The Role of PR for Business Schools

THE ROLE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS FOR BUSINESS

SCHOOLS

Justin Shaw & Fiona Leslie

December 2010

AGENDA

Agenda

1 What is PR?

2 How business school reputations are formed

3 How you can contribute

MARKETING VS PUBLIC RELATIONS

MARKETING

PUBLIC RELATIONS

PUBLIC RELATIONS

• What you say + what you do = how you are perceived

• PR is about managing favourable perceptions among those you need to reach and influence in order to be successful

• PR is increasingly termed ‘Reputation Management

DEFINITION

“Reputation makes us feel comfortable with people and things, it attracts, reassures and inspires us to put our faith and often our hard earned cash into supporting a person, product, business or cause.”

Winning Reputations

by Chris Genasi

WHAT IS REPUTATION?

“...emotion is the primary driver of reputation. It’s a feeling of excitement and engagement that makes customers drive out of their way to buy your product and to recommend your company and its brands to other people.”

The 18 Immutable Laws of Corporate Reputation by Ronald Alsop

WHAT IS REPUTATION?

BUILDING POSITIVE REPUTATIONS

• Recognise

• Trust

• Respect

• Admire

REPUTATION DAMAGE

Average recovery time = 3.65 years!

REPUTATION UPLIFT

REPUTATION ‘ESSENCE’

Define, project and protect your values consistently

REPUTATION POLARITIES

Organisation has clear,defined, shared vision forreputation

Leadership commitment

Behaviours/processesconsistent with vision

Appropriate resourcingcommitted

Dialogue takes place withstakeholders

Messages are targetted

Consistent, plannedcommunications take place

Full evaluation takes place

Alert

Organisation has noarticulated vision forreputation

Leadership not engaged

Behaviours and processesare not agreed or upheldto shared model

No resources

No dialogue takes placewith stakeholders

Communications are notmanaged

No evaluation

Slumbering

Inconsistent vision

Some leadershipinvolvement

Adhoc behaviours/processes

Some resourcing

Some dialogue withstakeholders

Plannedcommunicationsto somestakeholders

Limited evaluation

Awakening

Managedreputation

Unmanagedreputation

• People – leaders + star faculty

• Customers – alumni + clients

• Delivery (new thinking/novel programmes)

• Peer ratings and rankings

• Environment – location and facilities

• International capability

FACTORS THAT DRIVE BUSINESS SCHOOL REPUTATIONS

• Rankings (FT/The Economist/WSJ/Business Week)

• Media coverage stats

• Web hits

• Active alumni

• FT listed clients

• Customer testimonials

• Research listings

REPUTATION MONITORING

CASE STUDY: ESCP EUROPE BUSINESS SCHOOL

• Poor brand awareness in the UK

• A dreadful name! ESCP-EAP European School of Management (changed in May 2009 to ESCP Europe)

• Challenging relationship with parent HQ campus in Paris

• No previous contact or relationship with the UK media, other than advertising programmes

THE ESCP EUROPE CHALLENGE

• Its European USP – part of a network of five campuses (London, Paris, Turin, Madrid and Berlin)

• EMBA programme where students study at all five of these campuses PLUS two or three other countries

• Enthusiastic Dean and faculty members with expertise, buying into media agenda with an understanding of quick response times

• Student and alumni ambassadors willing to participate in media relations activities

THE ESCP EUROPE ADVANTAGE

• Profiling the Dean and the school

• Research and academic expertise

• Promotion of programmes (EMBA and suite of masters programmes)

• Case studies of students and alumni

• Creative thinking (Philip Delves Broughton debate, vodcasts, social media site)

ESCP EUROPE TACTICS

• 112 pieces of media coverage achieved over last 12 months

• Coverage in every national broadsheet

• Coverage in every MBA supplement (a key objective to target prospective students)

• Visits by four business education journalists

• Series of 10 vodcasts recorded

• Professional Mobility report – 31 pieces of coverage

ESCP EUROPE – RESULTS

ESCP EUROPE COVERAGE

EXAMPLES OF PR SUCCESS

EXAMPLES OF PR SUCCESS

EXAMPLES OF PR SUCCESS – IMAGES!

EXAMPLES OF PR SUCCESS – IMAGES!

Henley Regatta Journalists’ Day

•Six months of planning

•Themed day for journalists

•A captive audience – literally!

•Delivers 40+ journalists to campus

•Unique relationship-building exercise

EXAMPLES OF PR SUCCESS – EVENTS!

SOCIAL MEDIA – THE WAY AHEAD

• Vodcasts

• Podcasts

• Facebook

• Twitter

• RSS Feeds

• Blogs

• Webinars

SOCIAL MEDIA – THE WAY AHEAD

Behaviours and standard settings

Building and managing external contacts

Capturing evidence of success:

•Programme participants

•Alumni

•Corporate/public sector clients

•Research sponsors

Think creatively

Encouraging a ‘pr minded’ culture

Henley Regatta Journalists’ Day

YOUR CONTRIBUTION

CONTACTS

JUSTIN [email protected] 737993

FIONA [email protected] 733884