet rarely learn to speak their school’s one true voice. Why so? In my experience, it has to do with how...
View ArticleOn Casting and Directing for Higher Ed Brand
In my experience, if you want to put your higher education brand to a quick and dirty reality check — what engineers call “stress and failure” analysis — there are two places to look. First, review any...
View ArticleTop 5 higher education marketing missteps from the best college movies
We spend a lot of time thinking about higher education marketing – from brand refresh to increasing enrollment. Like most agencies, we’ve drawn our own conclusions, studied others and learned from our...
View Article5 steps to college brand renewal
While your faculty and students may have taken the summer off from their college assignments, you know that the work of higher education brand building never ends. Today, and every day, your college...
View ArticleWhen in brand limbo, tell a good story
As the world of higher education settles in after a frenzied first few weeks of new faculty introductions, last minute dormitory re-assignments and opening football weekend, there is that lingering...
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Should you buy experience or insight?
We recently met around the conference table at Elliance to discuss the pros/cons of pursuing an RFP opportunity — a major state research university wanting to sharpen its brand focus and tell a better...
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