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How the University of Chester used a sofa and a hashtag to share the real story of their brand
Journal of Education Advancement & Marketing,
2
(1),
72-82
(2017)
Abstract
This case study examines how the University of Chester set about differentiating its offering by creating opportunities for its staff and students to become valuable brand advocates. By creating a common space for stakeholders to share their own unique experiences, the University of Chester found a way to communicate key insights into their brand through emotive and honest storytelling. The case study considers the difficulty in differentiation in UK higher education and the pull towards institutional data and metrics that the marketisation of the sector has created. In trying to find ways to differentiate while sharing core elements of the university’s story, the University of Chester not only created valuable and successful content, but started to learn some important lessons about itself and its stakeholders. The case study concludes with an assessment of the insights that the university was able to gather and reflects on the longevity of standard marketing theory in an age of digital natives and social media.
Keywords: branding; advocacy; differentiation; social media; storytelling; marketisation; content
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Richard Bengree is Director of Marketing, Recruitment and Admissions at the University of Chester. Richard has worked in higher education marketing and student recruitment for 15 years, holding a number of positions at the University of Chester. After studying English at Lancaster University, Richard embarked on a career in media publishing. Working with a number of universities in this role led to an interest in higher education marketing. A master’s degree in Marketing at Liverpool John Moores University sparked academic and professional interests in services marketing, relationship marketing, brand communications, content and digital marketing. As Deputy Director and then Director, Richard has led the department through significant periods of change and has developed an award-winning and multi-faceted team that includes admissions, outreach, research, content, web, design, digital marketing, events and recruitment elements. Richard has written on higher education marketing for a number of publications and websites, and has acted as an industry expert for a number of other media channels. As a judge on the panel of the annual HEIST Awards, Richard collaborates with other leading marketing professionals to recognise and reward the best of UK higher education marketing.
Adam Bodger is Marketing Manager at the University of Chester. Adam is a senior marketing professional at the University of Chester who graduated with a degree in Marketing from the University of Wales in 2002 and has now worked in the higher education sector for nearly 15 years. With responsibility for student recruitment, Adam manages the university’s engagement tactics throughout all stages of a prospect’s application, from prospect to enquiry and subsequently application to enrolment, an area of work that the University of Chester were ‘highly commended’ on at the 2014 HEIST Awards, the UK’s premier education marketing awards. Overseeing the university’s digital, content and events marketing teams, Adam has been instrumental in the coordination of the award-winning #MyChesterStory campaign highlighted in this case study.
