Proposes a model for measurement of public relations in the context of colleges, universities, and higher education in general. Presented at the 2013 MaKi Conference 2013 for business school marketing and communication, Madrid, Spain

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1
Cohl
Strategy that Matters:
Measurement and Evaluation
beyond the Clip Report
MaKi Business School Conference
Madrid
7 June 2013

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2
Kiki Keating, JD
Tuck School of Business at
Dartmouth University
Lynda Oliver, MBA
Southern Methodist University
Cox School of Business
David Geddes, MBA PhD
The Cohl Group
It’s a challenging world …
… even for top ranked international business schools
• Globalization
• Do more with less, both people and budgets
• Technology is speeding things up
• Demonstrating ROI of MBA and business degrees
• Justifying marketing and communications budgets
• Identifying gaps in strategy and execution

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Institutions with
a strong strategic
vision will be rise
to the top.
Success vs. failure?
• Research-based, deep understanding of your institutional
essence … of your strengths, weakness, and aspirations …
and of what makes your stakeholders tick
• A vision, mission, and values suitable for your institution.
• Well conceived goals
• A strategic plan aligned with your goals and your
aspirations
• Excellent strategy execution
• Measurable objectives supporting strategy
• A program of research, measurement, and evaluation built
in to your organization.

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Use research
techniques to measure
and evaluate …
in order to improve
business processes
Does your
measurement
measure up?

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• Why are we measuring?
• Are we only measuring what is easy to
count?
• Offensive or defensive measurement?
• Are we measuring what needs to be
measured?
• Does our measurement track strategic
objectives and outcomes?
• Does our measurement help us improve?
A measurement
and evaluation
strategy

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Step I: Define goals and objectives
• Define university/school goals
• Link marketing and communications
objectives to university goals
• Set measurable objectives
– Who?
– What?
– By how much?
– When?
• Build research, measurement, and evaluation
into your work
Step II: Multi-level measurement

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Step II: Measurement grid
Step III: Set targets
Exceptional
Baseline = Where we are now
Very good
Acceptable
Failure

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Step IV: Measure
Step V: Evaluate and prescribe

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Step VI: Present results and insights
Summary
• Research for deep understanding
• Articulate strategy for marketing, branding, or
communications
• Set measurable objectives
• Select multi-level metrics
• Evaluate for insights
• Apply insights to improve

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CASE STUDY:
SMU COX SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
SMU COX: Is our marketing working?
• Situation:
– New admissions team > more scrutiny
– New MBA info session program formats
– New media strategy: traditional > online
– Declining apps in some MBA programs
– Marketing budget cuts imminent
• Our challenge: How do we measure what
matters?

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How Do We Measure Success?
• Admissions = applications
• Marketing = ?
Measuring What Matters
Output measures
• Clip reports
• Website traffic
• Social media activity
Outcome measures
• Leads
Business value measures
• Cost per lead
• Correlation of marketing spend and leads

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Media Clips
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
+10%
*Note:
2010
was
an
anomaly
due
to
an
unprecedented
number
of
media
quotes
regarding
Gulf
Coast
spill
Website traffic
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
70000
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
2010
2011
2012
2013
cox.smu.edu
traffic:
+
7%
(vs.
peer
group
who
saw
-­‐4%
–
+3.87%)
coxgrad.com
traffic:
+93%;
all
driven
by
markeZng

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Social Media Activity
Leads & Cost Per Lead
• Marketing efficacy demonstrated by “leads” – one
who’s exposed to our message and, within 30 days:
– Requests Information
– Signs up for information sessions
– Starts online application
– Downloads a brochure (good, but not counted as a lead)
1,288
unique
visitors
were
exposed
to
our
messages
and
said,
“I’m
interested!!!”

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Why use a “Cost Per Lead?”
• A benchmark metric that we use to measure results
in comparison to past trends
• A means by which to evaluate media options and
compare performance
• A way to quantify our expectations of a media plan’s
impact
• A demonstrated outcome as a direct result of our
efforts.
So What’s The Right Price?
• How much would you pay for a qualified lead?
– $1000?
– $500?
– $250?
• Let’s measure, compare and evaluate so we can establish
relevant industry benchmarks.

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And in the end….
• Marketing was not the problem
– Clips were up 10%
– We doubled website traffic with our efforts alone
– Social media activity was up +25% – 100%
– We doubled online spending but tripled the number
of leads
– We reduced the cost per lead by 40%
• In fact, marketing could be the solution!
Cohl

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We’re listeners,
leaders, skeptics, and
true believers—and
we’re driven by a love
of learning and a
shared dedication to
excellence.
We’re devoted to
advancing educational
institutions—and the
causes they serve.

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Together, we leverage
decades of proven,
interdisciplinary experience
to build comprehensive
solutions to the
challenges our clients face.
What
we do

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SERVICES
• Research
qualitative and quantitative research and analysis,
including: online, telephone, and in-person
interviews; focus and discussion groups; media and
social media analytics; data mining
• Strategy
organizational and communications strategy;
positioning, brand architecture, and naming;
segmentation, targeted messages, and values
implementation
SERVICES
• Creative
Creative strategy, copywriting, voice, design
strategy, advertising, and photography for branding,
marketing, advertising, recruitment, and fundraising
• Interactive
interactive strategy, research, and analysis; user
experience, segmentation, content development,
social media strategy, design, and implementation

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SERVICES
• Development
Development and alumni relations strategy; capital
campaign and annual fund strategy, messaging, and
naming; case statement development, design, and
production; direct and electronic mail and collateral
development
• Admissions
Admissions strategy; prospect identification;
marketing and communications materials, viewbooks,
interactive, print, and multimedia campaigns
We’ve
helped quite
a few clients
advance
their causes

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A GROUP DEVOTED TO HIGHER ED
• Brown University
• College Board
• Columbia Business School
• Cooper Union
• Cornell Johnson School of Management
• Cornell University
• Dartmouth College
• Fontbonne College
• Georgia Tech
• Harvard University
• Indian School of Business
• Johns Hopkins Carey Business School
• Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth
• Johns Hopkins University
• KAUST
• London Business School
• Missouri University of Science and
Technology
• Moscow School of Management/
Skolkovo
• New York Institute of Technology
• Sarah Lawrence College
• Siberian Federal University
• SMU
• The Florida State University
• The SAT
• Thunderbird
• Washington University in St. Louis
• Washington University Medical School
So….

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Are you driving
without a road
map?
Or … speeding
forward
through strategy,
segmentation,
research and
evaluation?

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That’s what we
do.
For more information contact:
Peter Cohl
peter@cohlgroup.org
+1-917-833-6220
Kiki Keating
kim.keating@cohlgroup.org
+1-603-858-2733
David Geddes, MBA, PhD
david.geddes@cohlgroup.org
+1-314-960-4780
Lynda Oliver
lynda.oliver@cohlgroup.org
+1-214-768-3678