"Tufts does not have a strong identity," Vice President for University Relations Mary Jeka said. "People struggle to answer what defines Tufts."
Last January the University hired an outside marketing consultant, Mark Neustadt, to help answer that question. Neustadt presented his findings at the Nov. 5 Board of Trustees meeting.
After nine months of research, interviews and focus groups, Neustadt concluded the University's communications strategy should be embodied in the statement: "Tufts is a university focused on new leaders for a changing world."
Neustadt said the University should identify key projects that comprise its elevator speech - a sales pitch brief enough to give during an elevator ride. These will help Tufts separate itself from other schools, he said.
The communications strategy should focus on what is being done at Tufts, Neustadt said, rather than on the University's international diversity. "The shift to a forward-looking university broadened the identity from one with an exclusive international identity," he said.
He said Tufts can have a forward-looking strategy because it does not have many policies set in stone, like some older schools. "Tufts has the best potential of distinguishing itself," he said.
The shift in emphasis to Tufts' impact on the immediate community will not have to be forced, Neustadt said. "The goal of the project was to take the style of undergraduates and apply it," he said. "The style of the student body was an example for this shift. Tufts students are really motivated and want to do something for themselves."
He said the environmental focus of the School of Engineering and the public exposure of philosophy professor Daniel Dennet were examples of how students and professors are socially engaged and forward-looking.
Executive Director of Communications Julie Pierce agreed. "Tufts' Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine is leading the way in addressing some of the most important issues of our time, like the animal vectors of disease," she said. "And Tufts' Dental School is deeply engaged in the Boston community, with about 30 clinics around the city."
To reach these conclusions, Neustadt studied information from the Office of Institutional Research and other schools' communications strategies. He also interviewed about 80 administrators at all of the University's schools about admissions, academics, student life and communications.
He also held focus groups with students, professors and alumni, and with high school students in certain target markets. "I asked focus groups what they thought about the University, and how its image ought to and can be changed," Neustadt said.
The focus groups identified a family atmosphere among alumni and a connection between the undergraduate Arts, Sciences and Engineering schools and the graduate schools.
"One part of the overall strategy is to connect professional schools with the undergraduate," Neustadt said. "I wanted to make sure the strategy didn't have a Medford-centric attitude."
Neustadt also conducted a survey of about 3,000 applicants to Tufts who were admitted and enrolled, who were admitted but did not enroll, and who were not admitted.
The research will allow for the creation of a "High Visibility Strategy," which Neustadt said "prioritizes certain messages" and "will direct communication vehicles," including the University's publications and its Web site.
"The Tufts Web site needs a lot of work," Jeka said. But, she said, "In changing the Tufts Web site, we need to have an overall strategy."
Director of Web Communications Pete Sanborn is heading a seven-member committee to redesign the University's Web site. The changes will allow for smoother navigation through the various sites, including those of individual departments and graduate schools. This will require similar backgrounds and lettering.
"We're trying to create a template to make it look more coherent," Pierce said. The details still have to be worked out, though. "It's a long process," Pierce said. She said they will not be completed until some time next year.
Neustadt will also use his research to try to create a single Tufts logo. There are many shades of brown and blue and fonts of the letters T-U-F-T-S. "We need to unify them," he said.
University President Lawrence Bacow's February 2003 presentation to the Board of Trustees, "Tufts: A University Poised," stressed the importance of an effective communications strategy and was the impetus for the University to hire Neustadt.
When she was considering firms for the job, Jeka said she wanted the University to have the success of companies' communications strategies. "Large corporations have done a better job in creating identity than most universities," she said. She hired Neustadt after interviewing a number of firms.
Neustadt had worked with Wesleyan University, the Dickinson School of Law at Pennsylvania State University, Hamilton College, St. John's College and Dickinson College.
For the last nine months, though, he has worked exclusively with Tufts. "He lives, breaths, eats Tufts right now, which is great," Jeka said.
Neustadt's recommendations were well accepted by the Board of Trustees, Jeka said. "They thought his ideas were right on point," she said. "The trustees' reaction was extremely positive."
