A mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
The Lawlor Review
Old-school marketing executives and new-school social media professionals alike learned the “4 P’s” early in their careers: the marketing mix of price, product, promotion, and place. While marketers have added to and tinkered with these pillars (conceiving of “7 P’s” and “4 C’s,” among other variations), the original 4 P’s have largely stood the test of time. However, the digital revolution and other emerging marketplace forces are calling into question the continued viability of a formula created half a century ago.
From Volume XX Issue 2
Higher education has been a remarkably stable industry, existing in more or less the same form for some 750 years. However, there are those who say online teaching and learning could drastically alter that, ushering in the kind of “disruptive innovation” that fundamentally redefines our notions of what constitutes post-secondary education. Skeptical college administrators may be wise to heed the experience of the head of Digital Equipment Corporation, who famously opined in 1977 (the year that the Apple II was introduced), “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”
From Volume XX Issue 2
As the nation’s unemployment rate hovers near 9 percent and the economy continues to stagnate, admissions officials across the country are well aware that the moribund economy isn’t going to spring to life any time soon. Within the framework of this year’s flat (and the looming threat of a declining) economy, colleges are adjusting to the long-term reality of a “new normal”—a reality that demands colleges work smarter, harder, and more efficiently than ever.
From Volume XX Issue 1
News headlines remind us daily that the job market is still slow, personal debt continues to rise, most people are seriously anxious about the future, and many Americans are beginning to question the value of a college degree. Three years after the global economic meltdown, outcomes have become the gold standard for measuring a college’s worth.
From Volume XX Issue 1
This year for the first time, The Lawlor Group hosted a daylong workshop prior to the Summer Seminar, the annual conference it co-sponsors with Hardwick-Day in Minneapolis. Social media thought leaders shared strategies and tactics with an audience of senior higher education marketing and enrollment management professionals, as well as those with direct oversight of social media efforts at colleges and universities. Participants learned how to apply both art and science in leveraging social media users’ behavior to provide them with value while meeting institutional goals.
From Volume XIX Issue 3
Summer Seminar, the annual higher education conference co-sponsored with Hardwick-Day, once again gave senior enrollment professionals from private colleges and universities throughout the nation much to contemplate. The intensive two-day event drew a capacity crowd and featured speakers who provided a wealth of research and insights about the economic and demographic conditions that are currently shaping strategic enrollment management and higher education marketing.
From Volume XIX Issue 3
A report of the second day of Summer Seminar 2011, The Lawlor Group’s annual higher education conference co-sponsored with Hardwick-Day.
From Volume XIX Issue 3
The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 requires every college or university that administers federal student assistance to make available and accessible the information consumers need to understand its cost of attendance and to make accurate comparisons across institutions. One element of the legislation is a soon-to-be-enforced mandate that colleges and universities host a net price calculator on their websites. But will this indeed bring transparency to the issue of cost? Or will the net price calculators only increase public confusion and frustration?
From Volume XIX Issue 2
Transfer students, long the neglected stepchildren of private higher education admissions, are gaining greater respect and attention of late, as more and more institutions recognize the value that transfers can bring not only to their balance sheets, but also to the richness of their academic programs and campus life. The gains don’t come without costs, however. Done right, recruiting transfer students and helping assure their success requires significant investments of time, planning, and money—and a willingness to be flexible.
From Volume XIX Issue 2