University of Phoenix Spends $100 Million Annually on Advertising - Advertising Age - News

Traditional universities hate to think of themselves as brands. I guess it cheapens their work as educators. But let's be real. Colleges and universities have brands that must be understood, shaped, nutured, and managed....managed just like a company would manage a brand.

There have been some really interesting articles recently about the future of traditional higher education, especially given the economic crisis and the ridiculously high price of most 4 year universities. Some see this as a classic paradigm shift = business opportunity. Try this article in Fast Company: Who Needs Harvard?

The for profit higher ed market has been growing exponentially over the last 10-20 years. The Internet has only accelerated the growth.

Interestingly, these schools are as much marketing machines as institutions of learning. None is as clear as University of Phoenix. It spends $100 Million a year on advertising, but as the artcle in AdAge offers, they may not be much better at defining their brand than traditional schools.

University of Phoenix Spends $100 Million Annually on Advertising - Advertising Age - News

The for profit schools have two key problems: 1) attracting paying students and 2) establishing their credibility and quality. And success establishing credibility will help in attracting students.

But interestingly, I don't see any of these schools address this issue. Most of the advertising I see or here is targeted to their current demographic of non traditional, older students and focuses on convenience and the non traditional nature of their student body as a way to attract non traditional, older students.

Why not spend some of that $100 million to establish credibility? Until most people think online learning and for profit schools are in the same category of quality as traditional higher education, the value of their degrees will be diminished. If I were marketing one of these schools, I would create a consortium of my competitors to throw in marketing dollars and launch a campaign to build credibility. It will take years, but it is the best long term hope for the business.