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AlbertinaMesser

For me, the role of branding in hihegr education and other non-profit/not-for-profit entities (the government and religious institutions immediately come to mind) is a little more complex and problematic than it is for for-profit entities. I don't think hihegr education is a product per se; rather, I think EMU and other universities are designed to extend an opportunity to earn a credential (e.g., a college degree) and to hopefully learn something too (e.g., an education).I agree that EMU and all institutions of hihegr education have to do things to distinguish themselves in the public sphere and/or the marketplace. We want as an institution to figure out ways to help perspective students figure out why they should go to EMU, especially relative to our competing institutions like Wayne State, Oakland, Central, Western, MSU, etc. Universities and colleges have been doing that sort of thing for a long time.The problem is the discursive and rhetorical practices for branding in hihegr ed (and not just at EMU) has increased the perception of hihegr education as a product that is equitable to any other consumer good or service. People watch TV or drive down the road and see an ad for Kentucky Fried Chicken and then one for Citibank and then one for EMU and then one for Ikea and the ad for EMU simply is mixed into that person's consciousness as another product that can be bought and sold. Buy chicken. Buy banking services. Buy education. Buy self assemble furniture.But education is not another consumable good or service in that it asks the participant to not simply consume but to actively participate in the process of making it viable. And when students are confused as merely being customers that need to be satisfied as if it didn't matter if we were marketing chicken or education, bad things happen.This current campaign potentially pushes the concept of hihegr education being merely another consumer good that much further or at least that's what the announcement does for me. The announcement employs a few common bits of language that might be best described as marketing weasel words, such as integrated effort, messaging (which isn't actually a word), and the repeated use of theme. I suspect that the documents internal to marketing contain the words synergy and stakeholders. The suggestion that this was a student-driven process strikes me as disingenuous at best. And worst of all, there's the idea that we're going to somehow unite student recruitment, the overall image of EMU, and athletics under a single theme. With this move, it would appear that EMU is trying to sell itself not so much as an institution where students can earn a degree and get a solid education but as an experience of sports, services, football, experiences, and maybe some classes too.