It's easy for college administrators to articulate what they think the institution represents. This is typically a variation of the college's mission and vision. Usually, but not always, other college personnel will list the same descriptive words and phrases. The real question, however, is what do your constituents think?

Image is Perception.
A company's image is a function of what their constituents (internal or external) believe to be. Some times their perception is not true--but the adage of "perception is reality" applies here. What your markets believe is their reality. The function of image and branding efforts is to close the gap between the college's desired image and what their publics actually perceive.

Why Worry About Image?
An organization’s image will enhance or hinder their success. If your markets believe you have a good product, your opportunity to increase enrollment will significant increase. Your reputation and word-of-mouth is your best advertising! On the other hand, if people do not perceive you to be a quality institution, then all the advertising and marketing dollars available will not help your enrollment efforts.

Defining Your Desired Image
The first step is to be able to clearly articulate five to ten words or phrases that describe the institution the way you would like your constituents to perceive it. These may be either current or future (desired) states. It is critical that these align with the college’s mission and vision. Effective image and branding must be ‘backed up’ with the reality of your markets’ experiences.

These descriptors should be things that would flow naturally from people who are asked about your institutions—internally and externally. Things like ‘quality education’, ‘career focused’, ‘convenient’, etc.—whatever you feel are the top priorities and perceptions that you would like people to know about your college.

Internal Campaign
Because your current employees are also living advertisements for your organization, you need to be sure that everyone who is employed by your college understands the mission, vision and image. Time spent communicating this to your internal constituents will be well spent. They are constantly interacting with individuals, and they will be able to reinforce any branding campaigns that you initiate. It is always bothersome to speak with an employee at a college who verbally negates the advertising. And, don’t forget to include all your part-time employees as well…especially if you are utilizing a significant number of adjunct-faculty.

"Perception is reality when it comes to image"

External Perception Once you have identified your desired image, it’s time to go to your publics and determine what their perceptions are of your college. You don’t need to spend a lot of time and effort calling thousands of individuals. You do need to have representative groups from all your major constituencies. For instance, if you have both traditional and non-traditional markets, you will want to make sure you survey both current high schools students as well as adults within your target market.

You may also wish to include high school counselors (as they are a strong opinion group for the high school market). Employers may be another group you want to include, especially if you are drawing large number of employed individuals through your adult recruiting efforts.

Your measures of external perceptions need only capture their responses to the question “What 3-5 words or phrases would you use to describe ABC College?” Don’t let them think to hard on this. Write down everything that they say, including if they don’t have a perception (this is important, too!) Make sure you can track the responses back to the particular segment(s) you are measuring.

Measure the Gap
Once you have collected all the information, you may want to put it in a grid as noted below:

	High School	Counselors	Adults	Employers
Quality Education	45%	42%	48%	78%
Career Focused	78%	82%	85%	87%
Convenient	85%	79%	87%	28%
Affordable	23%	16%	33%	17%
Personalized Attention	37%	64%	52%	73%

As you can see in this example, the responses vary greatly among the publics. However, putting the information in a grid like this also makes it obvious what points you will want to hit in your image and advertising campaigns. For instance, in the category of “Quality Education”, only about half of the high school and adult markets perceived this as true. But the employer response is pretty high—and that’s important since they are seeing your ‘finished product’. This should be something that you highlight. Another example would be the category of ‘personalized attention’. Both the high school and adult markets didn’t bring this to mind, but it could be a very important selling point for your college. Employers and counselor responses were higher, so it would appear that this benefit is somewhat known. Increasing the emphasis on your ability to provide this type of personalized experience could significantly assist your recruiting and retention efforts.

Continuous Cycle
Measuring your image within your markets should be something you do regularly…at least every two years or so. You will want to measure the progress you have made in increasing the awareness of your desired image. The same grid concept can be utilized to measure the before and after progress.

	High School		Counselors		Adults		Employers
	2003	2005	2003	2005	2003	2005	2003	2005
Quality Education	45%	60%	42%	63%	48%	58%	78%	80%
Career Focused	78%	85%	82%	92%	85%	88%	87%	94%
Convenient	85%	93%	79%	82%	87%	97%	28%	42%
Affordable	23%	35%	16%	24%	33%	37%	17%	19%
Personalized Attention	37%	39%	64%	72%	52%	58%	73%	89%

Of course, if your institutional focus changes, you will need to begin again with describing your key attributes, training your internal public and then measuring the external perceptions.

Image is a key component to effective recruiting efforts. Your community reputation and the perception of your markets have concerning your institution significantly impacts your ability to achieve enrollment goals.