The marketing of a business school is a vital component of organizational strategy. Conceptualizing a college as a “brand” is an interesting exercise. It is complicated by the fact that the college brand is directly tied to the university that it is associated with.
Does our university have a “de facto” brand? Sure – our university has a positive reputation for attracting A-/B+ students who are collegial and strong on the interpersonal skills. At the college level – this translates into students who generally have a positive attitude, are good team players, and will be satisfied to play by the rules in order to achieve success.
Several years ago our college developed a branding campaign for our college of business. There was involvement on the part of the dean’s advisory board, a few department heads, a few students, and the director of communications. Much fanfare was made of a quite unscientific study that showed the superior interpersonal effectiveness of our students. As quickly as the campaign started, the campaign came to a grinding halt. Logos and banners were removed. Talking points were no longer put forth.
What happened? Here are some possible explanations:
1) external entities pointed out that the “branding study” was indeed not scientific
2) there was never faculty “buy-in” for the branding
3) the dean’s advisory board was not fully on-board with the branding
4) the college’s branding was not done in conjunction with other entities on our campus
If I had to guess, 3) and 4) are the most likely explanations. What can we learn from this? I am convinced more than ever that the branding of a university and its associated business school is important. Branding is something that must be done in careful coordination with units across the university.
The Academic Anchor 
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