2008 Woodie Awards
Branding takes away homely feeling
Which is more important: fresh-cut grass or actually being able to hear your professor lecture?
Rachael Burbank
Issue date: 5/9/08 Section: Opinion
Pacific embodies a certain kind of education that cannot be marketed globally. Although the school is so well known for optometry, exercise science and physical therapy, the core liberal arts education is almost forgotten. While most alumni can tell any public relations firm that Pacific holds their fondest memories, those memories will not be consistent. I would only assume that the image that is branded into all their brains is not congruent.
Selling a core value or a four year education is more difficult than a cola beverage. What colleges and universities sell is their football program, their convenient location to the top firms and available internships for them, their intimate class sizes and their reputation. What if a school doesn't have a reputation? What if its best kept secret is that it is a secret and not everyone can have it?
Trying to combine all the undergraduate majors from social work, mathematics, poetry, history and biology with the four campuses in Oregon and then also with the professional studies programs will not come out as easy as a swoosh.
Doing this campaign may hurt Pacific's sacred reputation more than help it. If an employer hasn't heard of where I got my undergraduate degree from, it's that opportunity to share a secret. If the university was so well known then the enrollment may skyrocket and then more buildings and more construction to make the university so large it loses its intimacy. The president of Pacific may not respond to an E-mail from a student within 15 minutes if Pacific becomes a national product. A concrete product can be branded, a college cannot.
Branding Pacific will result in destroying its rich heritage and core values because it will become a household marketable product just like Coca-Cola and Tommy Thayer will be our campaign spokesman.
Selling a core value or a four year education is more difficult than a cola beverage. What colleges and universities sell is their football program, their convenient location to the top firms and available internships for them, their intimate class sizes and their reputation. What if a school doesn't have a reputation? What if its best kept secret is that it is a secret and not everyone can have it?
Trying to combine all the undergraduate majors from social work, mathematics, poetry, history and biology with the four campuses in Oregon and then also with the professional studies programs will not come out as easy as a swoosh.
Doing this campaign may hurt Pacific's sacred reputation more than help it. If an employer hasn't heard of where I got my undergraduate degree from, it's that opportunity to share a secret. If the university was so well known then the enrollment may skyrocket and then more buildings and more construction to make the university so large it loses its intimacy. The president of Pacific may not respond to an E-mail from a student within 15 minutes if Pacific becomes a national product. A concrete product can be branded, a college cannot.
Branding Pacific will result in destroying its rich heritage and core values because it will become a household marketable product just like Coca-Cola and Tommy Thayer will be our campaign spokesman.
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