SLIPPERY ROCK, PA. Marketing boosts school's enrollment

SRU enrollment has increased in each of the past three years.
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. (AP) -- It wasn't long ago that Slippery Rock University was facing an identity crisis.
The state-owned university -- about 45 miles east of Youngstown and 45 miles north of Pittsburgh -- had changed so much since its founding as a teachers college that even some alumni didn't know it offered much more than health and physical education courses, said Ross Feltz, the director of university public relations.
"They used to say, 'If you were a jock, you went to The Rock,'" Feltz said.
In 1998, Slippery Rock embraced an aggressive marketing campaign of a kind once associated with corporations. The tactic, along with other changes, is credited with boosting enrollment three years in a row, reversing a nine-year decline.
A new idea
Marketing was once a dirty word in higher education -- academics and administrators believed students should pursue schools, not the other way around. That changed in the early 1990s, when many publicly funded institutions realized they were facing stiff competition for top students and alumni dollars, said Bob Johnson, senior vice president at Creative Communication of America, which provides marketing and communication programs for colleges and universities.
"People in academics didn't understand what marketing was all about before. For some, marketing sounded suspiciously like you're selling sneakers or selling cars, but that has changed a great deal," said Barbara Marshall, assistant vice president of college relations and marketing at Albright College in Reading.
Playing off its name, Slippery Rock touted itself as "Rock Solid." It also capitalized on its unofficial nickname, "The Rock," believing it would make the school look less stuffy and more appealing to teenagers -- even though one president didn't care for the nickname, saying it wasn't academic enough.
Included in campaign
The campaign relied not only on university publications, but on colorful billboards in western Pennsylvania. There were slick television and radio ads, too.
It was a success: University enrollment climbed from 6,803 in 1999 to 7,530 last fall -- the first time the school had broken the 7,500 mark in eight years, Feltz said.
If it weren't for advertising, Ryan Parker wouldn't have given Slippery Rock a second thought.
But the Karns City (Pa.) High School senior's father, Roy Parker, saw the school's television ads and encouraged his son to take a campus tour. At the end of the tour, Ryan Parker found himself filling out an application.
"Someone suggested that he should go to The Rock and he said, 'No way.' He thought it was too small, too close to home, not modern," Roy Parker said. "We saw some ads and took a tour almost on a whim and that's what changed Ryan's mind."
Different schools take different approaches.
What they are
Some schools simply select a phrase or buzzword that best sums up their university -- for Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, it's "Foundations for Success" -- and use the phrase in all school publications.
Many, like Penn State, use questionnaires and surveys to uncover the school's reputation and public perceptions. Directors use the results to make advertising decisions and to convince skeptical deans and academics that marketing is necessary.
Most institutions have always done some kind of marketing, but often folded promotions into admission office activities, said Rae Goldsmith, the head of the University of Louisville's communication and marketing department.
$85,000 initiative
Bloomsburg University spent $85,000 last year to erect billboards in urban areas, an initiative it started three years ago, said Jill Rouse in the central Pennsylvania school's communications office.
Meanwhile, Mansfield University spends about $200,000 every year on radio and television ads, said Dennis Miller, the public relations director. He creates campaigns and selects air times when the messages are most likely to reach mothers and female high school students.
Miller believes mothers make most family decisions and female students are more likely than boys to influence peers.
Now, Miller wants to promote the school's forensic science program through commercials on the Court TV cable station.
Rise in enrollment
Since the school started advertising four years ago, enrollment has increased 5 percent a year, rising to 3,300.
Most institutions have always done some kind of marketing, but often folded promotions into admission office activities, said Rae Goldsmith, the head of the University of Louisville's communication and marketing department.
"Everyone remembers getting view books with those pictures of gorgeous people walking across the campus," Goldsmith said.
"Institutions are more strategic now."Marketing has evolved beyond advertising to include Web sites and research surveys, she said.
Slippery Rock is also moving toward a more thoughtful marketing effort that will help build the university's reputation.
"We're going for more than name recognition," Feltz said. "We're looking for substance behind the name recognition."