Archive for 'Campus Visit Experiences'

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

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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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15
SEP
1

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

It's all about the experience!

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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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26
AUG
0

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

What do your walls say?

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While there is no official definition, everyone seems to have something that comes to mind when they think about hotel art. On a whole it refers to those generic art pieces on hotel walls designed not to invoke any real emotion from an individual looking at it. Basically, it won’t offend anyone but makes the room look less empty. Playing it safe.

College admissions spaces have an unfortunate tendency to lean the same way. Your lobby and waiting room walls are frequently covered in historical images of the old gentleman who gave a lot of money to the school and has since died or bragging point articles from years before your current prospective students were even born. The items shown in ...

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15
AUG
0

Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Uncategorized

You travel too

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Welcome to iThink’s newest blog! At TargetX we think higher education needs to look outside of itself to learn best practices so my blog, Lessons from the Road: From Atlanta to your campus and back will help you do just that! It will be tough to rival the masterpieces of TargetX’s other bloggers, but I’m up for the challenge!

For those of you who know us, you know the campus visit team is always on the go. Since joining the team a year ago, I have been on 83 different airplanes, driven many rental cars, stayed countless nights in hotels, and been on as many as four different campuses in a single week. Unless I experience excessive delays or cancellations, you ...

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1
AUG
0

Categories: Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Uncategorized

Know your niche and market to nobody

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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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10
MAY
3

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

Building better tour guides

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Be careful, warns U.S. News reporter Jackie Mantey to college-bound students, your campus tours may be led by guides who “decided pointing at landmarks would be a better job than flipping burgers for food services” and who rely on “a word-for-word recitation of the school’s brochure.”

As news media have increasingly focused on the critical role of campus visits in the college selection process, student guides who lead the tours have gotten a lot of press — and not all of it good.

“There seems to be this assumption that tour guides are paid to say exactly what the schools want,” says campus visit expert Emily Welsh. “Parents especially seem surprised that many student guides are volunteers and their schools are not ...

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18
MAR
0

Categories: Campus Visit Experiences, College Recruiting, Free on Friday Webcasts, Storytelling

Girl Scouts Are Using Them. What About You?

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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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23
FEB
0

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

Waiting for the Dead Poets Society Moment

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They come in all different sizes and all different levels of content.  Some give a specific route, others just a mandate on what to show.  Some give facts and figures (there are 1,314,649 books in the library), others read like a Hollywood script.  I am talking about the beloved tour guide training manual.

I wonder what the norm is for this manual?

After searching high and low, and talking to several schools, I have found one that is challenging the norm: Alfred University. They aren’t even calling it a manual, but rather a Reference Guide. Only a few pages long, it has information for the guides to reference – expectations, the tour route, a brief history of the buildings, list ...

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26
JAN
0

Categories: Authenticity, Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Experience, Storytelling, Student Workers

Demystifing the Application Process

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If you work on a college campus, you are an educator.  You may not teach a class as an admission professional, but you should take ownership to educate the school’s applicant pool.

Often we assume that people understand the process, but they don’t. We need to take time (either while on campus during a visit or via the web) to explain the process.

A recent email that went viral around the TargetX offices was this video from Centre College in Danville, KY. This is one way they educate their applicants.

Sure, it is a little tongue-in-cheek, but it is entertaining and it does educate their applicants on the process at Centre.

How ...

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20
JAN
1

Categories: Applicants, Campus Visit Experiences, Communication, Facebook, Videos

New Year's Resolutions to Improve the Campus Visit

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Happy New Year!!!

Now that the decorations are down (maybe) and the sleep deprivation from being forced to stay awake until midnight has subsided (not really), it is time to think about 2011.  I know that some of you spent New Year’s Day thinking about your personal resolutions. Maybe you want to lose weight, watch what you eat (I am limiting myself to one Twix bar per week out of the snack basket on the plane), be more organized, or respond to emails in a more timely manner.  No matter what your personal resolutions are, I think you should add three more to the list.  These resolutions will help you improve the ever-important campus visit.  Call this your list of work ...

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6
JAN
0

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

What should I wear?

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I get asked some of the same “hot topic” questions about the campus visit from many of our campus visit clients and during the countless campus visit presentations that we do.  One question that keeps coming up:  “What should our tour guides wear?”

I ask a question or two in return.

“What do the students wear on campus to go to class?”
“What is most real and authentic to the student experience?”

In a recent issue of BusinessWeek (Let me disclose. Jeff Kallay forwards along the important articles) about the rise of Millennials in the workplace, I saw this cartoon and just had to share as we discuss the tour guide uniform.

etcequetteschool1

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11
NOV
0

Categories: Authenticity, Campus Visit, Campus Visit Audits Sidebar, Campus Visit Experiences, Generations, Millennial Generation, Millennials, Student Workers

A view from the front lines

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I recently joined TargetX as VP of Engineering, but I’m contributing this week’s Recruitment Minute in my more taxing role as parent of a high school senior. As we reach the college search home stretch, I thought I’d share some impressions.

Lowlights:

  • The box of printed materials threatening to crush our bookcase. Our son opens almost none, and never if the school isn’t on his list.
  • Most campus tours — large groups preclude engaging with the guide, and most are interchangeable. We learned to self tour, and tried to chat up (and eavesdrop on) students.
  • Important information buried on websites — including academic break schedules and how to arrange class visits.
  • An info session using and then defining words as simple as “cadaver.”
  • Buzzword ...
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22
OCT
1

Categories: Authenticity, Campus Visit Experiences, College Recruiting, Parents

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

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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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13
OCT
2

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

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

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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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2
SEP
2

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

“One Thing” to Improve Your Campus Visit

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During today’s Free on Friday Webcast, our Experience Evaluator, Emily Welsh and I discussed the basics of the campus visit.  As we enter the fall semester, now is a great time to take a close look at how the most important recruitment activity stacks up. We gave viewers 10 “R” words to reinforce the basics of the campus visit.  They are:

  • Registration
  • Roads – Signage, parking, getting to Admissions.
  • R-Aesthetic – (Ok, we couldn’t come up with an R) Aesthetic is ground zero of the campus visit.
  • Reception – How does the Admissions space make your visitors feel?
  • Restrooms – They are one of the first and last places your visitors experience.
  • Reiterate – How are you delivering information to your visitor?
  • Route – What are you ...
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13
AUG
11

Categories: Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Change, Free on Friday Webcasts

Outstanding Ohio State Admissions Campus Visit Guide

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The Ohio State University has one of the best visit programs we have encountered, yet they’re always looking to improve the experience.

To inspire you, here’s a copy of the new piece:

img_1658

The creative folks in admissions worked hard to create a visit brochure that sets the expectation and reveals visit basics, while giving it the feel of a travel brochure. They’ve outlined Four Ways to Discover Ohio State: Sport Enthusiast, Foodie, History Buff and Academic Explorer. The brochure unfolds to reveal places and spaces in these themes complete with photos, insider tips and more.

At the CIVSA conference in Lexington this June, they told us that the majority of families bring the piece ...

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29
JUL
2

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

York College of Pennsylvania – Campus visit makes front cover of their magazine

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When prospective consulting clients ask us what we do, or what they get specific to the campus visit, the answer is often big picture. We make the campus visit a top priority within admissions and ultimately campus wide. We help our clients fight the fight for the campus visit at their school.

Lately Trent Gilbert, TargetX’s CXO, Chief eXperience Officer, and I have been receiving a number of emails from consulting clients about improvements to their campus visit since working with us. That’s really the ultimate in satisfaction.

Recently, our clients at York College of Pennsylvania; Steve Neitz, Assistant Dean for Enrollment Management and Nancy Spataro, Director of Admissions sent us both electronic and printed hard copies of the ...

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23
JUN
3

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

Appeal on an emotional level

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Colleges and universities need to appeal to prospects on an emotional level through storytelling and the campus experience to engage best-fit students.

The recession has made consumers think differently about how they shop, buy and — in higher education — choose a college. Adweek Research writer Mark Dolliver states, consumers want good value for their money; while rational sales pitches and practical benefits have ruled the school of thought for decades, a shift is necessary to more emotional appeals. The same is true for higher education.

Dolliver reviews the results from a survey of client-side marketers conducted by the Association of National Advertisers and they reveal that emotional benefits should be more balanced with the rational/functional benefits. Marketers see the need for ...

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11
JUN
8

Categories: Authenticity, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Campus Visit Experiences, Experience, Research, Storytelling

A Makeover in California

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No, I am not going to talk about the latest spa treatment in Hollywood, or am I going to share with you who met who at the club in Santa Monica. I will leave hardcore reporting like that for all those magazines you find at the grocery store check-out.

I want to share with you an experience from my travel through the Los Angeles Airport (LAX) last week.   This is an airport that I have been in at least a hundred times in my life.  This trip through LAX was different, though. Upon landing at LAX, I was caught off guard by a change of the flow of traffic since my last visit.  I was inquisitive about the change.  Then I ...

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6
MAY
3

Categories: Authenticity, Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Experience, Storytelling

Invest in the experience

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Remember the good old days? You knew once you got a prospect on campus, they were as good as yours.

Not anymore, writes Jeff Kallay in a new book celebrating the increasing role of the campus experience in the college search process.

“The campus visit isn’t a rarity in today’s college search landscape; it’s become the crucial part of the equation,” he writes. “Millennials and their parents now load up and go on marathon campus visit junkets….So they are visiting your campus, and in record numbers. But are they enrolling?”

Probably not, because while the campus visit is the top influencer in the admissions decision, Kallay says, “it seems like it’s often at the bottom of the priority list for colleges.”

Too many schools ...

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8
JAN
2

Categories: Authenticity, Campus Visit Experiences, College Recruiting

Consumer creates content at AE Times Square Billboard

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I recently went on a college road trip with my best friend from high school and her 16-year-old daughter. We visited three campuses in three days, including our client, Pace University, in New York City.  I’ll be blogging and video blogging about lessons from the college road trip soon, but couldn’t wait to share a moment in the trip that stood out for me.

Andy Warhol said, “We’ll all have our 15 minutes of fame.”

Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore, authors of The Experience Economy and Authenticity said, “If a consumer helps create something, it’s more authentic to them.”

Well, now American Eagle’s Flagship store in Times Square allows you to create the content and have your 15 seconds (vs. minutes).

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6
DEC
1

Categories: Authenticity, Campus Visit Experiences, Experience Economy Stuff

5 Campus Visit Traps

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We were recently asked by the folks at University Business to give them insight into the most common mistakes that we have been experiencing within the campus visit.  In this month issue of the magazine you can read the mistakes; then watch the video for more in-depth explanation of these mistakes.

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27
OCT
1

Categories: Best Practice Documents, Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, College Recruiting

Disney Stores, iPhone Apps, AR (Augmented Reality) and your campus tour

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So let’s connect some experience economy dots and make them all relevant to your campus visit programs.

Disney to finally make their Disney Stores an “Experience”
Disney Stores have never really matched the Disney Magic. They’re just stores. Passive buying. Not an experience and not at all reminiscent of a Disney park.

As reported in the New York Times:

“The world does not need another place to sell Disney merchandise — this only works if it’s an experience,” said Jim Fielding, president of Disney Stores Worldwide. The company plans to unveil the new look in May in Southern California, Long Island and Madrid, and is close to signing a lease for that Times Square flagship.

Theaters will allow children to watch ...

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25
OCT
4

Categories: Authenticity, Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Change, Experience Economy Stuff, Millennials, Mobile Marketing, Outside Resources

Alfred Tour Bike–The Video

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Ray Ulmer wrote about the Alfred University Bike Tour in the Recruitment Minute, Jeff Kallay gave you the inside story.  Well, as you know Jeff and I ventured up for the official unveiling, here is our very own TargetX video from the day.

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11
OCT
2

Categories: Authenticity, Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences

Alfred Conference Bike a lesson in authenticity and change

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Chances are you’ve read about the Alfred University Campus Tour Conference Bike in various higher education press resources or in my colleague Ray Ulmer’s Recruitment Minute.

But let me give you the inside story.

Alfred University and their Director of Marketing, Jodi Bailey, are the kind of clients all services providers love to work with. They embrace change (even though they face internal hurdles) and are fun to work with.

Back in the winter of 2008 when I first toured Alfred’s beautiful mountainside campus in Western New York, I told them, “Your admissions office in Alumni Hall is on one far end of campus, and you’re walking tours about the full length (about 1/2 mile) to the other ...

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10
OCT
2

Categories: Best Practice Documents, Campus Visit Experiences, Experience Economy Stuff, Lists, Parents, Student Workers

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