Integrated Marketing Workbook: Chapter 1

Other chapter for review:
Chapter 3: The 4 Ps and the 4 Cs: A Refresher

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Chapter 1: Some Basic Understandings About Integrated Marketing

(sample chapter does not include illustrations)

Before we progress into our discussion of how to create an integrated marketing plan, I want to make sure that some basic understandings are in place that will help assure your progress. First, recognize that you must have the correct attitude about marketing before you can have a plan for marketing. In other words, you and your institution must already be predisposed toward marketing-and have at least a basic appreciation of what it can do for you-before you can write an integrated marketing plan.

If your senior administrators and key faculty groups do not already "get" marketing, at least at a basic level, then you must begin with a series of discussions about the challenges and opportunities before the college or university. Work hard to find that set of common problems or issues that most people on campus are concerned about. The identification and clarification of these concerns are an important catalytic engine that will help motivate people.

As the discussion progresses, show people on your campus how marketing can help the institution-and them personally-address those issues. Explain how peer institutions have used marketing to advance their cause. Stress outcomes-problems solved and opportunities gained-in undeniable terms. Show dollars saved or revenue created. Take your time, and be patient.

Second, remember that your goal is not to write a plan. Rather, your goal is to implement the integrated marketing plan that you have written. By way of an analogy, your goal is not to plan a vacation. Your goal is to go on vacation. In other words, don't write a plan if you are not interested in implementing it.

Third, your goal is not a perfect plan, but a good enough plan. Harry Beckwith, in Selling the Invisible, talks about the too-high cost of perfect plans. Beckwith "ranks" different kinds of plans in the following order:

Very good plans
Good plans
The best plans
Not good plans
Truly awful plans

So why does Beckwith rank "best" plans lower than "good" plans? Because he believes that getting to the best plan is too expensive in terms of time, money, talent, and political capital. He notes that many big-picture thinkers are burdened by this search for perfection: the perfect plan, the perfect decision, the perfect idea. Too often, however, the path to perfection leads to procrastination. As Beckwith concludes, "Don't let perfect ruin good." Sometimes good is good enough. Rather than spending all your energy trying to get all the answers, running all the projections, getting all the data, and trying to achieve total consensus, you must reserve the majority of your energy for executing the plan.

Fourth, recognize that the plan is, ultimately, a resource allocation and coordination tool. It is amazing how much time, talent, and treasure are wasted when everyone is not moving in a coordinated fashion in the same direction. Confusion reigns and opportunities are lost when the admissions office communicates one message, the advancement office another, and the people in continuing education yet a third.

Surprisingly, and this is generally a big surprise for many, most integrated marketing efforts are not funded with new dollars, but with reallocated and coordinated existing dollars. In fact, a good integrated marketing plan with shared and agreed-upon goals and pooled resources is like a well-coordinated racing shell with the coxswain coordinating the efforts of the rowers. Everyone is pulling in sync to the cadence called out by the coxswain.

Fifth, realize that a successful integrated marketing plan must have measurable outcomes. Ideally, your efforts should improve enrollment or fundraising, enhance your image, or improve your educational offerings. If your plan doesn't impact these or other strategic issues or concerns in a real and demonstrable way, it isn't much of a plan. Finally, keep in mind that the most important integrated marketing resource is institutional will. Colleges and universities are filled with bright people who often have individual or departmental agendas. Too often, there is turf, there is delay, and there is political maneuvering. Sometimes this is disguised as discussion, but the result is clear: little real progress. It takes will and courage to call an end to endless debate and force a decision.

A friend of mine who recently retired as a college president told me how he dealt with the kind of debate that seemed to paralyze the decision-making process. He would tell faculty and staff that he or the administrative team would make a decision on the issue in 14 days and that they could hold as many meetings as they wanted during that time to debate and discuss the issue and make their recommendation to him.

Using this tactic, he said, the decision date becomes fixed, and it was entirely up to interested individuals to decide how much time and effort to invest in a discussion. The result, he said, was focused discussion on only the most important issues. When leaders duck tough issues and refuse to declare a decision, the institution is imperiled. Instead of a lean racing shell moving swiftly through the water, the organization is like a rowboat dragging an anchor being propelled by oars of two different lengths. Even after a great expenditure of energy, there is little real progress.

Key points:

If you don't already have an appreciation for integrated marketing on your campus, don't proceed with plan development until you have laid the necessary foundation.
Don't spend time and money writing a plan if you are not committed to its execution.
Your marketing efforts must show real, concrete results.
Integrated marketing is all about the strategic use, integration, and coordination of existing resources (time, talent, and treasure).
Successful integrated marketing plans, like successful strategic plans, require a willingness to make tough decisions.

Discussion questions:

Why do we think this is a good time to undertake an integrated marketing planning effort?
What do we hope the plan will do for our institution?
How successful have past strategic planning or marketing planning efforts been?
What problems have we identified with past planning efforts and what steps have we taken to assure that those problems do not persist with our integrated marketing planning effort?