Friday Five: Building brand equity, the ‘Iconic Advantage’ way

Iconic Advantage is a new book by Soon Yu

Today’s Friday Five is lifted straight from the pages of a book I recently picked up called Iconic Advantage: Don’t chase the new, innovate the old, by Soon Yu with David Birss. This isn’t a book about branding or marketing. It’s a book about building on the intrinsic “iconicity” of a brand, product or service. But it contains troves of great information for any brand manager or marketer. An early chapter on brand equity offers five great reminders about what drives iconic brands. Even if you don’t think your brand is iconic, you can learn from Yu’s wisdom.

What marketing innovation looks like in 2018

Ten companies to make FastCompany’s 2018 “most innovative” list include companies known for their branding and marketing. What can higher ed learn from them?

FastCompany magazine recently released its 2018 list of the world’s most innovative companies. The list includes 10 companies in the marketing and advertising category, and these picks offer a view to what innovation looks like in the marketing field. What insights might we apply to the world of higher ed marketing?

What higher education can learn from strong digital brands

What can colleges and universities learn from digital brands like Dollar Shave Club?

As brands, colleges and universities occupy an interesting space. We don’t like to talk about our students as customers, although some would argue that we should change our mindset. Many of us in academia also would prefer to not think of our enterprises in business terms of any sort. But as branding takes on a more prominent role in higher education, there’s also a shift in perspective among administrators, communicators, marketers and faculty that acknowledges the importance of branding and marketing. That shift has led to a greater appreciation for brand management as a function to help influence and shape audience perceptions of our institutions.

Friday Five: #GroundhogDay edition

@PunxsutawnyPhil has seen his shadow, predicting six more weeks of winter.

Happy Groundhog Day, gentle reader. It is now official: Punxsutawny Phil has seen his shadow, which means six more weeks of winter. So stay warm, pour yourself a cup of coffee or hot chocolate, and cozy up to a short list of list-like posts, all relevant to your higher ed interests.

A different take on the BS degree (or degrees of BS)

Chronicle Review Illustration by Scott Seymour

Given our U.S. president’s alleged recent use of a vulgar term to describe much of the world outside of the United States, and the resulting, um, feces storm the allegation has unleashed in the social media sphere, I suppose it’s no surprise that higher education has also given in to the use of coarsening language to make a point. In this case, however, sociology professor Christian Smith of Notre Dame University out-Trumped Trump’s (again alleged) euphemism by a few days with this jeremiad published a week ago by The Chronicle of Higher Education.