Why Higher Ed needs emotion in marketing
Andre Heiniger, the chairman of Rolex, was once asked by a friend how the watch business was going.
"I have no idea," replied Andre. "We're not in the watch business."
Rolex is in the business of dreams.
While most marketing sells a solution to a problem, luxury marketing sells a dream. People don't buy a Rolex to tell the time, they buy a Rolex to tell people who they are.
Higher Education is also in the business of dreams.
Luxury brands generate emotions due to manufactured scarcity. I got this limited edition something. In higher education, the top-ranked schools generate this same notion of scarcity, and the scarcity trickles down. Scarcity generates an emotional desire to associate
"That's a good school," we say, about a school that some for-profit ranking system said was a good school based on criteria we don't fully understand.
But we agree that many schools are good schools because it is such an important and life-changing decision
Getting students on campus
It is no secret that no matter the school if they can get students on campus there is a better chance the student will attend. Most agree:
"We just need them to get on campus."
Like any luxury brand, there is an emotional element to being on campus. Coming to campus generates emotions that can't be replicated in marketing. A campus tour is exciting
No marketing offers the same chance to dream. No matter what the .edu says, it isn't really a good indication of the dream. The main (or many) Facebook Pages are templated looks at the school. Instagram feeds and stories aren't selling a dream.
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The best marketing tactic for selling
No ad can ever do that.
But getting people on campus isn't always possible. Since not everyone can get to campus, schools did virtual tours and campus tour videos on the YouTube or Vimeo channel (I made a 30-minute video for clients called "How to get your campus tour video on the front page of a SERP".)
Those are moments, but are they wow moments?
Wow moments in virtual reality
The first time I put on a VR headset, I had a wow moment. A VR headset, with immersive video and immersive audio
Spacial mics in a metaverse are so cool. You can talk to someone, but only when you get close to them.
Videos of dorms become immersive moments.
Look, this will never replace being on campus, but of all the marketing tactics I've seen, nothing compares to seeing a campus in a VR headset.
And since you can have a tour guide there, the gushing student who can answer all the questions, we are talking about a marketing tactic that is almost as good. Last week I presented a VR Tour 1.0. We're still in the preliminary phase, but the wow potential is off the charts.
It is a rare marketing tactic that generates
What do you think? Have you put on a VR headset? Am I way off-base?
Automation ??
2 年Perhaps rather than poor marketing strategies, students are becoming less emotionally moved because of the shift away from the 'college is necessary' culture. Especially since Covid, many people (young and old) are seeing that they can increase their own marketable skills without the traditional on-campus college education. You have an interesting take, but a luxury watch/diploma is not an asset; skills pay the bills.
Carpenter, builder in general
2 年Exactly.? You should also consider that you WILL change.? When entering education, especially when you start in your teens, you may uncover that the field you chose is an ill fit, or wasn't what you thought it was.? Or, in a rapidly changing world, it isn't what you knew it to be when you started. Can you transition to a new field, or "recover your fumble", or did you bet everything on one future? It's not wrong or insecure to consider failure.? We all will fail, somehow.? So, in education, can you dust yourself off, still pay off your schooling and live while you reconsider a new direction??
Public Services Librarian at Tarrant County College
2 年I don't agree with this. Colleges have been marketing themselves as luxury brands for decades, we just use different words than other luxury items and that is part of the problem. In an economy with lots of job openings but probably headed for a recession, we need to justify our existence. And when people are tightening up their budgets, the first things that get cut are luxury items. That doesn't begin to address the problem of the growing number of people who view colleges as growing more and more disconnected from the job market. Branding yourself as a luxury item will only further validate that belief.
Strategic communications. Content strategy. Omni-channel magazine development.
2 年Others have said this better than I, but the nearly 50-year trend of marketing higher ed as a luxury item characterized by exclusivity has resulted in declining public confidence (see the 2019 Pew Research study) for its seeming inability to grasp the concept that today’s learners need greater access, not less. It’s time to change the paradigm.
Consultant. Mentor. Author. President Emeritus Tabor College
2 年Higher education is not in the education business but the experience business. Each university or college provides a unique experience for their students. And the experience results in the shaping of a certain kind of person. The question a prospective student should be asking before selecting a college is “What kind of person will I become if I attend this college?”