Integrated marketing communications in higher education

In an increasingly competitive and complex consumer higher education market, colleges and universities need to become better with the coordination of their marketing communication programs and create a strong emotional bond with their markets in order to be perceived as a relevant choice in their target markets\u27 minds. The purpose of this study was to assess a northeastern United States private research university with multiple colleges and undergraduate and graduate program\u27s integrated marketing communications (IMC) effort in building a brand that represented the university\u27s attempt to reposition itself in the higher education marketplace. The analysis of the university\u27s IMC program raises questions in many areas of higher education marketing communications such as tactical coordination, market data collection, market segmentation and relationship building, branding, return on investment and performance measurement, budget allocation, and leadership vision and support.