MSU Marketing

[BobcatBlood]

Here are my questions -
How big is MSU's Marketing Department? (this is intended to be your guess as to how many people are in charge of marketing at MSU - please don't go look up the answer - I want to know what you think the number is)

Based on the size and diversity of MSU, how much staff do you think would be appropriate to run the marketing/advertising function of MSU?

How much money does MSU have in its marketing/advertising budget? (again, don't go look this up - I'm wondering about perception, not fact)

Thanks

[wbtfg]

are you talking about MSU's marketing team, or just the athletic dep'ts marketing team?? Because they are two seperate entities.

[BobcatBlood]

I'm more talking about the marketing for the university in general - the central campus marketing team. (which in a perfect world, I think, should function in close harmony with the athletics department marketing team)

[SonomaCat]

Is this the marketing team that is marketing to school to potential students, or are you also asking about marketing functions relating to fundraising, etc. If fundraising is thrown in, doesn't each college have its own development director that is essentially the marketing arm of the college?

[wbtfg]

I don't think that there is any way you can tell how large the marketing team for the university program is. There is a university marketing team (university relations), athletics does a lot of marketing stuff, alumni does a lot of marketing, and admissions does a ton of marketing stuff as well. Plus different programs (ie engineering and agriculture) do some independant marketing as well. And then you also have everything that goes along with mareketing/promotion of all of the concerts and non-athletic events in the fieldhouse.

I'm not really sure what you're trying to get at, but I'm assuming you're saying that we don't have enough people marketing MSU, where I think we have too many people doing different things. I think our marketing campaign needs to be more centralized, with a comittee made up of the people that are the most involved in markting (Dave Gant/Ronda Russell/Janie Groseth/Duane Morris...etc) so we can send people a consistent message about MSU. JMHO

[wbtfg]

NICE...I finally made it to "blue cat" status YAHOO!!!

Anyway, I just did a little research, and there actually is a university wide marketing committe made up of 28 people. So I would say that there are well over 50 people who are actively involved in the marketing camaign at MSU.

[BobcatBlood]

This is exactly what I was looking for. There have been complaints about MSU marketing for as long as I can remember and I've been guilty of doing much of the complaining that I hear. Why can't a person buy a MSU football jersey in Havre? How do I get a helmet for my five-year old Bobcat crazed son? When I get stuff from my college, the alumni assoc, the museum, etc., half the time it isn't obvious that the stuff is coming from MSU! Just go take a look at the home page for the College of Arts and Architecture... The whole authentic jersey thread was the impetus for this question.

MSU recently did a full blown communications audit to try to find out the answer to my original questions. MSU also just completed the beginning stages of creating an integrated marketing plan that will work on making sure that all of the various departments and divisions use the same messages, colors, logos, etc. Since most of the people on this board are ardent supporters of MSU (or distinctly not - but I'm not concerned with these people) I wondered what you all thought of this process.

While it seems crazy to me to spend almost $50,000 on this kind of research to find out what we are doing - it also seems necessary. Since there hasn't been a focused, central effort to market MSU, every department has just done its own thing.

It amazes me that, as a central function of the university, there is .5 FTE designated to managing our brand AND handling our licensing program, and no operating budget. We are an enterprise of thousands of people and a multimillion dollar industry, yet we have no designated pool of resources or staff to manage our image/brand and to "sell" ourselves - as the Extension program for this state, as an economic engine, as the Bobcats, as a great undergraduate school, as everything that we are - collectively. This is hopefully in the process of changing.

I guess I'd just really love to see support for getting everyone on the same page. While, in the beginning, it might cause some heartburn to set up a focused, integrated marketing plan for the university as a whole - the end result would have to be a better plan. We are good at a lot of things at MSU, I just look forward to a time when we are much better at telling people that.

Okay, done with my rant.

[SonomaCat]

BobcatBlood: You seem to really know your stuff. Please post as often as you can muster those rants. That's good stuff.

[wbtfg]

I think that we definitely need to establish a consistent identity (or Brand), but from what I've heard the company that we're going with may not have the best ideas to go about marketing. If we go with all of their proposed ideas, I think that we will be slitting our wrists as a university. We have to be very careful about what we buy in to.

[BobcatBlood]

I couldn't agree more that taking all of the advice of an outside consultant -any outside consultant - without using the expertise of internal people would be a big mistake. I think what will make this whole project successful is the full buy in of departments such as athletics and alumni -as well as by all the colleges (developoment officers, etc.) and the 100% backing of university administration. In the end, if there is some combination of marketing strategies all pulled together in the interest of the university as a whole, and all the departments agree to work together - we will have better marketing/advertising/public relations/media relations, etc. - and my bet is that we can do it more economically and efficiently than we do now.

[BelgradeBobcat]

http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/ar ... bzbigs.txt

[LongTimeCatFan]

Bobcatblood wrote:and the 100% backing of university administration.

As an Ag teacher in the state of MT, this issue just came up at our professional meeting in Livingston last month. The new president understands agriculture and understands that changes need to be made in this area. We as a profession can all agree to support our new president as he supports us. I hate to speak ill of the dead, but Malone was so Anti-Ag it was very frustrating. By allowing the Rodeo team to host its Spring Rodeo in the field house again was a major step in the right direction. So what if Smokeless tobacco is a major sponsor. We also discussed missed opportunities for free PR. MSU hosts 1 and sometimes 2 major FFA events each year and has not done an adequate job of capitalizing on that. Back in the day when I was an FFA member we used to go on campus tours in which you would learn something exciting that you might learn while in attendance at MSU. For example, we used to go out to the Oscar Thomas Nutrition Center and go "rumen diving." They have cows with holes in their rumen that they use to test different types of feeds. Also we used to spool for DNA and use electrophoresis to look at DNA on tours. These are both part of the College of Letters and Sciences that consequently Ag majors might participate in. As of recent, I have not seen these tours offered and for a student looking at a University, they are exciting. Heck you could even show them how gene splicing occurs. They just want to see what MSU has to offer and MSU is not providing these experiences. Also in terms of facilities, the FFA state convention has been on a rotating schedule with Bozeman being the host every other year. However, getting the SUB has been extremely difficult recently due to them wanting exhorbitant amounts of money. I can see charging that fee for something that doesn't directly affect MSU recruitment, but FFA is the major recruiting factor for the college of ag and a minor recruitment for other colleges. My opinion as well as many of my collegues is that maybe State FFA convention should be exempt from some of the fees applicable and could be written off as "recruitment." Because of this we (FFA) are forced to look at other options in the rotation like Great Falls and Billings who support FFA stongly for our state convention site. State FFA will be held in Bozeman this year and of course the annual Ag Days so we'll see what is done. Just for example, my valedictorian and FFA president is going to Butte next year for Mechanical Engineering. With all of the visits to MSU he has experienced, I am just in awe. Somehow we missed the boat there. Also, at least in the college of ag, there seems to be little first year incentive in the way of scholorships. We all know that the College of Ag gives out the most scholoship dollars than any other College on Campus, but little is done in the way of providing scholarships for first year students. Primarily they are offered to Soph's through Seniors. Also, it is no secret that Aggies and Architects have a little animosity between each other and that is simply due to the situation in Cheever Hall. Ag-Ed used to be the driving force in that building and the current situation suggests otherwise. I agree that Architecture is a positive addition to MSU and the program is growing and that is great. However, nothing has been done to update the facilites within the college of ag other than the new research center (ag-bio sciences building) which does little to entice new students since the vast majority will never walk into that building. Obviously facilities are also a driving factor in recruitment and there is a plan to build a new building between Leon Johnson and Linfield. This new building would move ag ed over there and give it the adequate facilities that it needs. It would also allow the college to offer more depth by offering more courses in agriculture that reflect the current job market needs in Montana. I'm sorry I don't know much about the other problems facing the other colleges, but this one hits home. Let me know if you have any other ideas because we are forming a committee within my profession to improve this situation.