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Marketing for Magis: How Jesuit colleges and universities chose collaboration over competition
Journal of Education Advancement & Marketing,
4
(3),
251-266
(2019)
Abstract
For years, Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States avoided joint marketing or branding; in spite of their common mission and heritage, the institutions have long faced competition for students with similar academic profiles from common geographic regions. But in 2015, the institutions overcame their differences to launch a joint national marketing campaign that capitalised on Pope Francis’ first visit to the United States. As the first Jesuit leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis is viewed by many as a transformational figure, whose leadership style is influenced by his Jesuit education. The offices of marketing and communication for US Jesuit colleges and universities saw the visit as an opportunity to show how they all offer the same kind of education that has made Pope Francis so effective as a leader, and did so by encouraging prospective students to visit a common microsite to learn about all their schools. Working together with the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, they launched a month-long national campaign that drew public exposure and garnered visits to every single one of their homepages through the microsite. The success of this campaign led to two more campaigns in 2018: a jointly-funded promotional video for Jesuit higher education and a social media campaign in support of Loyola University Chicago’s men’s basketball team’s appearance in the Final Four round of the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. In an era of shrinking state and federal support for education (and smaller numbers of traditional-aged students), Jesuit schools have found ways to overcome competition and work together in pursuit of the same shared goal: helping new students understand and appreciate the value of a Jesuit higher education.
Keywords: Jesuit; branding; advertising; campaign; Pope Francis
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Deanna Howes Spiro has, for more than a decade, served the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, including six years as Director of Communications. As spokesperson for the association, she is quoted frequently on topics ranging from lay leadership to Jesuit basketball. She led the association’s first national joint advertising campaign in 2015, during Pope Francis’ visit to the United States, as well as the national #JesuitEducated video campaign in 2018. In 2016, Deanna led media relations for the 15th North American Lithuanian Folk Dance Festival in Baltimore, Maryland. In this role, she coordinated media placements in multiple outlets across the mid-Atlantic region for the festival, which brought nearly 2,000 dancers to the Royal Farms Arena in downtown Baltimore. Deanna holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and media studies from Fordham University and a master’s degree in communication from Johns Hopkins University. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Jesuit honours society, Alpha Sigma Nu.
Christopher P. Puto is President Emeritus and Professor of Marketing at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama. Christopher holds a PhD in business administration (marketing) from Duke University, an MBA in marketing from the University of Miami, Florida, and a BS in economics from Spring Hill College. He has served on the marketing faculties of the University of Michigan, the University of Arizona, Georgetown University and the University of St Thomas, Minnesota. He was Business Dean at Georgetown and St Thomas and the holder of the Opus Distinguished Chair at St Thomas. Christopher’s academic specialties are marketing strategy, consumer and managerial decision-making and advertising. He has published numerous papers in the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes and Marketing Letters. He has served on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research and Journal of Advertising. His research has been recognised with the Robert Ferber Award from the Journal of Consumer Research and the inaugural Sheth Foundation Award for the Journal of Consumer Research paper having the most long-term impact on the discipline. Prior to earning his doctorate at Duke, Christopher spent several years as a marketing and sales executive at Burger King Corporation and in the Quaker State Oil Company distribution network. He currently serves as the Founding Director of the John J. Burke Jr. Center for the Study and Advancement of Free Enterprise at Spring Hill College.
Tom Hayes has been involved in the marketing of higher education for over 30 years. He was the Founder of the American Marketing Association’s Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education, now the largest conference on the topic in the world. He is Associate Editor of the Journal of Marketing for Higher Education and had served as editor for 20 years. Tom also served as a Founding Partner and Vice President of SimpsonScarborough, a full-service marketing consulting agency for institutions of higher education. He has given hundreds of presentations on the topic of marketing higher education, spanning over five continents. Tom has won CASE’s Crystal Apple award for speaking excellence and has had two books published by CASE: Marketing Colleges and Universities from a Services Perspective (published in September 2009, it was the recipient of the Alice Beeman Award for scholarship excellence in its field) and University Marketing Mistakes: 50 Pitfalls to Avoid, coauthored with Roy Adler and published in March 2008. Tom is also the Dean of the Williams College of Business and a Professor in the Department of Marketing at Xavier University, where he has taught for the last 43 years. He previously served as Chair of the Department as well as Director of Institutional Advancement for Xavier. Tom received a bachelor’s degree in psychology as well as an MBA in marketing from Xavier University. He also received an MBA in organisational behaviour and a PhD in marketing from the University of Cincinnati.
