The Tufts University Alumni Association is completing a "branding" initiative that aims to make the Tufts community more aware of the association's activities and goals, while promoting a positive image of the university.
The association hired two marketing firms to gather information about alumni's perceptions of the association and its programs.
"We have to do a better job of being ... advocates of the power of being an alumnus from Tufts University," said Costa Nicolaou (LA '00), who chairs the Ad Hoc Marketing and Branding Committee of the alumni association.
The association has worked closely with the Office of Alumni Relations and the Office of University Advancement. Once the offices have analyzed the data gathered by the two marketing firms, strategies will be developed and implemented this fall.
"We've collected all of the data that we're going to collect for this phase right now and we're in the process of vetting some of the concepts that the firm ... has found," Nicolaou said.
The initiative began in 2004 as the start of a strategic-outlook plan drafted by the alumni association. The association found that its name recognition among alumni was low.
Nicolaou said that many Tufts alumni do not know of the benefits offered by membership to the alumni association. As examples, he listed the association's many programs, such as networking opportunities and events in different parts of the country and the world, chances to take seminars taught by Tufts faculty, and opportunities to help in admissions by interviewing potential students.
"Some are not aware [of the association], and others who are aware [of] it believe participation takes too much effort," said Eric Norman, a strategist at the firm Sametz Blackstone Associate.
The association hired Sametz Blackstone Associates and Kane, Parsons & Associates to collect and analyze information from alumni in order to create new communications strategies.
Alumni Relations Director Tim Brooks said that the ultimate purpose of the survey is to make alumni feel an ongoing satisfaction with Tufts' progress.
"Should that occur, many people will feel obliged to support [the] university in a number of ways," Brooks said.
"As we hone in on [alumni preferences], we can get a better sense of how we [should] pull our program together," he added.
Kane, Parsons & Associates gathered data in a preliminary survey, which assessed problems in the alumni association's name recognition.
Norman said the shortcomings in name recognition stem from the fact that the alumni community is estimated to be roughly 90,000 people spread throughout the world and that many alumni have graduated from different levels of the university, such as the undergraduate level or one of Tufts' many graduate schools.
"People from different eras and different touch points ... had different ideas about what Tufts was and different ideas about what [the] alumni association was," Norman said.
Norman's firm, Sametz Blackstone, has assessed the Kane Parsons data, which diagnosed problems in name recognition. Sametz Blackstone has also worked to find new communications strategies to help increase participation in alumni programs, services and activities. Norman said that Sametz Blackstone gathered data of their own through a Web survey of roughly 1,100 alumni, and through focus groups.
"We've moved on to a phase now where we're testing ideas about how the alumni association should communicate with alumni and future alumni," Norman said.
Nicolaou said that one of the most exciting discoveries in the data was that Tufts alumni are connecting on their own.
"What we discovered is, Tufts alumni are meeting with other alumni - outside of Tufts - [who might have graduated] decades earlier. And they're forming strong relationships and strong bonds," Nicolaou said. "This is very good news for us; it means that the Tufts bond is a strong one."
Nicolaou is a member of the alumni association's governing body, which consists of about 300 people.
"Our job as the alumni council is to offer products and services ... to every person that graduated from Tufts, to help them stay connected to the university and connected to each other for life," Nicolaou said.
Brooks said that he is excited to see the new communications initiative.
"Anything at the university feels like it takes a long time, but now that we're closing in on the tail end of the project and we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, it's kind of exciting to think that we'll be sharing a lot of new information with alumni and speaking in a different tone of voice than most of them have heard before," Brooks said.
"We'll probably be providing programming that is more in tune with what they are telling us they want. It gives you the opportunity to make your approach to what you're doing feel refreshed and renewed," he said.
