A New Breed
By Andrea Jarrell
Marketing is giving shape to a new type of advancement—one that includes admissions
This article examines the complex and often convoluted relationships between admissions and advancement. It describes how marketing is the place where all areas of advancement find common ground and how, for a long time, marketing had its place within the distinct silos in admissions and advancement. Now, however, institutions are developing more comprehensive structures that combine recruitment and advancement in the interest of adopting a true integrated marketing mindset.
Admissions and advancement have been the external-relations powerhouses on campuses for nearly three decades, but the current high-stakes era of consumer-oriented education has compelled many institution leaders to think anew about how these campus forces relate to one another and the outside world. A new species of advancement that embraces both functions is evolving—and the common link is marketing. On a growing number of campuses, these two areas are working together in formal and informal ways to recruit and retain students, foster alumni loyalty, lobby state and federal governments, communicate with the public, and cultivate donors. This new breed of institutional advancement changes everything from organizational structures to program objectives to constituencies served to the career paths of practitioners. Campus officials who embrace these changes say they do it for one simple reason—it works.
Common ground
A comprehensive administrative model that includes both admissions and fund raising is not a new idea. Several decades ago, "back before what some would call 'administrative bloat,' you would see a single head of administration performing both functions," says Patricia Jackson, associate vice president for development at Dartmouth College. But over the years, the two areas separated in large part because an intense climate—including budget cuts that magnify the importance of fund raising and tuition increases that affect student access—drove them to specialize.
Against the backdrop of a student market of prospective applicants who shop for a college experience that includes not only education, but also a lifestyle of services and comforts, campus officials are regrouping, and the field that once was considered an advancement stepchild—marketing—is where they find common ground.
Marketing acquired its second-class status because some in academe were uncomfortable with the idea of "selling"; consequently, many campuses use "communications" interchangeably with marketing. But they are not the same. Communicators want audiences to listen; marketers want prospects to act: enroll, donate, participate, support, recommend, volunteer, and so on.
For many years, marketing had its place on campus within the distinct silos of either admissions or advancement. While these individual efforts grew increasingly sophisticated, they typically remained separate and sometimes dueled for ownership of an institution's identity. That's started to change, however. "The competitive landscape that we're in makes people more willing to listen to the importance of marketing," says Lawrence Lokman, assistant vice chancellor for university communications at the University of California, Los Angeles. As a result, more comprehensive structures that combine admissions and advancement are emerging.
CONTINUED: Blended structures
