Standing For Something In A Crowded Sector: Helen Pennack Head Of Marketing Communications

Standing for Something in a Crowded Sector Helen Pennack Head of Marketing Communications

If we want to change our reputation we must stand for something that is clear and distinctive….

What’s Special About Leicester? We asked: • Business Partners • Heads of Department • Academic and Administrative Colleagues • Alumni • Students (PG, UG and DL)

What’s Special About Leicester? “I think Leicester is a very human university and doesn’t really have status in the negative sense of being elitist. We try to avoid universities who are like that.”

What’s Special About Leicester? “Pastoral care and personal tutoring – Leicester really cared about you.” “Amount of effort a student puts in will be repaid by the University – it’s a reciprocal effort.”

What’s Special About Leicester? “The lecturers are well published academics at the forefront of their fields; that’s who I want to be learning from.” “I have a lecture from a teacher who’s not just stood there spieling it out...they’re actually getting excited about it because it’s their subject… and it makes you feel excited.”

What’s Special About Leicester? “The first thing I knew about Leicester was when I picked up a prospectus.”

What’s Special About Leicester? “A good traditional university with good instincts about academic values.” “Internally the image of the University is poor and that’s because a lot of the staff don’t really appreciate what we’re good at.”

What’s Special About Leicester? • “People on the course come from very different places in the world... it makes it very interesting – people from different regions have different views.”   “I think things are changing and they are changing for the better.” 

What’s Special About Leicester? “Down to earth, … but still excelling.” “for me it’s the people – whether it’s the students the academic staff or the support staff that’s what makes us what we are.”

What’s Special About Leicester? • “There’s a line from John Lewis which is ‘never knowingly undersold’ – Leicester’s the opposite way round, it’s completely undersold.”

Four Characteristics…. • • • •

Inclusive and accessible A friendly and personal experience A commitment to high quality A passion for our work and that teaching & research are synergistic And the evidence to back them

Oxford? • • • •

Inclusive and accessible X A friendly and personal experience √ A commitment to high quality √ A passion for our work and that teaching & research are synergistic ?

De Montfort? • • • •

Inclusive and accessible √ A friendly and personal experience ? A commitment to high quality X A passion for our work and that teaching & research are synergistic X

Sheffield? • • • •

Inclusive and accessible X A friendly and personal experience X A commitment to high quality √ A passion for our work and that teaching & research are synergistic ?

Leicester? • • • •

Inclusive and accessible √ A friendly and personal experience √ A commitment to high quality √ A passion for our work and that teaching & research are synergistic √

So… The University of Leicester is: • Elite without being elitist • Improving and innovating • Providing a great student experience • Rigorous in its academic standards • Accessible in its academic culture

Standing for Something in a Crowded World Synergistic research and teaching, rigorous academic standards a vigorous and personal experience, Leicester is part of a new wave of higher education.

Standing for Something in a Crowded World • It’s a re-framing of the values that govern academia and a redefinition of what a university needs to be. • We’re proof that you can compete with the best… • …AND open up the competition to everyone.

Standing for Something in a Crowded World • We believe in progress. • We’re not afraid to set the pace. • We find new ways of doing things. • We are ready for challenges ahead.

• We’re different to the old elite (and their impersonators) • We’re different to the non-elite

Old Elite

Non-Elite

New Elite

Old Elite

Non-Elite

A New Elite This is the space Leicester will dominate. Although other universities can claim to be part of ‘the new elite’, Leicester is the embodiment of what can be achieved when a university is governed by the set of values these institutions share, expressed in part by the slogan ‘elite without being elitist’.

A New Elite Although ‘The New Elite’ would never appear as an advertising line, it will live in all communications as a core belief, an identity that places Leicester amongst its correct peer group whilst simultaneously differentiating the institution from the ‘old elite’ (elitism) and the ‘non elite’ (new universities).

This is our approach. • • • •

Inclusive and accessible A friendly and personal experience A commitment to high quality A passion for our work and that teaching & research are synergistic And the evidence to back them

Moving Forwards • This Is Us… • An integrated campaign that communicates the distinct nature of Leicester, our values and our work, through stories. • It will also make a statement about the attitude, or the position that the University will take.

Communicating externally • National advertising campaign • Posters at Leicester and St Pancras stations • Website www.le.ac.uk/thisisus

• PR and media

• http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=4 • http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/University-praised-unlikely-entrant • http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article6434308.ece

Communicating internally • Book and website to celebrate the stories that demonstrate the four Leicester values. • Hoardings. • Integration into all communications. • Feedback and ideas

What should we communicate and how? • Together devise a way to talk to our students about this. • What do students seek from your services? • Think about tailoring the message to be meaningful to students. • Ideas???

This is our approach. • • • •

Inclusive and accessible A friendly and personal experience A commitment to high quality A passion for our work and that teaching & research are synergistic And the evidence to back them

What should we communicate and how? • Review current communications. • Identify areas of duplication, weakness, strength. • Consider comms mediums – are they optimal?

Rules for Good Communications • Is there an objective to your communication? What are you trying to get the reader to do? • Benefit led, not simply feature focussed.

Benefits vs Features • FEATURE: A top 20 University What’s the BENEFIT? • FEATURE: Over 19,000 students drawn from 150 countries study with us. What’s the BENEFIT?

• Benefit: …this means that as a Leicester PG student you will be attending a University with a strong reputation, benefit from a high quality experience and graduate with a degree highly valued by employers. • Or to a distance learning student the benefit might be: you will have the opportunity to network with fellow students from across the globe.

Rules for Good Communications • Is it something that your audience is interested in listening to/reading about? • Think about the mediums for communication. • Try to avoid writing in the third person.

Rules for Good Communications • Consistency in messaging. • Creating logos does not make for good communications (or compensate for bad!) • Put in place a process for integrating consistent messaging into all communications.