communicating greatness
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Graphic design by Steve Kimura
Paul Keye & Partners
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Key messages to build lasting bonds
by judith lin
ucla today
UCLA enjoys a strong reputation as one of the nation’s preeminent
educational institutions. The university gets high marks for academic
excellence, conducts leading-edge research and performs valuable
service in the community.
Okay, but are we having fun yet?
As a reminder of the myriad cultural, artistic, athletic and other
activities available on campus, a new “Drop the laptop”
campaign is being rolled out in the coming weeks. Campuswide, posters,
ads in the Daily Bruin, notices in residence halls and other media
will encourage students and others to get more involved in campus
life.
The campaign is the first phase of a UCLA “messaging”
initiative to better communicate UCLA’s strengths both on-
and off-campus. The campaign is spearheaded by University Communications
under the direction of Assistant Vice Chancellor Lawrence Lokman.
“Our message is ‘Use it or lose it while you’re
here,’ ” Lokman said. “Students, who are here
for a limited period of time, have a world of opportunity. We want
them to be thinking about engaging in these aspects of campus life
as part of their intellectual growth.”
A volunteer committee of students is helping to guide the campaign.
“A lot of them have told us that they welcome these reminders,”
Lokman said, “because it’s easy to get so mired in your
studies.”
The UCLA messaging effort began with extensive interviews and
focus groups over a period of nearly two years with faculty, staff,
students, administrators, alumni, community leaders, legislators
and many others.
Although the research verified that the university enjoys an overall
reputation of excellence, a disturbing fact came to light: While
people appreciate UCLA’s quality, they have very little specific
information about what goes on here — from cultural activities
to groundbreaking research.
“UCLA is a great place, but the university has difficulty
communicating its greatness,” Lokman said.
This absence of specificity leads to absence of an emotional “hook,”
Lokman added. “And lacking this, many are less inclined to
support the university as voters, contributors or advocates.”
It also makes more difficult the recruitment of outstanding faculty
and smart, talented students.
“Drop the laptop” is the first of several steps aimed
toward building lasting bonds with UCLA. A revamped UCLA Web site,
www.happenings.ucla.com, scheduled to launch this week, will incorporate
a wide range of information on everything from cultural activities
to research.
Campus communicators plan to continue to discover and frame those
messages and themes that best communicate what makes UCLA unique
and special.
“In some cases, the best messages are things that people
have avoided saying,” said Lokman, “such as, ‘UCLA
is a big university,’ which some people view in a negative
way. But what we found is that the size, depth and breadth of the
campus are actually what make it full of opportunity.”
As messages are framed, they will be shared with campus units,
which can use them to improve their own communications.
“We don’t expect everybody to love all the messages,”
Lokman said. “But we’ve worked hard to ground this in
more of a scientific process, focusing on research and target audiences.”
Such marketing efforts are becoming increasingly common in academia.
“More and more universities are doing this kind of thing,”
Lokman said. “In today’s world, universities are in
a very competitive landscape. Private universities like Harvard
and Yale have spent centuries developing their images. We’re
just getting started.”
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