Month: September 2006

Blog identified as Dawson College gunman paints dark portrait

I’ll be blogging more about all the web 2.0 stuff being discussed today at the CASE Annual Conference for Senior Communications and Marketeing Professionals. But first, a harrowing example of how web 2.0 activities — in this case, blogging — gives the mainstream news media another stream from which to draw information and to provide context.

Story via Canadian Press:

(CP) – In an online blog, Kimveer Gill includes a photo of a tombstone with his name printed on it – below it the phrase: “Lived fast died young. Left a mangled corpse.”

The blog, posted on an online hub of goth culture, paints a dark portrait of the 25-year-old man published reports have identified as the trenchcoat-wearing gunman who opened fire on students at Montreal’s Dawson College Wednesday, killing one and injuring 19 others.

Gill’s image gallery, which contains more than 50 photos, depicts the young man in various poses holding a Baretta CX4 Storm semi-automatic rifle and donning a long black trenchcoat and combat boots.

“His name is Trench. you will come to know him as the Angel of Death,” he wrote on his vampirefreaks.com profile.

“He is not a people person. He has met a handfull (sic) of people in his life who are decent.” But he writes that he finds the vast majority to be “worthless, no good, kniving, betraying lieing (sic), deceptive.”

The last of Gill’s six journal entries Wednesday was posted at 10:41 a.m, about two hours before the gunmen was shot dead after the college shooting.

In the latest one, Gill extols the virtues of a morning quaff of whisky. Other posts Wednesday deal with topics as mundane as dry contact lenses, purple freezies, and eating eggs and toast for breakfast.

Eerie.

Full story.

Tragedy on Montreal campus

While I was blogging about the CASE conference today, a big story was developing on the campus of Dawson College in Montreal. A gunman opened fire in the cafeteria and atrium of the campus, wounding 20, before he was shot and killed by police.
The school’s response to this crisis is posted in red bold type on the Dawson College website:

Dawson College is CLOSED due to emergency.

DO NOT come to Dawson College or the area today.

Check the website tomorrow to know if you should come to classes or not. Please do not call the school as the telephone lines need to remain open.

Students – call your families.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Liveblogging from CASE: primal branding

Toward the end of his presentation this afternoon, Joe Hice referenced the work of Patrick Hanlon, the author of Primal Branding: Creating Zealots for Your Brand. I’d read a column about Hanlon’s work in a recent issue of Marketing News and was intrigued by the seven points of primal marketing, so I was happy to see someone applying these concepts in higher education. (Actually, a lot of us incorporate some of these concepts but probably not as effectively or as systematically as we could.)

According to Hanlon, great organizations have a “primal code” that creates passion in their customers (followers). (Here’s an interesting review that outlines the elements in detail.)The code consists of these seven elements:

  • A creation story. For Harley-Davidson (Hice’s example), the creation story is all about how H-D was born in a woodshed.
  • A creed. “We fulfill dreams” is H-D’s.
  • Icons. The Fatboy.
  • Rituals. The annual pilgrimage to Sturgis, S.D.
  • Pagans/Unbelievers. Those who ride Japanese motorcycles.
  • Sacred words. “HOG.”
  • A leader. Perhaps the CEO, or the company founder. For H-D, it’s Willie G. Davidson. For Apple, it’s Steve Jobs. For Microsoft, Bill Gates.

I’m curious whether anyone else in higher ed marketing is following the primal branding school of thought?

Liveblogging from CASE: Solutions for Our Future

Gleanings from Wednesday afternoon’s CASE conference session on public perceptions of higher education, as presented by Eugene L. Anderson, associate director of national initiatives for the American Council on Education. Anderson is the project director for Solutions for Our Future, a nationwide initiative to increase public awareness of higher education’s social benefits, encourage a public dialogue about higher education’s role in society, and strengthen support for public policy.

Anderson began by discussing the results of some public opinion research conducted on behalf of the Soutions for Our Future project. Among the findings:

  • The public holds a positive view of the importance of higher education and sees higher ed as critical to the nation’s future.
  • But there is a growing concern about the value of a college education for the cost, as well as concerns about the quality of higher education and accountability.
  • There is also concern among the public about the values of higher education.
  • The public is split in terms of their view of whether students are getting their money’s worth from college, whether colleges and universities share their values, and whether college professors are more ideological than they should be.
  • The public values the importance of investing in higher education. Eighty-four percent agree that “investing in higher education today will be critical to solving many of the problems that face our nation in the coming years.”

Focus group findings

Before the public opinion research commenced, the Solutions for Our Future folks spent time with focus groups and found:

  • People felt OK about the state of affairs in the nation, but were worried. They were concerned about energy, health care costs, war, terrorism, but not higher education. They also feel threatened by economic globalization.
  • They believe math and science is important for improving our standing in the global economy.
  • They believe K-12 education is failing in preparing students in math and science.
  • They also believe colleges and universities are letting students off the hook by not providing the math and science coursework needed for the global economy.

The overall sentiment was “why worry when you’re the best?”
What higher ed can do

  • Go to the Solutions for Our Future website and sign up your college and university.
  • Start sharing the same message — that higher education is about solving problems and changing the world — and using the language in your communications efforts.
  • Ask for the project’s help in grassroots educational efforts.
  • Help the project keep the message fresh. Share your stories at the Solutions website.

Liveblogging from CASE: Joe Hice: talk about the passion

Blogging live from the CASE Annual Conference for Senior Communications and Marketing Professionals, which got under way today.

Opening the conference was Joe Hice, associate vice president of marketing and public relations in the Office of University Relations at the University of Florida. A former marketing exec for Harley-Davidson, Segway and Sea-Doo, Hice spoke about a few lessons PR and marketing folks in higher ed could learn from the corporate world.

What it boils down to — whether at Harley or on our campuses — is passion. “It starts with the passion for the product,” Hice said, “and it starts with you.”

A relative newcomer to higher ed (he’s been with Florida for 14 months now), Hice’s biggest culture shock came when he discovered how tiny the marketing budget was compared to the corporate world. “When I was at Sea-Doo,” he said, “I was accustomed to spending $8-$10 million a weekend. At the University of Florida, I won’t spend that much through my retirement.”

But even financially strapped colleges and universities can incorporate some of the ideas companies like Harley-Davidson use to build their brand and brand loyalty — or, in Hice’s words, “disciples” who will carry the message to broader audiences. Harley has its HOGs, and the University of Florida has its Gator Nation. Hice says the Gator Nation launch will begin this weekend. You heard it here first.

More later.