How are Higher Ed Brands Like Vitamin Supplements?

It’s time for the annual rankings hullabaloo.

Regardless of your point-of-view on the U.S. News and World Report rankings, the annual release of the newest rankings creates news. And depending on where your school comes out, they’re met with either joy or teeth-gnashing. (Or both, if you have multiple colleges or schools.)

We all agree that the rankings don’t measure the quality of education that an institution provides. So why do they matter? And why do they exist at all?

Credence Goods Versus Experience Goods

It all comes back to economics. In economic terms, higher education is a credence good, which in economic terms is “a good whose utility impact is difficult or impossible for the consumer to ascertain.” Credence goods are not the same thing as experience goods, whose utility can be determined. No, the value of a credence good can never be determined, even after consumption. When actual utility (outcome) is impossible to measure, people use surrogate measures, such as cost, to determine value, with the assumption being that higher cost = higher quality.

Higher ed is a perfect example of a credence good. (Note: other credence goods are vitamin supplements, car repairs, and home maintenance services. Think about it.) How do you measure the overall quality of the education an institution provides, when it offers many programs, delivered by many different faculty members, in many different courses. (Not to mention the biggest problem, which is that much of the value of the outcome is determined by the talents and effort of the individual students.)

So as with other credence categories, people use surrogates to determine the quality of a higher ed institution. Cost is certainly one. But there are many others as well, including selectivity, the value of research grants, the ratio of students to faculty, the percentage of alumni who donate money, and the opinions of people who are “in the know.” In other words, many of the things included in the U.S. News and World Report rankings calculations.

The alternative rankings being suggested by various sources (for example, the federal government and the New York Times) may include different, or perhaps even better, surrogates. But they will still be surrogates. The actual value of the education is just too difficult to determine.

What are the Brand Strategy Implications for Credence Goods?

1. Get people talking, by arming your stakeholders with simple brand language. Reputation is critical in credence categories, and your key stakeholders are your best brand ambassadors. So give them the language to describe your brand in 30-seconds, and encourage them to talk about it. A LOT.
2. Make it real. When the outcome is difficult to measure, bring the experience to life. Help prospective students and parents feel what it’s like to experience your campus without actually being there — through stories, videos, audio snippets, and anecdotes.
3. Appeal to hearts as well as heads. In credence good categories, decisions can be more emotional than rational. So don’t be afraid to go beyond rational messages and bring emotion into your marketing efforts.
4. Find your outcomes. Just because you can’t measure overall quality doesn’t mean you can’t find opportunities to plug specific outcomes. Individual program rankings, job placement information, and student satisfaction ratings not only speak to specific outcomes, but also have a halo effect on overall quality perceptions.

Don’t forget, we’re offering a two-part webinar series on brand strategy in early October. We’d love to see you there!

Higher education branding doesn’t have to be difficult. By understanding the unique dynamics — and the potential pitfalls that can arise – you can create a process that ensures that you get buy-in for a compelling brand positioning that will capture the unique story of your institution.

Want to learn more? We recently published a white paper that explores the specific challenges of higher education branding and gives you strategies for clearing the most common hurdles.