The days when the biggest rivalries among colleges and universities were fought on the gridiron and in the gymnasium are gone. Today, the main clashes take place within the admissions arena, where schools are locked in intense competition for the best and brightest students.

Schools employ many strategies to win these battles, but none are more effective, especially over the long term, than projecting the right image, or brand identity, to prospective students and their families, as well as faculty, academic journals, high school counselors, donors, alumni, government officials and other important audiences. Properly conceived and communicated, an identity can be self-perpetuating by bringing to the school the students, faculty, grants, corporate sponsors, and alumni giving needed for the institution to achieve and expand upon its most ambitious goals.

Innovation is perhaps the most overused word in B2B marketing. Whether it’s information technology, medical devices, industrial equipment or professional services, we find brand-builders returning over and over again to innovation as the core promise that will set their company or product apart from the rest of the pack.

But does being perceived as an innovator truly drive brand preference and ultimately purchase decisions? In this article, we focus on what we’ve discovered about the meaning and relevance of innovation to B2B buyers and how marketers can infuse these learnings into their brand-building efforts.

This is part three of an ongoing series.
Employees say: involve me more, train me less

What we’re hearing: Involving employees, through online communities, in the process of creating, managing and building brands is becoming standard practice among leading-edge marketers (and their compatriots in the human resources function).

This is part two of an ongoing series.
Marketing ROI: many definitions, little consensus

What we’re hearing: There are no silver bullets when it comes to measuring marketing ROI. Leading-edge marketers are still seeking new (and not so new) techniques for justifying their brand-building investments.

Where are the leading-edge ideas in marketing?

Over the last 12 months, we’ve gone on the road to find out. In addition to learning from our clients, we’ve been spending time with visionary marketers at leadership forums in places like London, Las Vegas, Moscow, Mumbai, Miami, and even midtown Manhattan.

This is part one of an ongoing series.
Social media: going mainstream in a hurry

What we’re hearing: Experimentation with social media is so 2009. Visionary marketers are investing heavily in social media and are realizing short- and long-term benefits, both in terms of reputation building and revenue generation.

I recently had the chance to contribute to Tony Spaeth’s Identity Forum, the leading on-line community for identity and branding professionals.

I began thinking about whether there are identity solutions that are so well done, so brilliantly executed and so strategically precise that they should never be changed.

In a recent radio interview on KQTH 104.1, I had a spirited conversation with Dr. Zara Larsen, a leading change management consultant. Our discussion spanned a number of topics: the principles of effective branding in the corporate sector, the role of employees as brand ambassadors in a 24/7/365 web-enabled world and the concept of personal branding as a strategy for career advancement and individual fulfillment.

Podcast: Download (25.9MB)