Finding Your “X Factor”
Getting attention for your institution’s story in a highly competitive marketplace can be a discouraging task. As marketers, we are always looking for the edge that will attract the most eyes to our content and clicks to our pages. In our quest for the right audience, it can be tempting to pin our hopes on the next technique or technology—to try to outsmart the competition. But chasing the next big thing in marketing might not always be the best strategy.
But First, a Fable
In his landmark business book, Good to Great, author Jim Collins and his research team compared sets of like companies to find out why some went from average to greatness, while others either stayed mediocre or sank into failure. Collins found a variety of factors that contributed to a rise to greatness, including Collin’s discovery of a “hedgehog concept,” a simple, clear idea or strategy that the organization pursued with complete focus.
The concept was based on a fable that tells the story of two animals, a fox and a hedgehog. The fox is crafty in pursuing the hedgehog; it tries a variety of tricks and strategies to outsmart its prey. The hedgehog, however, has just one simple strategy of rolling into a ball—but it works every time. Collins found that the companies that were able to identify their one simple concept that worked for them—and who could stick to it with dogged discipline—thrived.
Finding Your Economic Denominator
One of the most important elements of a hedgehog strategy is the organization’s ability to understand the simple equation that was driving its “economic engine.” What was the one thing it could focus on and continuously improve to drive its profits exponentially? If the key to success was “profit per x,” what was its “x”?
Collins gives the example of Walgreen’s drugstores. The Walgreen’s team discovered that their key profit driver was convenience, because convenience led to higher sales per visit. The company concentrated all its efforts on convenience, buying only the best locations, clustering their stores for easier access, and pioneering the pharmacy drive through. Their fanatical focus on convenience drove the company’s profits to achieve 15 times the returns of the overall market between 1975-2000 and launched the company to greatness (Collins, Good to Great, 2001, p. 92).
Collin’s team found that all its “great” companies had such a simple strategy. From Kroger, which became the best at building innovative superstores, to Gillette which focused on profit per repeatable purchase, to Kimberly-Clark, which concentrated on profit per consumer brand (p. 106). Each company discovered an economic denominator that worked for it. They each understood what idea what driving their profitability, and they were able to exploit this strength to maximize results.
Hedgehogs in Higher Ed
Identifying and sticking to a “hedgehog concept” is a challenge for most colleges and universities. Historically, many of our institutions have prided themselves on exactly the opposite—on offering something for everyone. In the current environment, with more supply than demand, this is a recipe for mediocrity, or worse.
Hopefully, your team has spent time and energy developing a clear brand that describes your promise to your students and the world. This is a great start, as it charts the course for where you want your institution to go. Now it is time to look under the hood and find out which metric will get you there. What measure will help to drive you toward success?
Think of Southern New Hampshire University, whose commitment to access is exemplified in its bus trips to award diplomas. SNHU has discovered that every time it can take its education to the student, it wins, and its “stock” goes up. Or the University of Alabama, whose public perception is heavily driven by winning football teams. It now recruits students from all across the country who would never have considered it without its reputation for huge game experiences. Consider The Johns Hopkins University, whose commitment to medical breakthroughs and training some of the world’s best doctors has ensured prestige for every other major that it offers.
The Metric That Matters
For you to tell your institution’s story in an effective way, you need to know what metric matters. What measurement predicts success? Is it the number of graduates who get jobs in a particular field? Is it the number of visitors you can wow with your location? The quantity of grant dollars you can attract? Making each applicant feel special? The loyalty of your alumni to their experience?
Your university probably has a formula that is already at work, your team may just not know what it is. If you can find it, it is the marketing team’s task to drive your economic engine by shining every possible light on your “X factor.” Again, think of the SHNU bus, which is a tangible symbol of the university’s winning strategy, and which tells their target audience, “You are special to us.”
In some cases, institutions actively resist their natural advantages. They worry that they will be seen as a “one trick pony” if they focus on their areas of strength, which will hurt them in public perception. But if utilized correctly, your profit equation will have far reaching benefits beyond just the area of focus. Other academic departments at Johns Hopkins have benefited from the university’s international recognition in medicine. And Alabama’s other athletics programs likely get students they could never recruit without its football machine. When you focus on what truly drives your economic engine, all boats rise.
Don’t Go Chasing Foxes
Perhaps your institution has not yet identified its hedgehog concept. The marketing team can lead the charge. Help your institution achieve true greatness by finding a hedgehog concept and identifying the “X factor” that predicts your success. In many ways, it is about tracking the dollars that serve as the lifeblood of the institution and following them back to a common denominator, and then brainstorming creative ways to fuel that driver.
If your key to success is legacy families, your team should be marketing traditions and sending swag to alumni children. If it is the idyllic setting of your campus, your efforts should focus on driving visits. If you are a major pipeline into professional schools, tout your statistics and highlight alumni profiles.
Rather than chase the latest new trend in marketing, like the fox in the fable would, focus all of your efforts on identifying and leveraging your primary institutional strategy and watch your organization thrive.
Let's talk about how 5° Branding can help you find your institution’s “X factor.”
