Worth Doing? Yes Possible? Maybe

Good article in University Business this month with an outstanding quote that pretty much sums up the difficulty with integrated marketing on a college campus by Don Shutlz of Northwestern University, "You can never integrate higher education marketing because no one on any campus ever wants to be integrated into anything."

So far, in my own process I have developed the key messages and we are kicking around taglines. The good news is that we are on time and the value of the process reveals itself with each step. The bad news is that most of the taglines are in my head, and that seems to be the thing that feels like it is getting most of the kicking.

I have to admit that several days in the past two weeks I have wanted to give up. I feel like I'm five miles into a marathon and I see that the finish line is being moved and so it just seems easier to die where I am at rather than keep running. Overly dramatic - sure, but I think if we are honest with ourselves we live in some fear of the moment that a President, board member, or other looks at months of work and says - "Let's just do this instead." Or the dreaded in my mind, "I don't like it." I don't dread "I don't like it," because my self worth is in the work, I dread it because if we are going to just argue about opinions then there are no winners.

Research is continuing to become more and more valuable, and harder to take the time for and come by.