Author Archive

Do you have a Millennial problem?

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

Even though I’m a proud card-carrying member of Generation X, I’ve grown to love and understand Millennials. But according to Advertising Age magazine, they don’t love McDonald’s, a brand to which I was extremely loyal in my youth. Ronald McDonald

As children during the 1960′s, we viewed McDonald’s as a rare treat. But as teenagers in the 70′s and 80′s, its Golden Arches drew us like moths to a flame. It was the place to gather after most high school and church youth group activities. It was for many in our generation, a home (with a red Mansard roof) away from home.

Well, times have changed. A recent article in Ad Age reveals ...

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Categories: Authenticity, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Communication, Customer Service, Experience, Millennial Generation, Millennials

NACAC — A gathering of 4,000 extroverts

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

This year’s NACAC conference was all about the conversation. At the TargetX booth, in the hotel lobby, over drinks and meals, in the streets of Denver, I learned one thing for certain:

Admissions people like to talk.

Pattie Skrha, Director of Admissions at Baldwin Wallace University, summed it up best when she said, “It’s a gathering of 4,000 extroverts who like to talk!”

Most conversations were about admissions and recruitment. Even better most were optimistic and gave the conference an upbeat tone. Maybe it was Denver’s elevation, maybe it’s that everyone is accepting that things have really changed in the past five years and we’re in a new ...

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Categories: Change, College Recruiting, Conferences, Free on Friday Webcasts, NACAC, Professional Development

Campus Visit Trend: “How much financial aid did ‘they’ give you?”

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

Each month the Experience Team from TargetX will share with you a Campus Visit Tip, Trend and Talk. All of the “three T’s” are designed to give you a bit of insight into the work we do, the people we work with, and the places we pull our inspiration from. Here is this month’s “Trend”.

Ten years ago the number one question parents asked during a campus visit was, “What’s the party scene?” Then after the tragedies at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois the priority question by parents was “How safe is this campus?” After our economy tanked the mainstream media began beating up Wall Street, then they singled out the mortgage industry; now they have their sights on higher education. ...

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Categories: Best Practice Documents, Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Campus Visit Talk, Campus Visit Three T's, Campus Visit Tip, Campus Visit Trend, Financial Aid, Parents, Uncategorized

Chevy looks to Disney to improve the dealership experience. What does your admissions office look like?

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

I’ve often said that much of our automobile brand experience doesn’t just take place in the car but in the dealership. It’s where you buy and get your vehicle serviced that often manifests the brand experience. This is why back in the 90′s I bought Infiniti(s) — they created well designed dealerships (and were early providers of the now near industry-standard roadside assistance and loaner vehicle).

Similarly we often say that your admissions office or visitor center space is the first, often the longest and last impression of your school. The importance of the campus visit and campus visitors are both on the increase. This crucial first “impression” is why so many schools are investing in new or renovated spaces. (Continue Reading Share

Categories: Best Practice Documents, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Experience Economy Stuff

WPI videos and Oxy website get it right

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

Next month we’ll be in Las Vegas for our Xpert Summit and many of our clients will be presenting about technology, the campus visit and recruitment marketing.

But I want to take a moment to highlight some new recruitment marketing creative work by a few other TargetX clients; Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and Occidental College (Oxy).

WPI videos
I love them because they tell a story, cut through the clutter and say something definitive. The animation is such a departure from the normal voice-over and standard shots of campus.

WPI “Rowbots”

WPI “Special Delivery”

OXY Website
Oxy launched ...

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Categories: Authenticity, Best Practice Documents, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Communication, Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Videos, Website, Websites, Xpert Summit

“I didn’t know we had a pool”

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

There’s a scene in Disney/Pixar’s WALL-E where the humans are in their space cruiser, floating about on hover chaise lounges, focused only on their computer screens and oblivious to their surroundings and to reality. Two of the characters’ computers break and they have an epiphany. They discover that their space cruiser has a pool and they dip their toes in and begin splashing about. They live in the moment.

It’s summertime! And millions of us are escaping our offices and computers (do you go off the grid on vacation?) and are heading to the pool, beach, shore, mountains and amusement parks. And many prospective families are including a visit to your campus as part of their summer ...

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Categories: Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Marketing, Uncategorized

New Millennials in the Work Place and Old Style Business Cards

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

Seems like we have been recruiting millennials for a long time and now they’re joining our ranks in the workplace.

AdAge recently published “What to Know About Your Latest Class of Employees”. The article outlines five observations and best practices that are relevant to millennials in the workplace:

1. Loyalty is back
2. Engagement is essential
3. Watch for short circuits
4. Make time for face time
6. Harness the coffeehouse effect

Read the quick article for all the details.

Regardless of what generation your work team is; Millennial, Gen X or Boomer, all employees should have well designed and well thought out business cards. Even in today’s digital world a business card reigns supreme for connection. However, keep your business cards simple in ...

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Categories: Uncategorized

“Take Your Parent To Work Day” and other tales of helicopter parenting

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

For over a decade we’ve been attempting to understand Millennials and their relationships with their helicopter parents. As a former latchkey kid, maybe I’m jealous of this dynamic; my own parents were fairly absent from a host of major and daily milestones in my development. Now I am a proud and somewhat bitter GenXer who is a bit fed up with Boomer narcissism and Millennial entitlement and having to see members of my generation serve as the managers in the work place caught in the middle of this overindulgence.

The helicopter is still hovering. Take a moment to see where and how. Ranging from insane to the hilarious, here are some examples:

More parents helping adult children get homes, ...

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Categories: Generations, Millennial Generation, Millennials, Uncategorized

All Purchasing is Emotional – Especially Where to Attend College

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

I will never understand the mind of teenagers. When we’re conducting tour guide workshops we ask students why they chose their school. There are always two repetitive answers: I visited and it felt right and I could see myself here.

I’ve also heard the most irrational reasons to support their choice:

“It was snowy and everyone was wearing flip flops when I visited in January and I thought they were cool.”
“My mom is afraid to drive over bridges, so I decided when I was crossing the Delaware river on the Ben Franklin bridge while driving in for a campus visit.”

As an emotive marketer, I was thrilled to read an article in a recent issue of The Economist about Ernest Dichter, an acolyte ...

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Categories: Authenticity, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Marketing

A New Year’s Resolution Toward Authenticity

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

Most of my friends and colleagues know I’m not one for the November and December holidays. My nickname is Scrinch , a combination of Scrooge and Grinch. But, I do love New Year’s. It’s global, non-sectarian, and is about a fresh start and beginning.

For years I’ve been preaching about the experience economy and what it means to recruiting students, especially through more authentic, engaging, and memorable campus visits.

I have two titles at TargetX: VP, Consulting and Apostle of Authenticity. My mission as the Apostle of Authenticity is to get schools to be comfortable with who they genuinely are and to embrace their core DNA.

But our industry is overrun with a generation of leaders (most of whom have been raised ...

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Categories: Authenticity, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Campus Visit, Millennial Generation, Millennials

What Mercedes and other auto brands can teach you about your visit experience

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

I’m a car guy.

Back in 6th grade I had subscriptions to Road & Track and Car and Driver. My father sold cars and managed dealerships. He used to quiz me on the year, make, and model of cars we passed while driving – by day and by night (Yes, I can identify a car based upon its headlights).

Take a look at the Global Fortune 500 top 25 companies list. It’s inundated with oil and car companies.

So what does all this mean to you in admissions? At TargetX, we always encourage you to look beyond the school up the road for best practices and to look outside of admissions. Car companies are a great place to look for best ...

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Categories: Best Practice Documents, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Campus Visit Audits Sidebar, Campus Visit Experiences, Change, Customer Service, Uncategorized

It's all about the experience!

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

In 1999, I read a review of the groundbreaking text, “The Experience Economy: Work is Theatre and Every Business a Stage” by Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore. Finally someone so intelligently explained what I always believed about business: it’s not what you say or do, but how you make people feel.

With The Experience Economy as our blueprint, TargetX Campus Visit Consulting began six years ago this month. Our first client was Rider University. Since then we’ve taken thousands of campus tours and worked with hundreds of colleges across the country to help them stage authentic, engaging and memorable campus visits designed to connect with more best-fit students and help reach enrollment goals.

An updated edition of the book has just been ...

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Categories: Authenticity, Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Experience, Experience Economy Stuff

10 Lessons from Starbucks

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

My TargetX colleague, Scott Parks, sent a great blog post link that I’d like to share with you. It’s 10 Lessons from Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz’s book Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing Its Soul.

The blog post challenges radio broadcasters, who like college administrators are facing challenges, to “think how these lessons apply to you.” The guts of the post are quoted below. Let me throw out the same challenge: Think how these lessons apply to you.

1. Don’t Lose Sight of what Matters

“Our strategy was to do more of what worked in the past. But we were not pushing ourselves to do things better or differently. ...

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Categories: Best Practice Documents, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Communication, Customer Service, Storytelling, Student Workers

Take a moment to remember what it's all about

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

I love to read.

But it wasn’t always that way.

As a kid I loved car magazines, newspapers and biography/history books. Fiction and literature eluded me. During my first semester at Lee College, I was lucky enough to have Dr. Janet Rahamut for several courses. She taught me to read with not only my mind, but my heart and soul. She changed my life.

What can you say about your favorite professor? Did they inspire you to think? To justify your thoughts? Did they make you a better student and a better person? That’s what Janet Rahamut did for me. Each time I pick up a book, I say a word of thanks for having been her student.

One book I never would have ...

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Categories: Uncategorized

Know your niche and market to nobody

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

When I talk with admissions leaders, cabinets, or boards, everyone wants to talk about what separates them from the school up the road. Yet, most schools tend to look and sound like the school up the road.

It seems like schools that are trying to be all things to all people are the schools that are having enrollment challenges. Ambiguity confuses the market place. A university president once asked, “What’s the greatest mistake we can make regarding a campus visit?” My reply was to have a family get in the car at the end of of their time on campus and say, “Nice school, but nothing special.”

Great marketing and positioning might offend. It might not appeal to the masses, but it ...

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Categories: Authenticity, Best Practice Documents, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Campus Visit Experiences, Outside Resources, Word of Mouth

Capital University's mascot does the chicken dance, GTL and a Jedi Challenge to help yield students

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

Seems like almost every college, the media, students, and parents are all stressing about yield and deposits.

But the folks at Capital University are having some fun in all the madness.

Their Mascot Mayhem video site is adding some levity to the “May”hem as deposit time approaches. Accepted students are invited to visit a special URL – www.mascotmayhem.capital.edu – where they can use their student ID number to request Capital University’s mascot, Cappie the Crusader, to “Make Some Mayhem.”

Prospective students have come up with a Jersey-style GTL (Gym, Tan, Laundry) routine, a chicken dance, and a Jedi challenge. The mascot goes out on campus (revealing more of the campus and community) and a quick video is made of the ...

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Categories: Best Practice Documents, Experience, Yield

Heading to a conference? Here are six tips to maximize ROI.

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

It’s admissions conference season!

This week I’ll be at OACAC with my colleague Adrienne Bartlett while our colleagues Trent Gilbert and Emily Welsh are at SACAC and Kevin Corr is at GPACAC.

Whether you’re attending, exhibiting or presenting the cost of participating at a conference is significant, and with budgets the way they are many of you are attending less and conferences.

Be sure to have a plan to maximize your conference ROI. Along with attending sessions featuring TargetX educators and stopping by our exhibits, here are six tips for earning a better return on any conference investment:

1. Be where you are.
2. Don’t feel pressured to do it all.
3. Figure out your balance.
4. Keep up with the buzz.
5. Dial ...

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Categories: Best Practice Documents, Did You Know?, NACAC, Workshops and Events

Girl Scouts Are Using Them. What About You?

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

As we’re approaching the time to convert applicants to deposited and enrolled students, everyone is thinking about yield.

Each yield communication and event should have a purpose and a call to action; it should take you to the next step.

Many of you will be hosting events for students who have applied and have you near the top of their list. While you’ll roll out the red carpet, gussy up the campus, serve better-than-average food, and have a meet and greet with your president, do you have a plan of action to get the students to take the next step?

These events are about garnering the deposit, so why not take a cue from Girl Scouts? They are selling cookies to countless small ...

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Categories: Best Practice Documents, Campus Visit Experiences, Experience Economy Stuff, Mobile, Mobile Marketing, Yield

Forget Facebook, if you want to yield students you should be on YouTube

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

Any dyed-in-the-wool Gen Xer can tell you that the first video MTV played when it launched on August 8, 1981 was Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles. Not as many can tell you the second video played on MTV. Do you know?

Video facts you need to know:
-43% of current prime time internet traffic is real time entertainment ( 12.2.2010)
-Netflix streaming accounts for 20% of internet traffic on any given evening (BusinessWeek 12.2.2010)
-Cisco predicts that by 2013 video will be 90% of consumer internet traffic (TechCrunch 7.9.2009)
-YouTube is a top “search engine” accounting for 28% of Google searches (Google 1.31.2011)
-There are 500 million monthly YouTube ...

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Categories: Authenticity, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, College Recruiting, Communication, Communication Plans, Did You Know?, Facebook, Free on Friday Webcasts, Social Media, Social Networking, Storytelling, Student Yield, Videos, Web Traffic, Webcast, Your Website

Delta Airlines. A lesson in authenticity. Be careful what you promise.

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

As I sit here at JFK waiting for a connection back to Atlanta, I thought it fitting to talk about authenticity and the airline that I use for 99% of my flights.

Recently, Delta launched a series of beautiful black and white ads produced by Wieden+Kennedy, the Portland shop famous for Nike advertising. According to Brandweek, they’re focusing on the NYC market. Seemingly, the TV spots get it right; they tell a story, they show human emotion, keep it real, and have a compelling voiceover (is that Donald Sutherland? For you Millennials, that’s the real-life father of the actor on Fox’s 24 ). But are they authentic? Has one of the biggest airlines in the world overpromised with ...

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Categories: Authenticity, General, Uncategorized

Campus Tours Go Disney, Washington Monthly article by Eric Hoover (and "ears" off to our campus visit team!)

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

Our campus tour work has had a fair amount of press this year. One of the best articles to feature our work, “Campus Tours Go Disney“, was published last month in Washington Monthly Magazine’s college guide. It was written by the Chronicle’s Eric Hoover, one of the best reporters and storytellers around.

Often, people think our work is about creating a whiz-bang, cleverly crafted experience, a Disney “E” Ticket (for those of you old enough to remember). Sometimes, potential clients think we’ll help them create something that’s cool for the sake of cool. That’s not what we do.

Our work is grounded in helping our clients render an authentic, memorable, and engaging campus visit experience that also supports the enrollment ...

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Categories: Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Experience Economy Stuff, General, Uncategorized

Advertising executive embraces the "Experience"

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

Every since I read Pine and Gilmore’s 1999 Harvard Business School Book, “The Experience Economy – Work is Theatre & Every Business a Stage” I’ve been an “Experience Evangelist.”

Along the way, I’ve been wondering when will traditional advertising and marketing folks will finally figure out that “The Experience IS the Marketing”? When will they wake-up and realize that you just can’t produce TV spots and print ads? It’s the same for colleges. When will the notion of assaulting prospective students with ink on paper/publication or emails that end up in the trash stop?

Perhaps soon.

Adweek dedicated a cover story to Brian Collins, formerly of the Martin Agency (with client roster that included ...

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Categories: Uncategorized

Baldwin-Wallace College now includes van ride during campus visit experience

Posted by: Jeff Kallay

beevan

August and September are hectic times for our consulting campus visit team members. Trent Gilbert, Emily Welsh and I are crisscrossing the country conducting ambassador/tour guide training and checking the status of campus visit improvements at many clients.

But it’s also one of the most rewarding times. Besides having the opportunity to inspire student guides to be master storytellers, render authenticity and have fun, we get to see the progress consulting campus visit clients are making based upon our recommendations.

Recently Baldwin-Wallace College in NE Ohio implemented a walking-riding tour. BWC has a unique physicality because it’s the merger of two campuses (Baldwin and Wallace Colleges) and a third campus ...

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Categories: Best Practice Documents, Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Change, Experience, Experience Economy Stuff, Parents

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