A presentation that a couple of the CM staff gave at an Association of Business Schools conference in 2010.

1. THE ROLE OF PUBLIC
RELATIONS FOR BUSINESS
SCHOOLS
Justin Shaw & Fiona Leslie
December 2010

2. AGENDA
Agenda
1 What is PR?
2 How business school reputations are formed
3 How you can contribute

3. MARKETING VS PUBLIC RELATIONS
MARKETING PUBLIC RELATIONS
PUBLIC
RELATIONS

5. DEFINITION
• 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

6. WHAT IS REPUTATION?
“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

7. 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

8. BUILDING POSITIVE REPUTATIONS
• Recognise
• Trust
• Respect
• Admire

9. REPUTATION DAMAGE
Average recovery time = 3.65 years!

10. REPUTATION UPLIFT

11. REPUTATION „ESSENCE‟
Define, project and protect your values consistently

12. REPUTATION POLARITIES
Slumbering Awakening Alert
Organisation has no Inconsistent vision Organisation has clear,
articulated vision for defined, shared vision for
reputation Some leadership reputation
involvement
Leadership not engaged Leadership commitment
Adhoc behaviours/
Behaviours and processes processes Behaviours/processes
are not agreed or upheld consistent with vision
to shared model Some resourcing
Appropriate resourcing
No resources Some dialogue with committed Managed
Unmanaged stakeholders
reputation reputation
No dialogue takes place Dialogue takes place with
with stakeholders Planned stakeholders
communications
Communications are not to some Messages are targetted
managed stakeholders
Consistent, planned
No evaluation Limited evaluation communications take place
Full evaluation takes place

13. FACTORS THAT DRIVE BUSINESS SCHOOL
REPUTATIONS
• People – leaders + star faculty
• Customers – alumni + clients
• Delivery (new thinking/novel programmes)
• Peer ratings and rankings
• Environment – location and facilities
• International capability

14. REPUTATION MONITORING
• Rankings (FT/The Economist/WSJ/Business Week)
• Media coverage stats
• Web hits
• Active alumni
• FT listed clients
• Customer testimonials
• Research listings

15. CASE STUDY: ESCP EUROPE BUSINESS SCHOOL

16. THE ESCP EUROPE CHALLENGE
• 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

17. THE ESCP EUROPE ADVANTAGE
• 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

18. ESCP EUROPE TACTICS
• 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)

19. ESCP EUROPE – RESULTS
• 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

20. ESCP EUROPE COVERAGE

21. EXAMPLES OF PR SUCCESS

22. EXAMPLES OF PR SUCCESS

23. EXAMPLES OF PR SUCCESS – IMAGES!

24. EXAMPLES OF PR SUCCESS – IMAGES!

25. EXAMPLES OF PR SUCCESS – EVENTS!
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

26. SOCIAL MEDIA – THE WAY AHEAD
• Vodcasts • RSS Feeds
• Podcasts • Blogs
• Facebook • Webinars
• Twitter

27. SOCIAL MEDIA – THE WAY AHEAD

28. YOUR CONTRIBUTION
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

29. CONTACTS
JUSTIN SHAW
justin@communicationsmanagement.co.uk
01727 737993
FIONA LESLIE
fiona@communicationsmanagement.co.uk
01727 733884