Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/54806
From the Editors Market Like You Mean It I've written for magazines for more than a decade, so it's no surprise that I'm a certified magazine junkie. And as a reader of many publications, I'm more than aware that the ways we access the written word is changing. On paper, on the Internet, on tablets—it's all up for grabs. Last spring, five magazine publishers representing more than 100 titles banded together to address the trend toward electronic content. They embarked on a $90 mil- lion, seven-month campaign to highlight, in the words of their tagline, "The Power of Print." The effort included a Web site at www.powerofmagazines.com, where CEOs of publishing powerhouses such as Hearst, Time Inc., and Condé Nast speak out. It also involved 1,400 pages of print ads that incorporated magazine covers and titles—in the style of a "Mad Libs" game—in statements about the continued prominence of magazines in public life. I don't think the objective of the campaign was to "beat" digital media, as much as it was to stem the electronic tide long enough for publishers to get ahead of the changes to come. But the ads have been collaborative and clever, engaging and eye-catching; they've gotten people talking. Magazine publishers may be facing a challenge, but they're facing it head on. The sturm und drang in publishing seems similar to that in higher education, where business schools are experimenting with innovative marketing campaigns designed to position their programs in an evolv- ing technological and sociological landscape. In this issue's article "Marketing 2.0," we learn about three online marketing campaigns launched by schools as diverse as IMD in Switzerland, Grenoble Ecole de Management in France, and the College of William & Mary in the U.S. In "The Medium, the Message, the Method," we talk to market- ing professionals who offer advice to schools that want their promotional efforts to tap into the mood of today's educational consumer. And in our cover interview, we talk to Michael Crooke, former CEO of eco-conscious clothing line Patagonia, now a professor at California's Pepperdine University. He points out that today's business students strive "to align themselves with organizations or other like-minded people who have values similar to theirs." If that's the case, business schools must reach students who share their programs' values and want to learn nowhere else. Schools must craft campaigns that not only reflect their missions, but resonate with the social networking, globally aware individuals living in today's tech-driven world. Where I'm concerned, "The Power of Print" campaign is preaching to the choir. After I finish here, I'll curl up with the latest issue of House Beautiful and a cup of hot tea. But the campaign's approach is noteworthy because, like maga- zine publishers, business schools must respond to an era in transi- tion, a time when society is still wavering somewhere between tradi- tion and technology. But to capture the public's attention, they'll have to tell their stories more creatively than ever before. ■ z 6 BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2011 RAQUITA HENDERSON