In integration, the plan's the thing: working on an integrated marketing plan? Here's how you can increase its effectiveness. (Marketing).

Each year, I suspect that hundreds of colleges and universities write an integrated marketing plan. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of those schools will likely look back a year from now and say, "Yes, that was a good use of our time and talent." In this way, integrated marketing plans are no different than the many other plans written by colleges and universities: Most of these plans are long on intent and short on execution.

But there are a handful of keys that will increase your ability to execute your integrated marketing plan with verve and aplomb.

12 KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL INTEGRATED MARKETING EXECUTION Surprisingly, a number of the keys outlined here touch on issues that must be addressed before the planning process is begun. Others focus on the plan itself.

1--Recognize that planning is an organized attitude. If your administrative team does not have an appreciation for marketing and how it can benefit your institution, the writing of an integrated marketing plan won't magically create one. Successful plans almost always begin with a positive attitude about marketing. A word to the wise: Don't spend one minute writing a plan until this appreciation has been created.

2--Match your definition of marketing with your campus climate. Sometimes it appears that there are as many definitions of marketing as there are colleges. Some campuses define marketing as "promotion." Others define it as "coordinated communication." Some try to work in the idea of "branding." And finally, there is the most comprehensive definition of all integrated marketing.

As you might suspect, I believe that the careful orchestration of the four Ps (product, price, place, and promotion) or the four Cs (customer, cost, convenience, and communication) is a powerful tool for institutional advancement. But I am also aware that integrated marketing will not work on campuses that resist change or are unwilling to use marketing data to guide decisions.

To make your plan executable, then, find a definition of marketing that meets the real and psychological needs of key leaders. This is the definition that you should use as part of the planning process. Over time, you can move to a more comprehensive definition of marketing. If you can show administrators and faculty the benefits of integrated marketing communication today, the likelihood will increase that you will be given the opportunity to touch issues related to price, place, or even product, tomorrow.

3--Increase the effectiveness of your integrated marketing efforts by tying them to a burning platform--an issue or event that has captured the attention of the campus. Fortunately, there are many such issues in today's marketplace. On many campuses, enrollment is tight and tuition revenue is tighter; endowments are under-performing; fundraising has never been more difficult. And to complicate issues for state institutions, Legislatures are cutting education budgets. The result is a plethora of burning platforms--problems just waiting to be solved.

A prudent marketer must carefully align the plan and its goals with one or two solvable issues. Addressing these issues then becomes the central thrust of the plan. In doing so, the supporters of the marketing plan will win support for other opportunities down the road. At the same time, marketers must understand that if the marketing plan opts to focus on those burning issues, it must not be distracted by issues that are less critical.

4--Make sure that all of the institution's marketing efforts--and resources--are coordinated under one plan. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to get buy-in for an integrated marketing plan from administrators who are overly protective of their turf or refuse to share goals or resources. In addition, there is nothing more embarrassing than discovering that one goal or issue is being addressed by two different plans, A well-conceived plan that is endorsed by the president and the senior administrative team will have greatly increased odds of seamless execution.

5--Make sure your plan is supported by a realistic budget. It is both foolish and disheartening to write a plan first and took for funding later. If you are spending the resources to write the plan, then commit the resources to support the plan. And if you're a truly savvy marketer, you'll make sure your planners have a sense of how much money they will have to spend before they begin writing the plan. As a corollary, if the plan calls for dollars to be spent in a specific way, make sure people have the authority to spend those dollars.

6--Focus on the needs of your most important audience, your customer, as you write your plan. Good planners know their customers' demographic and psychographic profiles, their needs and expectations, and their motivations and fears. Perhaps most importantly, they never forget that it is the customers who pay the bills, and that unless customers notice and value the product at the price it is offered, the organization will be imperiled.

Yet, even as you focus on your customer, you cannot ignore your stakeholders--the faculty and staff that quite literally are the academy. However, while savvy marketers understand that stakeholder voices should never be overlooked, they also realize that other voices--especially those of the customer--must be considered.

7--Develop a market-centric organization. An organization that centralizes all of its marketing and communication functions (and I would include student recruiting, student services, and fundraising as marketing functions) under one vice president heightens the coordinated and efficient use of these activities. Clearly, such a structure is a dramatic departure from the way most current colleges and universities are organized. However, a centralized structure:

* Raises the integrated marketing function so that it has parity with the academic and finance vice presidents.

* Arranges all the integrated functions under one vice president so that there is greater coordination and effective use of resources.

* Supports the collection and integration of marketing research.

* Centralizes the database function.

* Places the recruiting (pre-customer), retention (student customer), and alumni (graduate customer) under one vice president, and thereby creates the opportunity for a seamless and long-term relationship.

The market-oriented structure has one other important characteristic--the creation of soft, cross-functional alliances that allow regular, policy-making input not only at the board and cabinet levels, but at the program level as well.

8--Don't just collect data; be willing to shore it widely and use it to inform decisions. Real plans need real data. Without it, planning and evaluation become a series of guesses driven by intuition and perhaps corrupted by personal agendas. So, share your information!

9--Go ,for the well-conceived goal. "I want to be nationally known" are six words that seem to drive marketing efforts everywhere. Of course, being nationally known can be a worthy goal for a select few institutions, but for most campuses, it is more ego than strategy.

Good planners--those individuals who anticipate actually executing their plans--are generally much more prudent about the goals they set. A well-conceived goal is a blend of research data, administrative savvy, marketplace possibilities, and budget realities. And whenever possible, these goals are stated empirically so they can be measured.

10--Be willing to treat some customers differently from other customers based on their ability to return value (dollars, ability, or some quality or characteristic that the institution desires) to the institution. Integrated marketing is a resource allocation tool, and planners must understand that successful marketing efforts are not democratic; they don't seek to treat all customers equally. For the politically correct, remember that this is not an issue of being "fair." It is, however, an issue of prudence and stewardship.

11--Establish clear criteria for evaluating how well you are executing your plan. Ideally, these criteria are established e priori rather than ex post facto. Perhaps the greatest difference between business and education is the historic reluctance of colleges and universities to systematically evaluate whether or not programs, strategies, activities, and plans are working, are still current, and are still contributing value. There is a feeling, and it is a strong one, that business-based measures of success and progress have nothing to offer higher education. For market-oriented institutions, this is no Longer true.

12--Celebrate the wins. A five-year rollout of an integrated marketing plan can seem interminable. To keep interest alive, share successes--both Large and small--as they occur. When you do achieve a goal or hit an important milepost, make sure you communicate it widely. Your intention is to build as much momentum as possible. In addition, announced successes will make it a Little easier when one goal or another proves insurmountable.

KEY PARTING THOUGHTS

Don't just plan--do! Remember: The best time to think about how your plan will be executed is before the plan is completed.

Bob Sevier is a senior VP of Stamats Communications (www.stamats.com). He pens a free e-newsletter, QuickTakes, focusing on strategic planning and brand marketing. A complete glossary of marketing and strategic planning terms is also available. For more information, e-mail [e-mail].