Category: books

Book review: ‘University Marketing Mistakes’

28348mistakesweblg.jpgIt’s been more than a month since I claimed I was “working on” a review of the book University Marketing Mistakes: 50 Pitfalls to Avoid, by Roy D. Adler (a marketing prof at Pepperdine) and Thomas J. Hayes (same, from Xavier) and published earlier this year by CASE. (Adler and Hayes kindly responded to a Friday Five Q&A request last month.) It’s also been more than a month since I finished reading the book, so I guess I’d better get to that review before the lessons from this nifty little book start to fade from memory.

The review, like the book, is going to be succinct and to the point.

University Marketing Mistakes is a dandy little book for several reasons.

  1. It’s a quick read, only 127 pages in all. You could finish it on a two-hour flight.
  2. It’s loaded with excellent advice based on real-world examples from the world of academia. Many of the examples hit close to home. For example, there’s the story of the president of a university in our state and with nearly identical enrollment who is bent on moving his institution into the upper echelons (Case 2.4: Next, World Domination!). While reading it, I could have sworn the authors had been reading our strategic plan. But then I remembered we have a chancellor instead of a president, and that we’re a public university, not a private college like the one Adler and Hayes describe.
  3. It over-delivers. The subtitle promises you “50 pitfalls,” but the authors give you 53.
  4. The examples will make you chortle, if not laugh out loud, because they are universal truths exposed. Who among us hasn’t heard our institution described as “the best-kept secret” in the realm of education? (Can there really be more than one best-kept secret? Maybe our trustees and administrators call our institutions “well-kept secrets,” instead.) Who in higher ed hasn’t naively offered up a proposal to address a campus marketing issue without understanding the political terrain? What communications staffer hasn’t argued with their admissions staff about the need to emphasize benefits (what prospective students will get) instead of features (what we offer)?
  5. You’ll actually pick up some useful ideas for your own marketing efforts. (At least I did.) That in itself should make the book worth reading.

So, there you have it. A short, glowing review about a short, useful book. If any readers of this blog who have also read the book would like to share their thoughts, please do so in the comments section below.

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Now playing: Basia Bulat – I Was A Daughter
via FoxyTunes

Validated by Seth Godin

sethgodinhead.gifIt’s always encouraging to find out that people I admire share some of my tastes in music, books, movies, etc. Especially when they’re famous people whose names I can drop in this blog.

So I was especially happy to read a recent blog post by Seth Godin, in which he quotes a passage from Rock On, a book I’ve mentioned here (scroll to item 2) and on Twitter.

The book, by Dan Kennedy (who also contributes to McSweeneys), chronicles Kennedy’s time working in marketing for a major record label at a time when the record business is struggling to maintain its power position in an era of peer-to-peer file sharing. It’s about how Kennedy was finally going to realize his childhood dream of being a part of the big rock’n’roll machine, how he was going to be in the heart of it all, and the ultimate disillusion of the dream that occurs after an Iggy Pop concert. But I’ve probably told you too much. You should purchase this book and read it, not only for entertainment, but for the cautionary tales it offers all of us in marketing, management and leadership.

rockon-cover.jpgI agree with Seth’s view (may I call you Seth, Seth?) that Rock On is a very funny book. It isn’t laugh-out-loud Chuck Klosterman funny, but it’s funny enough, tinged with the kind of hipster irony and aloofness that anyone who’s ever droned their days away in a cubicle wondering what it all means can appreciate. But beyond the humor, Seth and I both appreciate the cautionary tale the book brings to marketers. Go read Seth’s entry about it and you’ll see what I mean. But then come back here and leave me a comment so I’ll feel even more validated about my blogging existence.

While I’m here, I should also say that I’ve been a pretty big Seth Godin fan since Purple Cow came out. In fact, we used the concept of the purple cow with our student design teams, and that helped to build our name recognition among engineering-oriented universities. (Of course, that was before we changed our name from UMR to Missouri S&T. Now we’ve got to do some different things. But our design teams are still our purple cow.) The dude is prolific, insightful, knows how to market, and even when he stumbles (with a book or idea that doesn’t quite wow us like Purple Cow did, knows how to get back up, get out in front of us again and stay there.

I hope Seth feels validated now, too.

P.S. – No Friday Five this week. Unless I decide to do one later. But it’s St. Pat’s Week here on campus, and we’re busy blogging about it and having all sorts of mischievous Irish-inspired fun. Play the Dropkick Murphys link below for some Irish-inspired punk.

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Now playing: Dropkick Murphys – Your Spirit’s Alive
via FoxyTunes