RE: [MTC Global] a humble view point

I have been looking forward to such an article from Dr. Reddy. Well explained article on what an educational institution should be all about in terms of its advertising/promotion/brand building.

Regards

Virendra Goel

 

From: join_mtc@googlegroups.com [mailto:join_mtc@googlegroups.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 7:03 PM
To: join_mtc@googlegroups.com; Jagan Mohan Reddy
Subject: [MTC Global] a humble view point

 

 

 

 

"Branding an educational institution"

---whether or not to advertise?

 

"Brand" is the name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one entity distinct from others. A brand is unique in the sense that it has a voice and a personality – the two elements that appeal to the human need for connectivity. A brand that finds genuine ways to connect with consumers will always stand the test of time. Voice is a brand's identity, it's an expression of the people behind the brand…and consumers, for sure want to know who this is and what's its value, to decide whether they want to continue to engage with it.

 

It is the brand voice that consumers hear daily. It is heard through and in mails, SMSes, social media messages, lunch/ tea conversations, silly "post-it" notes and jokes that it cracks, anecdotes it propagates, the way it answers phone calls, and the way it greets the lowest of the low and the highest of the high – i.e. to say the composite of all it communicates.

 

Capture the brand voice, harness it, correct the misspellings, delete the obscenities and put the message out into the world. It may not be perfect and it doesn't matter either because authenticity should be or must be a brand voice's goal. Definitely this authenticity is what sets a brand apart from the rest. You can filter the voice – but you can't fake it. Faking attracts the wrong kind of consumers, if any at all!

 

Brands could get caught in the web of a selfish spiral loop for they want to constantly generate more. The instinct is, "we need to advertise more to make people more aware to sell more". Sometimes it is effective and appropriate, other times it is not. To the average Joe, advertising is synonymous with building a strong brand. If you don't advertise, then obviously you can't build your business, because nobody will know who you are, or what you do. Therefore, the thinking goes that, the more you advertise, the better your brand (Andrew Davis http://www.zoppos.com/)

 

Yes, advertising is important but is it inevitable? Brands have personalities or at least that is something marketers aspire for, but what if some of the traits are of invincible supply, in some genuine, if anthropomorphic way, to certain companies and products (HBR, May 2014, "Managing the invincible" by David Zaig). Even in an age when self promotion is relentlessly encouraged, there are some very talented professionals who prefer to do their work out of the limelight. They are ambivalent about recognition and some may not even want or seek any. They are meticulous about their craft. They savor responsibility and duty, not flamboyance, and that is all they care for. It may seem that the desire for attention is a universal human trait. But some cultures offer tantalizing evidence to the contrary. In many eastern societies, particularly one seeped in Confucian and Vedic tradition, standing out is an anathema.

 

Public trust their favorite companies more than ever, except when customer service in doubt 

(Alexander E M Hess et al., 24X7 wallstreet.com)

 

How should those brands position themselves in a commercial atmosphere that is even more cacophonous than a market place or a mela? Companies have to figure out what to do when  shouting is not an option. A case in point is "sharpie". It is not that nobody knows about it, but on some level people don't need to say that it is a great product. It is a quiet product commanding utmost respect. 

 

If it's a consummate professional, its brand should reflect it! - Michael Lebowitz

 

Another case in point - think of different kinds of people at a party. There is "the life of the party" archetype and there is the person who would rather have deeper conversation with people in small groups or one on one. You can't have a deep conversation with a big room of people. Some brands are about expertise. You can't speak about expertise at a shallow level for a long time and have it resonate.

 

It is not to say that dominating international corporate culture everywhere is not inevitable. Cultures can learn from one another and can create superior hybrids. Mom and Pop stores never advertise…but they are famous in their own way. Many of the best performers will never seek status; they take pleasure in the work itself. So is an educational institution, which won't tout horns – but quietly make all the difference in the lives of its main stakeholders "The Students". It is for the discerning critique to figure out which brand ticks and why?

 

Imagine a student who is a valedictorian, grabbed national Olympiad chemistry top honors, is a member of the school tennis, rowing, athletics, and elocution, volunteers at hospitals and old age homes, teaches under privileged children, and so on, but is disinclined to advertise his extraordinary achievements and accolades in his CV. He is averse to sell what he is. He doesn't project what he is because he did not do all these expecting any quid-pro-quo. What would happen to such a student if he were to seek admission into an Ivey league school? My heart saddens to say that he will definitely lose the opportunity of getting admitted, simply because he did not advertise himself.

 

The moot point here is that a firm, a state nation, an individual should always try to advertise at least what is - to sell – neither to undersell like in the case of the above student nor to oversell. It is not that you should not speak to a mass audience, but you should do so more in line with the persona of a quiet expert.

 

To be nobody but yourself the world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.  - E. Cummings

 

An educational institution, created with the purpose of making profit like any commoditizing entity, may need advertising to build its brand. Some Institutions spend huge amounts on brand building, yet are unable to wriggle themselves of stigma of fraud, deceit and "let down". The brand of any educational institution depends on several factors, like quality of faculty, incoming students' competency, institute's contribution reflected in the metamorphosed output,institute's ethos, infrastructure, ambience, and perception of the stake holders, viz., students, recruiters, community, academia, and the world at large. The brand is built and sustained with the beneficiaries' word-of-mouth advertising. Rating agencies also contribute to brand building to a certain extent.

 

Brand building through advertising is good provided it is based on the institutions'image, genuineness of its promise/claims, and the content is relevant for the customer/the beneficiary/ target audience. One should not oversell or undersell, one should just sell.

 

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                                                                                                                                                Dr S Pratap Reddy,

                                                                                                                                               Founder Chairman

 

 

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