Colleges and universities are increasing their spending on marketing campaigns and their use of new media in such efforts, and those strategies appear to be paying off, according to survey findings released by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and Lipman Hearne, a marketing firm that works with nonprofit organizations.
Among other trends identified in a report, "Marketing Spending at Colleges and Universities," the survey found that median spending on marketing at midsized institutions, or those with 2,000 to 5,999 students, had increased by more than 100 percent over the period from 2001 to 2010. Similar increases were seen at smaller colleges, as well as at larger research institutions.
Colleges have also increased the amount of their marketing budgets directed to interactive and social media in recent years, the survey found.
Seventy-one percent of institutions that devoted 6 percent or more of their marketing budgets to research and planning reported that their marketing efforts had a positive impact on the quality of their applicants, according to the report. Only 52 percent of those that spent less on such activities reported a similar effect.
Comments
1. lexalexander - July 27, 2010 at 09:48 am
Is the spending increase figure adjusted for inflation?
2. mush9902 - July 27, 2010 at 11:59 am
"Colleges and universities are increasing their spending on marketing campaigns and their use of new media in such efforts, and those strategies appear to be paying off, according to survey findings released by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and Lipman Hearne, a marketing firm that works with nonprofit organizations."
"had increased by more than 100 percent over the period from 2001 to 2010. Similar increases were seen at smaller colleges, as well as at larger research institutions."
Style over substance...obviously generalizing here, but it sure feels like the wheels just keep on'a turnin'.
3. honore - July 27, 2010 at 03:23 pm
The problem is not so much the fact that school are spending more to get their "message" out. The "problem" is more in the substance and content of this "message", which all too often is Madison Avenue's myopic view of what college X wants to peddle and who they want to address. Herein lies a huge problem because these foci vary with every change of guard on the hill.
4. trendisnotdestiny - July 29, 2010 at 06:45 pm
It also speaks to having an abundance of money in one hand to feed the invisible branding conveyor belt of more is better with the other hand of embridled penury for soon to be defunct departments that can not convert research into dollars...
I'll have the $2 HYPOCRISY blue plate special with a side of BP oil spill.... hold the natural gas