Every university struggles with where, how and whom to advertise towards. Texas A&M University-Commerce is not excluded in the “battle of the ads.”
“Our goals, of course, include getting as many students involved in higher education as we can and deliver for them an education that will give them the confidence to compete successfully in the real world. This is a mission we take very seriously,” Sylvia Kelley, vice president for advertising, said.
Community colleges have recently added new classes and programs that might cause some students to stay with them through their college careers. Kelly doesn’t see that as a threat to Texas A&M University-Commerce.
“The community colleges in our immediate area are doing an excellent job of providing higher education opportunities to freshmen and sophomore students who might not otherwise have be able to attend college, but also to those students planning to transfer. We don’t really see ourselves in competition with community colleges, but rather we hope Texas A&M University-Commerce is a good partner for them in that this university provides a good segue for students coming out of community college who want to pursue their education further,” Kelley said.
Successful marketing and advertising means a face lift for TAMU-C and hopefully, more students. If a marketing effort is to be successful, it must be well-targeted, funded and executed. Currently, the Marketing Department is working closely with the Provost’s office as well as the new Dean of Enrollment to ensure that the student markets they have targeted will benefit from being on campus.
“Branding, simply put, is the story you want to tell. Our branding effort for the University is tell the story that students’ success really does matter and that the degrees they earn here are relevant to the jobs they want to get when they graduate,” Kelley said. “Branding is more than a logo or a word mark or any one thing. But, it is also the cumulative message that is conveyed when any sort of communications is presented. How we look and how we are perceived in the market place must be consistent, convincing and pervasive.”
In order for the marketing efforts to succeed the universities advertisements need to be consistent.
“The same message of quality, relationship, service, affordability, convenience, relevance are being standardized so that over time when someone sees our logo, or reads a brochure, or picks up a magazine with an ad in it, or sees something on YouTube or MySpace, they’ll readily recognize it as being from this university,” Kelley said.