Dr. Neil Hair

Just read with interest a story from the UK about a young woman who felt she couldn’t justify the cost of a 27,000 GBP college degree (about $43,000) – and so she’s not going. Fair enough you might say. College isn’t for everyone. She is however a top performing student. So why can’t she justify the cost? The answer: the lack of perceived value. A marketing problem! Her argument is quite clear it seems, why bother spending that sort of money getting drunk, meeting new friends, having a good time and maybe getting a job at the end of it?  You can do that at home for a fraction of the cost (invest in a twitter account and pursue many random tweetups – ones bound score a few interesting people). Back to the issue of this being a marketing problem. We have a huge issue as marketers where the consumer / customer lack awareness of how our ‘product’ can satisfy a need. Promotion is of course one activity we can engage in to help them see the light – and who doesn’t want to hug a 6ft cuddly tiger now and again? But to me this issue is primarily one of the content of the degree and a perceived lack of worth in the mind of the investor. I can’t blame Brits for suddenly taking stock and asking whether or not they should invest what essentially amounts to a mini home mortgage for something that used to be ‘free’. Enter marketing and its role in demonstrating the value of the experience. How best to do this? First things first – understand the value that a degree provides. At Saunders and RIT we focus on practical understanding, supported by many faculty that are either clinical in nature (ie war torn from the trenches sort of salt) or research animals that help lead the field with new knowledge or understanding. Increasingly of course, we have both and students get the benefit of this range of faculty experience. One might ask – is that experience worth the price tag of $55k for a three-four year degree? At face value – HELL NO, nice try academic enrollment officer. BUT – dig a little deeper and you’ll spot the value from a consumer perspective. The one thing most incoming freshmen lack for undergraduate (and increasingly fast track MBA degrees) is real world experience.  Our programs strengths at RIT and Saunders in particular is its focus on providing you with this exposure to real problems. Consider the Saunders Resume (a concept I have talked about before now). You have the opportunity, at last count over 20, to engage with faculty that teach experiential based courses with real clients. Carefully plotting ones path through a program can easily yield over ten consulting class projects (5 alone in my advanced internet marketing class). Now that’s a lot of experience you would not otherwise have had. Sure, some projects might not turn out great, team dynamic issues, a wayward client etc (which doesn’t not mean by the way that you can’t still extol the benefit of the experience there of – see my blog post on making the most from your consulting experience on this site), but many will turn out sufficient enough for you to want to make use of them on your resume moving forward. Likewise the student clubs and campus events like the many conferences we host every year. Experience that does not usually find its way onto a resume at the end of the process. And then there is the network you build of like-minded interesting people (more on this in another post). So how best to promote this from a marketing perspective? One answer is to demonstrate value by comparing an incoming students resume at the point of entry with that at the point of exit. A college experience taken seriously is a powerful way of demonstrating your worth to not just an employer, but yourself as well.
 

Looking forward to meeting Alums on the 3rd November where I'll present my personal branding diagnostic for digital realms. This is one of the areas where I feel we as a college might better prepare graduates and alums alike. I last lectured on this topic back in NYC to a packed house of former students and RIT alums. Scores from my diagnostic revealed a wide range of those that are using technological channels like LinkedIn to good effect, and those that are digital recluses. A happy medium should be sought between managing your presence in these channels, and protecting ones personal and private lives – suggestions for which are also given in my presentation.