This D+ is an F (Jim Karrh Commentary)

One of the primary goals of this column during its nearly 10-year run has been to provide tips that lead to better business performance via marketing.

We often use current examples from the business world, both good practices and the stupid stuff. It is all in the name of education.

How convenient it is, then, that an educational institution in Iowa demonstrates through its own stumbles the use and misuse of basic marketing research.

Drake University, in Des Moines, has earned a reputation for providing a consistently strong liberal arts education over the past 129 years. Several of Drake’s programs, such as its law school, are highly ranked nationally.

The university’s leadership commissioned a new recruitment campaign – a collaboration of people from its admissions office, its marketing and communications staff, and an outside agency well-established within higher-ed circles.

It was hoped the campaign would prove interesting to attention-challenged teens. Following months of research and creative development, the new campaign debuted this year.

The result: “Drake = D+.”

Get it? “D” is for Drake, and the plus is for all of the benefits that occur when Drake and a student get together. A large “D+” dominated the new recruitment materials.

Of course, when it comes to education, a “D+” has another connotation – a poor grade. Either the folks at Drake somehow did not consider this or they let their agency advisers talk them into something.

Faculty, staff members, alumni and other constituencies were not amused. Apparently Drake failed to involve them in designing or testing the campaign. An August internal e-mail to faculty and staff, crafted to defuse criticism, included this: “In our eagerness to launch Drake Advantage … we neglected to invite faculty and staff to preview the campaign … we are very sorry that many of you were caught by surprise as a result.”

The only market research mentioned in that e-mail was an online survey of 921 high school students. The kids had been asked, for example, whether the concept would get their attention and whether it differentiated Drake from other universities.

So a narrow group of survey respondents found the concept to be distinctive and attention-grabbing, and Drake went ahead with the launch. Setting oneself on fire is both distinctive and attention-grabbing as well, but it also produces a low-quality state of affairs that cannot be undone.

Had the Drake team followed the maxim to “Begin with the end in mind,” it would have designed – and then tested – a campaign that was relevant to the decisions of prospective students and their parents. It also would have considered the views of alumni, faculty and staff members, so the finished product would make all of Drake’s core constituencies proud.

During times like these, prospective students, as well as their families, are pretty anxious about job prospects and the economic return on an expensive college education. My experience in working with universities on their marketing is that, while students might relate well to edginess and irony in some advertising, they are pretty serious about their futures. Drake is speaking to its audiences as if it were peddling jeans or body spray rather than an expensive liberal arts education.

Here are the lessons to learn from the D+ Gang:

• Don’t let your internal teams, an agency or anyone else who is really close to your business assume they know how your message will work on the outside. Do the research.
• Make sure said research matches the strategy and key success factors for your organization.
• It is great to be both cool and effective. But if you have to choose between a cool message and an effective one, go for effective.
• Consider all of the important constituencies for your organization’s brand and sales, not just the most obvious or direct ones.

Hey, wait a minute. Since Arkansas begins with “A,” do you think some of our state’s universities should test “A+” for new campaigns? 

Jim Karrh of Karrh & Associates is a marketing and sales consultant based in Little Rock. E-mail him at [email protected].