how a simple website redesign sparked a marketing and cultural shift at one of the top business...

BRAND WEBHOW A SIMPLE WEBSITE REDESIGN SPARKED A CULTURAL

SHIFT AT ONE OF THE TOP BUSINESS SCHOOLS IN THE WORLD

>

Introductions

Tony VP Strategy & Creative VisionPoint Marketing

@Aarford | @ahatony | #SmithBrand2web < < <> > >

Alissa Director of Online Strategy

University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business

> Top ranked business school > Comprehensive business school for Ugrad, MBA, MS, Exec Ed & PhD > 2,950 Undergrad, 230 full-time MBA, 820, PT MBA, 785 MS, 100 PhD, 230

Exec & EMBA > 57,000 worldwide alumni > 150 full-time faculty, 50 part-time > www.rhsmith.umd.edu

About UMD Smith School

http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu

About VisionPoint> Established in March 2001 & located in Raleigh, NC with team of 20 > Specialize in marketing consultation and execution in higher ed > Serve: Large & Small; Public & Private; Grad, Post-Grad, Undergrad, CC > U Maryland, UVA, Virginia Tech, Johns Hopkins, Carroll CC, Boston College, etc. > Focus on what’s right for our clients (no ‘one size fits all’ approach) > Speak nationally & regionally on HE marketing at CASE, AMA, eduWeb, etc.

Agenda

1. Brand in Higher Ed

2. UMD Smith School Story

3. Translating Brand > Web

4. How you can do this too

5. Q & A

Brand in Higher Ed Websites

@Aarford | @ahatony | #SmithBrand2web

Moving from Decentralized Web Solutions to One Technology Platform:

eduWeb Boston July 31, 2012

Why Now is Not the Time to Sit Back and Relax

Brand: a person’s perception of a product, service, experience or organization

What is a ‘brand’?


innovative

stylish

intuitive

cool

casual

easy-going

friendly

=

Brand in Higher Ed Websites


THERE’S HOPE

First, a look back . . .


MarComm Efforts


The website


Finding help


Why hire an outside vendor?> It was decided that we needed an outside firm to do this with us. > Why?

> Past experiences

> Internal team too busy

> Internal team not experts

> Internal team not built to do website redesigns


What we looked for in an external partner> Deep experience in higher ed (Why is it important that they ‘get’

higher ed?) > Ability to manage large committees / many groups (we had 4

groups involved in this) > Ability to build consensus (from past experience we knew that

doing this early on was HUGE / VisionPoint gets this) > Ability to manage different personalities > Being completely transparent > Ability to tell us things we hadn’t thought of yet (VPM pushed for

IA and governance very early on) > Ability to make the right thing happen even in the face of politics

and ‘ignorance’ (ability to play the bad guy when needed) > People who our team ‘clicks’ with (friendly, good listeners, etc)

It started as an innocent website redesign project


Content & Website Audit


Social Media Audit


Brand Audit


Competitor Analysis


Stakeholder Interviews


Who we spoke with

Students

Career Services

MarComm

Faculty

eMBA

DAR

Undergraduate

Smith IT

Masters Programs

Dean Anand

Aggregate Themes


Brand> We heard some common themes about the brand - scrappy,

entrepreneurial, access to Washington, sense of community, white glove treatment for employers/corporations, etc - but there is uncertainty about the overall brand of the school

> Various campaigns in use: Fearless Ideas; Impact Starts Here; The Smith Effect

> Some feel like Smith should leverage the University brand; others feel that Smith School should establish its own voice.


If you cannot describe yourself, your values, your offerings

consistently internally; imagine how you come across to your prospective students, donors, peers, corporate partners, etc.


Stop the presses!

#betterCCwebsite @ahatony

Why would we choose to stop a smooth process?1. Brand SHOULD inform many aspects of web development process 2. Importance of Brand in HE these days


Reason #1 Your brand informs the

decisions you make when redesigning your website.

Information Architecture

Visual Design

Content Strategy

Reason #2 Brand is REALLY important

in Higher Ed these days.

Reason 1: Brand is REALLY important Higher Ed> A LOT of negativity about traditional HE institutions > Higher Ed is much more competitive these days > Prospective students & donors need to know what makes you YOU > … and what makes you different from your competition

> Having clearly defined offerings, benefits and differentiators helps make it easier for your audience to see the value you offer


Institutions of higher ed are a lot like white sports cars.

This is what you look like to your target audiences.

Brand Workshop


The workshop> Goal: Define Brand Attributes, Pillars and Positioning Statement > Format: 4-5 hours, 25 participants including:

> Leadership (Dean, Program Deans)

> Senior Staff (Academic Programs, Research Centers, Admin Groups, etc)

> Faculty

> Students

> MarComm

> Structure/agenda: > Pre-work

> Brainstorming

> Small group exercises

> LOTS of white boarding

> Plenty o’ heated debate


Outcomes

POSITIONING STATEMENT: For hard-working, driven, problem-solving students, the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business fosters opportunities for experiential learning and rigorous academics that launch extraordinary careers.

Determined

Supportive

Analytical

Inspired

ATTRIBUTES

World Class Faculty & Research

Experiential / Reality-based Learning

Entrepreneurial Spirit

Community

PILLARS

BRAND as a driver for decisions in . . .


Information Architecture1@Aarford | @ahatony | #SmithBrand2web

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VISIONPOINTMARKETING.COM 919-848-2018

CLIENT RH Smith School of Business PROJECT Website – Sitemap DATE February 28, 2013

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1.0 2.0 3.0

www.rhsmith.umd.edu

Programs(Compare Programs)

Undergraduate Programs

Full-Time MBA

Part-Time MBA

Executive MBA

Executive Education

MS Programs

PhD Program

Faculty

Academic Departments

Study Abroad

Campus Life

Clubs & Organizations

Community & Diversity

Events

Career Services

Centers & Labs

Accounting & Information Assurance

Decision, Operations & Information Technologies

Finance

Logistics, Business & Public Policy

Management & Organization

Marketing

Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship

Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER)

Center for Digital Innovation, Technology, and Strategy (DIGITS)

Center for Excellence in Service

Center for Health Information and Decision Systems (CHIDS)

Center for Leadership, Innovation & Change (CLIC)

Supply Chain Management Center

Center for Complexity in Business

Faculty & Research Student Life & Services

Visual Design2@Aarford | @ahatony | #SmithBrand2web

Initial Exploration


Determined

Supportive

Analytical

Inspired

ATTRIBUTES

Final Design


Determined

Supportive

Analytical

Inspired

ATTRIBUTES

Content is KING

Content Strategy3@Aarford | @ahatony | #SmithBrand2web

What is content strategy?


Content Strategy Planning for the creation,

delivery and governance of useful, useable content.

What do we create?Where do we put it?

How often do we publish?Who creates it?

World Class Faculty & Research

Experiential / Reality-based Learning

Entrepreneurial Spirit

Community

PILLARS

At Smith, all content is now categorized by Pillar


LinkedIn YouTube Twitter Facebook

Faculty & Research X X X

Experiential Learning X X X

Entrepreneurial Spirit X X X

Community X X

Best use of Social Media channels by pillar


Results


Cultural Shift


How can YOU do this?


How you can do this . . .> DEFINE YOUR BRAND: Make sure you have a defined brand (some do

this better than others, but frankly, many aren’t clear as to what their brand is, what their differentiators are, even what their core competencies are)

> GET BUY IN: from key stakeholders and leadership (SO important for them to be bought in and to take ownership)

> IA: Align navigation, nomenclature, hierarchy of IA with those brand pillars (are you all about research, innovation, technology, etc? If so, make sure to feature it prominently)

> DESIGN: Are you bold, prestigious, cutting-edge, etc? (Define what your personality is and make sure your design is true to that)

> CONTENT STRATEGY: Work the pillars into your publishing schedule; have rules about how frequently this content appears on your site, etc.


Thank you! #SmithBrand2web

follow UMD Smith & VisionPoint: @SmithSchool | @Aarford

@vispoint | @ahatony

how a simple website redesign sparked a marketing and cultural shift at one of the top business...

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