Spend any time on LinkedIn and you'll come across little rants from marketers exhorting non-marketers to follow their path and bemoaning the lack of respect for marketing expertise. Posts typically contain some version of the incorrect comparison: “We don’t tell faculty how to teach” or “We don’t advise CFOs on balancing the books.”
Perhaps you too have had a case you can relate to.
Do you quietly roll your eyes when someone on the other side of campus offers you an unsolicited tip or feedback about your institution's marketing?
Next time (and there will always be another time) when a faculty member or faculty colleague offers their input on marketing, consider receiving the gift of feedback. The following four approaches can help you get in the right mindset. Think of it as an antidote to the frustration of periodic critical feedback.
- Recognize that everyone has an opinion about marketing. It's part of the performance. Watching and critiquing Super Bowl commercials is a national pastime (Bravo, Dunkin', by the way). So what makes us think that our colleagues won't think about their employer's brand representation in the marketplace? Understand that voicing an opinion about marketing practices is not a criticism of the marketing team's professionalism. The sooner you accept this reality, the sooner you can free yourself from the mental exhaustion of being on the defensive.
- Assume positive intent. If your colleagues are willing to share their opinions, it's a sign that they care. Even if the feedback is overly critical, acknowledge your mutual interest in the college rather than getting upset. Engaging them as caring colleagues rather than cozy marketers sets the stage for more positive and productive discussions. Hear a shared purpose that is grounded in the institution's mission and communicate it as a learning experience for both of you. Faculty and staff often span a variety of audience groups, including community members, alumni, donors, and/or parents of prospective students. Try to understand the lens through which they are criticizing. Is there a disconnect between an institution’s brand representation and an individual’s experience? Provide this type of framing for more relevant feedback.
- Join us for enlightenment. Every comment shared is an opportunity to participate. Make the most of it. Your colleagues are not expert marketers, as you and they both recognize, so engage them. Walk them through a structured outline of the process, share some key insights you've learned about your audience through market research, and show them how to evaluate the performance of ads they don't like. Marketing and branding are widely misunderstood across higher education, so these grassroots engagement opportunities are critical. Bringing in colleagues, especially those you once strongly criticized or detracted from, builds trust and support, and in my experience, it can be very rewarding (even if the success rate is not always 100%).
- Make the complex simple. Our job is not to demonstrate marketing prowess. It's about producing results. Focus on the essentials while enlightening colleagues with expertise in other areas. Avoid the tendency to overdo it in your branding composition. Brand purpose, brand strategy, brand platform, brand positioning, brand narrative, brand personality, etc. are brand overload. Your Marcomm team is skilled at communicating complex and differentiated teaching research to a general audience. Apply these same techniques when communicating your work to faculty and staff. You don't need a marketing education to understand important strategies and key results.
In addition to the examples discussed here, receptivity to feedback models the behavior of team and leadership colleagues. High-performing administrations have a healthy culture of feedback. As a marketer, you and your team receive a lot of feedback depending on the nature of your work. How can you leverage these opportunities to contribute to a healthier feedback culture at your institution?