Changing image worth more than words can say

Monday, Feb. 20, 2006 | 12:33 p.m.

"It's you ... only better."

Four words and three dots - a pretty small package for a message to determine the future of the third-largest community college in the nation. But in the world of marketing, big things often come in little boxes.

Consider:

"Because I'm worth it." L'Oreal beauty products are special. They aren't for ordinary people, only for special people. If you buy L'Oreal, you must be special.

"The Real Thing." The true, original Coca-Cola. Everything else is just mimicking greatness. Who wants to drink second best? Certainly not you.

"Just do it." Yes you can, if you will only try, and all the fit people are trying. Buy Nike and be fit, too.

"It's you ... only better" is the new slogan of the Community College of Southern Nevada. It, too, is a short phrase. But like those famous advertising slogans, it has a large purpose, and an intricate back story.

Sept. 1, 2004. CCSN marketing director Dave Morgan was still tinkering with his e-mail and getting settled in his new office at the CCSN West Charleston campus, when his boss, college President Richard Carpenter, poked his head inside.

The two men, both newly hired, had discussed the college's image or lack thereof. CCSN had no unified message, 16 different logos, and a disturbingly low profile. Most people in the community seemed to know CCSN existed, but they knew little else, the men thought.

On that first morning, Carpenter gave Morgan a yellow lined post-it to do list. Morgan's marching orders were to develop a brand for the college over the next year and a half.

The idea was fresh and exciting, but in the world of American colleges and universities, hardly original. Corporate branding the use of slogans and images to push a consistent, positive image is "sweeping like a virus across higher education," said James Twitchell author of "Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch, College Inc., and Museumworld."

As the higher education market has grown, particularly with the influx of new private, for-profit institutions like the University of Phoenix, public colleges and universities have had to find new ways to distinguish their degree programs from the competition, said Twitchell, who teaches advertising and English at the University of Florida, Gainesville.

"All branding means is that you are telling a story," Twitchell said. "You can't tell the difference between Las Vegas tap water and Evian, but Evian has a story and Las Vegas tap water doesn't."

The stakes are high because, in a sense, students are customers and universities are businesses. Bulging enrollments mean high revenues. Community awareness means more donors. So institutions of higher learning are caught up in a marketing arms race. Either advertise like Nike, or lose to Adidas.

Speaking of which, any doubts about the seriousness of this marketing craze could be erased with a single example. The University of Oregon new school logo, unveiled in 1999, was designed by Nike.

The stylized "O" then became an icon anchoring a new marketing campaign that featured television commercials strangely similar to those produced by Nike - the home of many legendary advertising campaigns, not to mention company founder Phil Knight, a former University of Oregon track star.

"We want them to see that 'O' and say University of Oregon, what a great place doing great things," said Matt Dyste, whose title at the university says it all - director of brand management.

At CCSN, the first goal was to create a consistent look and feel to the college's publications, from logo to slogan to Web site. Just as Nike is known for it's iconic swoosh and "Just Do It," CCSN officials hoped for a nifty logo and a slogan that subtly conveyed several messages.

But what was that slogan?

The answer to the question began with research.

Working with WG Communications Group, a local marketing firm the college hired in January 2005, Morgan conducted community and faculty surveys.

When people thought of CCSN, what came to mind? The consensus: "Cheap and close." Nice for a gas station maybe ... but not for a college.

Yet that answer did provide a starting point. People already knew that CCSN wasn't pricey, and that was just next door. No need to sell those features.

But how then to promote CCSN's more than 200 degree offerings and other benefits? What is it you will get if you pay those low fees and make those short drives?

Here's where the going got rough - Nevada rough.

Elsewhere in the United States, many universities, particularly those offering four-year degrees, begin with the assumption they are marketing largely to high school students who want a college education. With an audience of eager shoppers, the trick is to make your university stand out - class sizes, prestige, quality of faculty, beauty of campus, athletic team prowess.

The challenge in Southern Nevada is that CCSN officials not only have to sell their own institution, they have to sell the value of education itself, Morgan and other marketing officials said. The Las Vegas Valley's comparatively low cost of living and generally favorable wages in the service industry entice many high school graduates. They go directly into the workforce and don't even consider college.

So a college marketing campaign in Nevada must incorporate the message that higher education can improve your life. Along those lines, Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Jim Rogers has been filming public service announcements to promote the system and all eight of the state's institutions.

Rogers has been running the ads on his Sunbelt Communications stations in Las Vegas, Reno and Elko. The announcements use the same repetitive line, "We thought you ought to know," to introduce a quick fact about higher education in Nevada, and they end by asking viewers to "get to know" the system.

The CCSN slogan ultimately seeks to incorporate two ideas: education can help you, and you can get that education at CCSN - that college you already know is inexpensive and nearby.

That's where "It's you ... only better" came from. The "it" reads two ways. It - education - can help you in life. It - CCSN - is the place to go.

To Morgan and others involved, the slogan also has the virtue of appealing to potential students who aren't interested in getting a full two-year associate's degree but might instead just want to take a cooking class. In Morgan's words, anytime someone "thinks school, CCSN is at the top of their minds, no matter what kind of education they want."

Although CCSN has no competition from other two-year public colleges, it does face competition from private institutions who offer job training programs. Those private schools "spend more in a month than we have in a year" for marketing, said Terri Weisbord of WG Communications Group.

Morgan's budget is about $850,000 a year, with $650,000 spent directly on advertising - more than twice as much as UNLV spends on marketing.

Other elements of the campaign include CCSN's new logo a blue and yellow pinwheel with each segment in the geographical shape of the state of Nevada. The logo is actually an updated version of one used in the early 1990s. But now, the college has a style guide detailing exactly how that logo can be used to maintain consistency across all departments.

Before, individual departments would think nothing of changing the font or color of the logo, Morgan said. Now he has a style guide mandating how all letterhead, business cards and brochures are supposed to look.

The college will also be launching a new Web site at the end of the month to help promote a consistent look for the college and to help visitors to the site find information easier. The current Web site is notoriously bad, its home page a hodgepodge of links, with no cohesiveness whatsoever, Morgan said.

Morgan has also helped Carpenter develop new brochures that lay out his strategic plan for the college as a way to reinforce his speeches in the community, and he has been working with UNLV and the Clark County School District to revitalize programming on the education channels the institutions share on Cox Cable 70 and 71.

At other campuses in the region, Nevada State College in Henderson is in the early stages of developing a brand identity. UNLV officials say their institution established its mark about 10 years ago.

At Nevada State College, the first task is to get people to think of the college's digs in a vitamin warehouse as a legitimate college campus, college public relations director Spencer Stewart said.

Toward that end, the college plans to hire a public relations firm this spring. But it has already launched a new commercial, in November, that piggy-backs on e-Harmony online dating advertisements.

The college ad, which ran 150 times between November and January including 10 spots on Saturday Night Live, spoofed the eHarmony commercials by juxtaposing psychology professor Erika Beck with biology professor Andy Kuniyuki. The ad at first makes it look like the two are dating, but then college President Fred Maryanski, almost a dead ringer for e-Harmony founder Neil Clark Warren, says the love they have found is a shared love for teaching at Nevada State College. "You get much better bang for your buck by piggy-backing off an already widely recognizable campaign," Stewart said. Online dating also widely appeals to Nevada State's large demographic.

Stewart already has plans for a second version this time juxtaposing a student with a life-size scorpion, the college's mascot.

CCSN and Nevada State's efforts are all fine and good, said Twitchell, the University of Florida author. But he offered a warning.

Do not choose marketing over substance.

The University of Florida is currently spending $1 million on a rebranding campaign that college trustees believe will help the institution move up a few notches in the popular U.S. News and World Report ratings.

"Trustees are desperate to say hurry up and let's change our reputation," Twitchell said. "... They think this works selling widgets, it might work in selling higher ed."

Christina Littlefield can be reached at 259-8813 or at clittle@lasvegassun.com.