Marketing Services Five-Year Vision

The Marketing Services team consists of two primary groups, creative and production.  Together, we are the organization through which almost all of the print media, advertising, marketing and public relations efforts for the institution go from concept to completion.

Shared Vision:

Identify areas of greatest potential enrollment growth and create marketing messages / vehicles to achieve growth objectives.  Provide superior customer service to Kirkwood stakeholders, while projecting the image of an exemplary, comprehensive learning institution.

Major Initiatives:

Image

• Institutional: Continue institutional branding efforts.  Kirkwood name / logos recognition needs to be consistently in front of potential customers.
• Focus primary projects on identified growth areas while adequately supporting other college programming and activities.
• Increase amount of positive press opportunities for institution.
• Departmental:
  1. Eliminate errors:
     1. Conduct “process mapping” exercises, similar to Colleague with departmental staff and stakeholders to identify current process weaknesses and potential areas for corrective measures.
     2. Implement corrective measures immediately.
  2. Conduct quarterly feedback sessions with stakeholders to insure continuous quality improvement.
  3. Conduct random project review surveys in order to measure customer satisfaction and potential process improvements.

Proactive Marketing Initiatives

• Meet with internal stakeholders regarding their 1 and 5 year departmental goals and objectives.
  1. Develop customized marketing plans for individual departments to achieve goals while remaining consistent with institutional goals.
  2. Create annual, cumulative institutional marketing plan consisting of all departmental plans.  Production dates, timelines and costs will be included.
  3. All projects will be created by Kirkwood Graphic Designers.
• Integrate all marketing projects to “drive” customers to Web site.
• Support Continuing Education Division in their endeavor to become self-sufficient utilizing the LERN criteria and decision-making tools.
  1. Provide costs for materials, creation and production on all CE projects.
• Reduce total number of printed copies produced by 2% annually.
• Reserve 10% of annual budget for changes and unknowns.

Research based decision-making

• Commission external research to identify greatest enrollment growth opportunities.
• Breakdown data by gender, age, location, programming and curriculum.
  1. Identify target markets with the highest probability of enrollment growth at Kirkwood.
  2. Design and implement marketing projects that successfully “touch” identified markets segments and increase enrollment.

Web Site Development

• Become responsible for Web site creative content.
• Assist with implementation of uniform departmental web pages within Kirkwood.edu domain by supporting Web Site Manager software application.
• Explore, create and implement marketing projects that “drive” stakeholders and customers to the Kirkwood Web site.
• Create on-line photo / image library.

Equipment upgrades and capabilities

• Replace Xerox 5690, black / white, high speed production copier with new technology.  (Move to lease option with no out of pocket)
• Implement four color press technology and direct to plate technology replacing two color press and image maker. ($65,000 - $75,000 to buy, exploring lease options)
• Replace all intradepartmental computers on a three year rotation.

Support the Educational Services Division in the endeavor to make Kirkwood the premier community college for students with disabilities.

                   Refer to the Educational Services Vision document.

Capacity

• Staffing:  Add two positions to assist with development of customized, departmental planning.  Create two-person teams consisting of a planner and graphic designer.  Convert part-time position to full time within Print Services.
• Budget:  As Continuing Education becomes more self-sufficient, redirect the current budget earmarked for that division to pay for new positions and equipment.

Ownership:

The team displayed high levels of attention, interaction and participation during the entire process.  Comments, suggestions and subsequent conversation proved a desire to implement change for the better.  The team displayed a customer service commitment as job demands increase at the same time searching for ways to be more efficient.

Support:

The team is committed to the initiatives outlined and their successful implementation.  Utilizing the technology and proactive approaches will increase our ability to successfully serve the Kirkwood customer base in achieving their goals and institutional objectives.  Each member realizes their importance in this vision and the team’s effectiveness.

Dashboard Indicators:

Image:

1. Commit 20% of annual budget to media placements promoting institutional branding.
2. Commission Gazette to conduct TOMA survey. (Top Of Mind Awareness)
3. Increase number of positive press stories by 5% to 10% annually.
4. Reduce errors / rework examples to less than .02% of total annual projects.
5. Based on customer feedback surveys, achieve 98% customer satisfaction rating.

Proactive Marketing Initiatives

1. Successfully meet with all stakeholders and develop departmental marketing plan of action prior to beginning of fiscal / academic year.
2. Supply monthly reporting to CE department outlining projects and appropriate costs.
3. Reduce monthly average print production by 33,000 pages.
4. Conduct monthly student feedback sessions to identify customer perception of Kirkwood, visibility of advertising and message effect.

Research based decision-making

1. Increase credit head count and / or total credit hours by 2% to 5% annually.
2. Commit 10% of annual budget on prospective student studies and research.
3. Access and utilize student data supplied by Colleague to identify enrollment and customer trends.

Web Site Development

1. Increase Kirkwood Web site “hits” by 10% annually.
2. Achieve web page consistency between departments and within Kirkwood.edu.
3. Assist with development and implementation of web pages that replace current paper project functionality.
4. Increase amount and frequency of Kirkwood Internet news postings by 15% annually.

Equipment upgrades and capabilities

1. Install Ryobi or Heidelberg four color press / direct to plate technology.
2. New desk top computers in fiscal years 2005 and 2008.
3. Buy and implement software for job tracking and management.
4. Remove image maker, film processor and two color press.

Back