Taking Ideas From Other Industries
There have been lots of blogs and tweets from folks at the AMA conference this week and they’ve shared lots of great ideas.
Conferences are great opportunities to learn tips and tricks, but don’t forget that sometimes one can also find inspiration and ideas from outside higher education as well.
A blog that I’ve had in my RSS reader for a long time is the Lefsetz Letter. It’s about music and the music business and started as a print publication 25 years ago. Bob Lefsetz has great insider knowledge and tons of experience.
Often, his posts are about sales numbers and 360 deals, but every once in a while, he drops some marketing genius. Here are some of this thoughts about marketing. It makes a ton of sense and we could easily apply this to higher ed. The emphasis is mine.
1. Don’t tell everybody. Tell somebody. Today’s publicity is like hearing high school gossip on “Entertainment Tonight”. Huh? I thought that was just between you and me!
2. Try to get stories for the life of the project. Hold back, see if you’ve got traction, work that traction.
3. Many albums have entered SoundScan at number one and dropped before selling tonnage. Whereas others have started at the bottom and gone multiplatinum. As for superstars… Shit, I hate Beyonce because I have to keep reading about her and her damn movie “Cadillac Records”. That won’t be a good flick, because there hasn’t been a good movie in eons, Hollywood is only interested in the money. But what if Beyonce did a cover of a soul classic, maybe “Nowhere To Run”, and gave it away free on the Net and told none of the usual suspects? Word would spread like wildfire. Fans would be e-mailing everybody they know, owning the project themselves, feeling part of it. Who can feel part of the process when the media oligarchs are jamming it down our collective throats?
4. If people can’t own it, can’t believe in it, can’t talk about it and spread the word, you’ve got no legs. And legs are where the money is.
Good stuff to think about today.
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I couldn’t agree more! As a branding and marketing consultant in education, I’m constantly telling clients that we need to tell their story more often. Storytelling is an interesting way to spread our message. People love good stories. And even more important, they love to TELL good stories to their friends and family.