A consultant this week delivered a set of key findings and recommendations after conducting a months-long communications and constituent engagement assessment for the university.
In announcing The Segal Group to campus leaders last September, President Wendy Wintersteen said, "To strengthen and sustain the relationships we have, and to forge new ones, requires us to tell our story in the most compelling, convincing and consistent way possible. To do this, we must present ourselves as 'one university.' Communications and relationship-building are a critically important part of what all of us do each and every day. I believe there are better ways for us to work together as 'one university' to strengthen our efforts. We are going to take this opportunity to explore how we may achieve that goal for the benefit of us all."
Segal's Key Findings and Recommendations report provides a summary of the assessment, including university strengths of tremendous brand loyalty among faculty, staff, alumni and donors; deep relationships with alumni and donors; and sophisticated communication and marketing expertise in some areas of the university.
The findings revealed five key themes:
- Distributed approach. The university's organizational structure and decentralized staffing approach are limiting the effectiveness of communication and constituent engagement efforts.
- Alumni and donor engagement. The ISU Alumni Association and ISU Foundation are not aligned in their efforts to support university goals.
- Brand awareness. The university is missing opportunities to showcase its achievements and attributes that make it distinctive.
- Brand consistency. The university's goal of achieving a cohesive, unified identity is undermined by the use of inconsistent brand elements.
- Message fatigue. A lack of strategy for relevant, targeted constituent communications results in message fatigue and difficulty capturing stakeholders' attention.
Based on the assessment findings, Segal offered five recommendations:
- Optimize the organizational structure. Adopt an organizational and staffing model that supports brand integrity and enhances the university's ability to connect with current and potential stakeholders.
- Combine the alumni association and the foundation. Create a unified organization to streamline operations, leverage resources and strengthen engagement with alumni and donors.
- Increase awareness of the university's assets. Develop a bold, cohesive institutional narrative as part of the university's master brand strategy.
- Harmonize brand elements. Unify branding efforts across the university to strengthen brand identity.
- Implement a more cohesive communication strategy. Increase message coordination, clarity, personalization and impact.
What's next
For the first recommendation, the university will organize a working group to explore approaches to increase collaboration, consistency and accountability across campus units.
For the second recommendation, Wintersteen is naming a review committee made up of representatives chosen by the university, the alumni association and the foundation to consider the combination of both organizations. Her charge to the review committee will be to deliver a decision by April 30 or sooner on whether to move forward with the recommendation.
For the other three recommendations, the Strategic Relations and Communications staff will lead ongoing efforts to strengthen and unify university branding, marketing and messaging across campus.
The process
Last summer, at Wintersteen's request, a request for proposals was developed to hire a consultant that would evaluate current approaches and organizational structures across the university, the Iowa State University Alumni Association and the Iowa State University Foundation. The consultant would be tasked to recommend how the university could become more strategic and unified in communicating and engaging with its many audiences.
The request for proposals was issued July 30. In September, The Segal Group was hired. Segal has extensive experience working with universities and colleges on similar projects.
Between October and December, Segal representatives conducted interviews and focus groups with nearly 270 people, including faculty, staff, administrators, students, alumni association and foundation staff, and current or former board members of both organizations. The consultant reviewed more than 500 documents and data provided by the university and conducted a peer benchmarking study with 10 of Iowa State's academic and Big 12 peers -- Colorado State, Kansas State, Michigan State, North Carolina State, Oregon State, Purdue, Missouri, Nebraska, Cincinnati and Baylor.
