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Rankings & Reputation: Insights from B-School Deans
March 22, 2016
A business school’s reputation has an impact on everything from admissions to development to faculty recruitment. Often times that reputation goes hand in hand with a school’s seat in various national
A business school’s reputation has an impact on everything from admissions to development to faculty recruitment. Often times that reputation goes hand in hand with a school’s seat in various national and international rankings. Many business school deans find this ranking’s game challenging, but there's no denying their importance in the industry. So how does a school move the needle?
That is what the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst set out to learn by conducting phone interviews with 21 U.S. business school deans. The idea was to gain qualitative insights into how those leaders looked at reputation and branding – at their own school and at others – and how that potentially translated into their business school survey responses.
In general, the deans believe that when it comes to institutional reputation, name recognition is critical to the strength of a school’s brand. “I don’t bother to rank schools that I don’t know because I am not going to take the time to look them up,” one of the deans confessed. Achieving that name recognition can be challenging. For lesser known schools, advertising, direct mail, brochures, newsletters and the like may help create greater awareness. But the question remains, what strengths should a school emphasize in its marketing and communications to make the greatest impact with this audience?
Things that Matter Most
What matters most to deans in evaluating other institutions are high-quality faculty and research, rankings, successful alumni, and academic offerings–especially innovative curricula that enhance institutional positioning (e.g., entrepreneurship, finance). This also suggests that institutions might do well to connect with academic audiences, especially those who can influence U.S. News & World Report and other ratings purveyors. The deans also value faculty engagement with professional and industry organizations.
How to Reach Influencers
While the deans emphasized the value of faculty research in a school’s marketing efforts, scholarly journals or professional conferences are not the only way to reach them. Many noted the importance of the popular media as well. Favorable stories, whether in print or online, often draw attention to and validate the perceived worthiness of a school’s activities. Capturing such attention usually requires the compelling, accessible presentation of complicated research to editors, reporters, and readers.
One dean’s observation: “If I see a school in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, Barron’s or the New York Times, I pay attention. I think it sets an expectation about quality and it helps me remember their names, so the likelihood that I’ll mention them or rank in the U.S. News survey probably increases.”
Beyond using the media, other recommendations included limiting the number of glossy mailings in favor of electronic communications, maintaining a user friendly website that helps visitors find what they’re looking for, and having an innovative curriculum or distinctive approach in delivering a business education.
Can marketing and communications initiatives really improve a business school’s reputation? According to our respondents, deans and their schools get the most mileage by finding a niche that differentiates their school from its competitors, defining its own separate brand from its university’s, and employing strategic marketing and communications that expand the school’s name recognition and market presence. For success stories, deans cited business schools at Maryland, Notre Dame, UNC-Chapel Hill, Northeastern, Villanova, and Wake Forest.
Moving the reputational needle is far from easy. With that said, schools that identify their distinctiveness and target information about faculty, student, and alumni success to receptive audiences will find those efforts rewarded.