Brand building creates trust and credibility, even beyond your customers

A brand can have broad-reaching impact beyond your customers – affecting everything from funding to regulatory requirements. Robin Tooms interviews Laura Morris, Associate Vice Chancellor, Marketing & Communications at Lone Star College System.

Robin: Hello and welcome to this edition of Brandonomics, an inside look at top brands and their marketing strategies. I am Robin Tooms, V.P. of strategy at Savage and I’m here today with Laura Morris, associate vice chancellor of marketing and communications at Lone Star College System. Laura, welcome back to the show.

Laura: Thank you.

Robin: Well wonderful. Well I wanted to talk today about something I heard you mention at a recent American Marketing Association event. So you said that community colleges are key to solving the workforce skills gap crisis that’s facing the nation now. So what people don’t know is there’s brand building considerations here.

Laura: Yes, there are. I mean community colleges really are the economic engines of an economically vitalization and recovery but part of that is making sure that the legislative environment and all of our various funding sources and regulatory sources are in alignment with that so that we can continue to work with our business partners and craft the curriculum that we need to make sure we have an educated workforce. Our funding is primarily through tuition from students but we also – I mean we’re a non-profit governmental agency. So some of our funding is also through the state legislature and making sure that all of the colleges, two year and four year as well as secondary education are all in alignment so that there is a clear pathway for students to enter the workforce in productive, stable careers is really important. So it’s not just the funding side but also the policy side.

Robin: That brand that you’ve established around opening doors how is that relevant on both sides?

Laura: We use open doors as a way to define all the different things that we’re able to do. Opening doors to a better Houston helps us reach out to all those various constituencies, business and thought leaders, the corporate leadership that need to recognize the importance of partnering with us to create the curriculum and the jobs, legislative decision makers and fundamentally voters who do influence their legislators on what they want to see happen. So making sure that our brand has credibility, that it is well recognized, well trusted and very active in the community is all part of making that happen.

Robin: Okay. Well thank you for sharing. That is a great brand story and wonderful to keep that importance in mind. Join us next week for another edition of Brandonomics, an inside look at top brands and their marketing strategies.

 

Lone Star College System, the largest institution of higher education in the Houston area, is the fastest-growing community college in the nation. Its mission is to provide comprehensive educational opportunities and programs to enrich lives, focusing on establishing students in careers, not just jobs. https://lonestar.edu/

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Robin Tooms is a consultant for brand, marketing and communications strategies for B2B and service companies. Expertise includes corporate branding, investor communications, employee communications, social media, and marketing with emphasis on effective online marketing and use of technology.

Contact her at rtooms@savagebrands.com or reach her by phone at 713-522-1555.