The document emphasizes the need for universities to grow their enrollment by attracting prospects who currently overlook them, highlighting the importance of messaging that truly resonates with potential students. It advocates for understanding the wants and needs of these prospects, conducting thorough research, and positioning the institution as unique and preferable by leveraging emotional intensity. Overall, institutions are urged to conduct audits of their brand and messaging to effectively influence prospective student behaviors.

1. ®
B E Y O N D T H E O R Y
The University/College as Business
(stealing market share for survival)
Tom Dougherty
Founder/CEO of Stealing Share

2. ®
B E Y O N D T H E O R Y
State of the business – Opportunities to change
• You need to grow your business
(paid enrollment) to the
greatest extent possible.
• You need prospects who
currently do not give your
school a second thought, to
reconsider or prefer you.
• You need to create a foundation
of preference that goes beyond
the the things you currently
market.

3. ®
B E Y O N D T H E O R Y
You see these changes everyday
So does the student.
!
So does the competition.
!
!
!

4. ®
B E Y O N D T H E O R Y
But the small tactical messaging changes everyone in the category pretends to
make are usually about as groundbreaking as dotting the “i” or crossing the “t”.
Your message has to be different and better

5. ®
B E Y O N D T H E O R Y
The only way to win is to REALLY
understand what the prospect wants.

6. ®
B E Y O N D T H E O R Y
Everyone strategizes. But they end up
talking to the converted and seem to
justify the status quo.
!
Focus Groups? Your own prospects?
Your current students? On-line studies?
Email surveys?
!
What have you really learned?
There is real danger

7. ®
B E Y O N D T H E O R Y
Start with projectable research. It is very different from the normal
approach upon which everyone seems to rely.
!
How you do it (methodology) is just as important as why you
conduct it.

8. ®
B E Y O N D T H E O R Y
College/University Table Stakes
Happy Students
Active Social Life
Cost Effective
Future Jobs
Great Education
Technology
Remote Classes
Happy Grads
Caring Faculty
Diversity
Local Color
Campus Life
!

9. ®
B E Y O N D T H E O R Y
What
we
believe
What we
need/want
What we
do/use
MarketingBrand

10. ®
B E Y O N D T H E O R Y
Highest Emotional Intensity
What is the ground in which your University
brand competing?
!
To steal market share you must seek the highest
ground, applying ideas that evoke the greatest
emotional intensities.
!
There are two kinds of emotional intensity.
Positive and Negative. Positive emotional
intensities are benefits. Negative emotional
intensities are about what’s lacking.
Highest Emotional Intensity
Lesser Emotional Intensity
Higher
Ground
Negative
Positive

11. ®
B E Y O N D T H E O R Y
Check with your MBA
program. Ask what happens
to any business model with
supply outpaces demand?

12. ®
B E Y O N D T H E O R Y
Supply
Demand

13. ®
B E Y O N D T H E O R Y
If you were a business
• Understand the precepts of the target
• Understand the competition
• Position yourself as different and better
• Grab the highest emotional intensity
• Dispassionately conduct an audit of the category
You would think about your brand

14. ®
B E Y O N D T H E O R Y
Where did the idea of
BRAND originate?

15. ®
B E Y O N D T H E O R Y
This brand is not about you or just the
University or College itself. It is a measure of
student’s (prospect) self-description and
serves to help them define who it is that they
believe they are.
As such, it is PERSUASIVE and creates
preference beyond simple generic category
choices across the university.
The best of these brands represent the
aspirations and highest emotional intensity
of the prospects they wish to influence.
What do you need to do differently?

16. ®
B E Y O N D T H E O R Y
!
In order to maximize influence on University
prospects — and make them your students, we
need to learn three things:
Influencing Prospective Student Behavior
1. What promises (triggers) that might be made by your brand
that would most encourage decision makers to remember,
prefer, and connect to the brand? If any “triggers” do in fact
exist, which do prospects rank as the most powerful?
2. When the prospective student (or parent of that student)
thinks about what is most important in their lives, what is it
that they believe to be most important (student self-
description)?
3. What do they aspire to become? What do they fear they are
at risk of losing?

17. ®
B E Y O N D T H E O R Y
Great Education
?
Purpose
Process
Large Public
Small Private
Large Public
?
Small Private

18. ®
B E Y O N D T H E O R Y
About The Student
Purpose
Process
Large Public
Small Private
AboutTheSchool

19. ®
B E Y O N D T H E O R Y
!
!
Colleges and Universities should not
change anything they say or do unless
that message is intended to change
behavior and be more persuasive.
!

20. ®
B E Y O N D T H E O R Y
As a business
• Understand the precepts of the target
• Understand the competition
• Position yourself as different and better
• Grab the highest emotional intensity
• Dispassionately conduct an audit of the category
Fix your brand

21. ®
B E Y O N D T H E O R Y
www.stealingshare.com
!
Stealing Share, Inc
Suite 816, 301 S Elm Street, Greensboro, NC 27401 • 336.389.9315
733 3rd Avenue, 15th Floor • New York, NY 10017 • 866-725-1080