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CASE Marketing & Branding Conference Recap

June 16, 2017

CASE Marketing & Branding Conference Recap

tag higher education | higher education brand strategy | higher education branding | higher education conference
CASE Marketing & Branding Conference Recap

We spent a few days with the best and brightest higher education marketing minds in Miami last week at the CASE Annual Conference on Marketing and Branding.

We learned a ton and connected with old friends. Here are our biggest takeaways from the conference.

An influx of new talent

Many of the attendees were in their 1st or 2nd year in their positions. Many came from outside of higher ed. This is exciting as they were eager to bring in new ideas. But on the flip side, many were looking for guidance navigating the internal workings and red tape of higher ed marketing. Which leads us to…

The fight for buy-in

Not a big surprise, but getting buy-in from faculty, administration, and other departments like admissions continues to be a point of frustration. Much of this points to the President’s lack of priority on the matter. Many have trouble keeping the President engaged over a multiple year period which feels like the root of the problem.

The long play

Brand is no longer a bad word in higher ed as many feel confident in the new platforms they’ve built. That said, many are looking for ways to keep them fresh and relevant beyond year one.

Forming, storming, norming, or performing

There was a lot of discussion about teams and their effectiveness and organization. Bruce Tuckman developed a model way back in 1965 that bears mention today. The theory is that all teams fall into one of four categories – forming, storming, norming, or performing. Most in higher education marketing are still in the forming stage. There’s a lot of organizing, hiring for new capabilities, reassigning of responsibilities, and development of processes happening. This isn’t a bad thing by any stretch, but it’s good to take stock of where your team may be and how to move them to the next stage.

So there’s your two minute recap of a 3 day conference. We hope to see you at a conference soon! If you want to know where we may be next, you can check that out here.