MarComm’s realigned strategy – Part 4

Over the last few weeks, I’ve talked about MarComm’s realignment, sharing how the team will refocus its efforts. Leaning into academics and research, advancement, athletics and admissions, will enable us to build and nurture important relationships from prospective students to alumni and key stakeholders, and a focus on strategic positioning will help ensure that the highest strategic priorities of the University are articulated and leveraged cohesively. The person in this role will collaborate with administrative and academic leaders and communicators across campus to align, elevate, and express the highest-value projects that will have the most impact on the University’s identity and success. I see this role as the connective tissue between all of our focus areas as well as a key component to lifting our strategic priorities, whether equity and inclusion, accessibility, our globally engaged research, or academic excellence.

In addition to realigning the division, we have been engaged since early June in a comprehensive reputation strategy initiative that was a consensus-driven approach to achieve three main goals:

1. To realign our marketing and communications efforts
2. To connect more deeply with our audiences
3. To ensure DU is differentiated in an increasingly competitive marketplace

More than 1,600 members of the DU community—faculty, staff, students, and alumni—helped to shape the strategy through participating in an online personality survey and virtual messaging workshops. External research further informed the strategy and included a perception study and competitive audit. Findings and insights from these efforts will reveal our personality archetypes and message platform. Future posts will highlight some of the research results and next steps of this important work in understanding DU.