Implementing the Customer Relationship Paradigm in Sports Marketing

With the increasing attention to services marketing, the paradigms that guide marketing practitioners are shifting. An emerging approach useful to sports marketing is the study of customer relationships and their role in marketing mix design. This qualitative study examines the process, benefits and costs of implementing the customer relationship paradigm in brand identity development. A new baccalaureate university introduced athletics—and needed a mascot, colors and visual identity. Gronroos’ model of external, internal and interactive marketing guided the process. The results demonstrated the benefits of the approach and identified the need for stronger concepts and measures in this emerging research

Marketing Faculty and Marketing Staff: Framework of Shared Opportunity

Marketing faculty and university marketing professionals are finding opportunities to collaborate that deepen research in marketing for higher education, enrich the marketing student experience and enhance marketing effectiveness at their institutions. This exploratory research brief draws on two advancement experts to describe the potential-- and the challenges--of research in higher education marketing, reviews a sample of published research to identify the types of published collaborations and uses a case study of a public comprehensive university to identify types of marketing faculty/staff collaboration. As faculty across all disciplines are asked to take more leadership in marketing their schools and departments, marketing faculty have a unique opportunity to advance their research agendas and strengthen institutional brands through collaboration with their marketing staff colleagues

Consumer-Led Brand Development for a University Athletics Program

A foundational aspect of sports marketing is the study of how consumer relationships contribute to brand loyalty and behavior. A new baccalaureate university introduced intercollegiate athletics—and needed a process to define its distinctive brand assets and to select a brand name and brand mark. The qualitative and quantitative consumer-led process built brand loyalty using Gronroos\u27 customer relationship model of external, internal and interactive marketing. A brand personality survey demonstrated significant differences in characteristics desired by different stakeholder groups. The benefits, challenges and implications of the consensus-building approach for practitioners are presented and the need for richer concepts and measures in this emerging research area identified

Internationalizing U.S. Master’s Universities: Emerging Opportunities for Marketing Faculty

One of the faster growing sectors of higher education in the US over the past three decades has been the master’s university. Another fundamental trend over this period has been the consistent increase in expectations of students, parents and business employers that international experiences and competencies become part of the curriculum at the undergraduate level. Opportunities for marketing faculty from master’s universities to add international perspectives to marketing courses have expanded over the past decade. The growth and re-shaping of faculty grant programs such as the Rockefeller, Rotary and Fulbright grants reflect this opportunity. In particular, the U.S. Fulbright Commission and the bi-national Fulbright commissions have enhanced international opportunities for master’s university faculty, making them flexible and, thereby more accessible to faculty at institutions with significant teaching loads. In the last decade, traditional student scholarship programs as well as newer programs like the Gilman Scholarship, have focused on increasing international study among minority students, both on the part of traditional student international scholarship funders as well as the Gilman Scholarship program. Regional master’s institutions typically serve more diverse student bodies. Taken together, these trends argue for a review of the opportunities for internationalization in regional master’s campuses across the US. The increasing global mobility required of business graduates, the critical role of faculty in guiding students toward greater intercultural competence, and the development of more flexible grants, offers marketing faculty seeking to deepen the international focus of their courses a more powerful way forward. This paper reviews data supporting these trends—and examines the types of grants now offered by the German Fulbright Commission as an example of this expanding interest in flexibility, master’s level universities, and minority students

Multiorgan MRI findings after hospitalisation with COVID-19 in the UK (C-MORE): a prospective, multicentre, observational cohort study

Introduction: The multiorgan impact of moderate to severe coronavirus infections in the post-acute phase is still poorly understood. We aimed to evaluate the excess burden of multiorgan abnormalities after hospitalisation with COVID-19, evaluate their determinants, and explore associations with patient-related outcome measures. Methods: In a prospective, UK-wide, multicentre MRI follow-up study (C-MORE), adults (aged ≥18 years) discharged from hospital following COVID-19 who were included in Tier 2 of the Post-hospitalisation COVID-19 study (PHOSP-COVID) and contemporary controls with no evidence of previous COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid antibody negative) underwent multiorgan MRI (lungs, heart, brain, liver, and kidneys) with quantitative and qualitative assessment of images and clinical adjudication when relevant. Individuals with end-stage renal failure or contraindications to MRI were excluded. Participants also underwent detailed recording of symptoms, and physiological and biochemical tests. The primary outcome was the excess burden of multiorgan abnormalities (two or more organs) relative to controls, with further adjustments for potential confounders. The C-MORE study is ongoing and is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04510025. Findings: Of 2710 participants in Tier 2 of PHOSP-COVID, 531 were recruited across 13 UK-wide C-MORE sites. After exclusions, 259 C-MORE patients (mean age 57 years [SD 12]; 158 [61%] male and 101 [39%] female) who were discharged from hospital with PCR-confirmed or clinically diagnosed COVID-19 between March 1, 2020, and Nov 1, 2021, and 52 non-COVID-19 controls from the community (mean age 49 years [SD 14]; 30 [58%] male and 22 [42%] female) were included in the analysis. Patients were assessed at a median of 5·0 months (IQR 4·2–6·3) after hospital discharge. Compared with non-COVID-19 controls, patients were older, living with more obesity, and had more comorbidities. Multiorgan abnormalities on MRI were more frequent in patients than in controls (157 [61%] of 259 vs 14 [27%] of 52; p<0·0001) and independently associated with COVID-19 status (odds ratio [OR] 2·9 [95% CI 1·5–5·8]; padjusted=0·0023) after adjusting for relevant confounders. Compared with controls, patients were more likely to have MRI evidence of lung abnormalities (p=0·0001; parenchymal abnormalities), brain abnormalities (p<0·0001; more white matter hyperintensities and regional brain volume reduction), and kidney abnormalities (p=0·014; lower medullary T1 and loss of corticomedullary differentiation), whereas cardiac and liver MRI abnormalities were similar between patients and controls. Patients with multiorgan abnormalities were older (difference in mean age 7 years [95% CI 4–10]; mean age of 59·8 years [SD 11·7] with multiorgan abnormalities vs mean age of 52·8 years [11·9] without multiorgan abnormalities; p<0·0001), more likely to have three or more comorbidities (OR 2·47 [1·32–4·82]; padjusted=0·0059), and more likely to have a more severe acute infection (acute CRP >5mg/L, OR 3·55 [1·23–11·88]; padjusted=0·025) than those without multiorgan abnormalities. Presence of lung MRI abnormalities was associated with a two-fold higher risk of chest tightness, and multiorgan MRI abnormalities were associated with severe and very severe persistent physical and mental health impairment (PHOSP-COVID symptom clusters) after hospitalisation. Interpretation: After hospitalisation for COVID-19, people are at risk of multiorgan abnormalities in the medium term. Our findings emphasise the need for proactive multidisciplinary care pathways, with the potential for imaging to guide surveillance frequency and therapeutic stratification

Marketing a “Public” University: Public Policy or Strategic Business?

If a publicly supported entity invests in marketing—when those limited state and donor dollars might be used to improve the base services—politicians and citizens begin to feel uncomfortable. Yet, as higher education in the US moves from state support to a quasi- free market model, those universities that define their distinctive brand promises and communicate them effectively will be the winners. This case study analyzes the possible renaming of an entrepreneurial, rapidly growing public university engaged in extensive public/private collaboration—as it seeks to grow to a “full service” university. The risk factors and stakeholders are assessed, along with alternative ways to accomplish the goal. The case analysis highlights the choice that lies before U.S. public policy formulators: to encourage entrepreneurial leadership in higher education or to re-think current state and federal policies. The case presentation offers contributions to the scholarship of discover, integration and teaching in an emerging field, higher education marketing. It demonstrates the business implications of two competing cultures in universities, the mechanistic and the organic, and makes suggestions for future research in higher education marketing

Let the Mayhem Begin: Branding a Public University

To address the chaotic disruption of technology and the increased competition for students, universities must crisply define and communicate their distinctive points of differentiation. Changes to the key brand elements (name, marks, colors, tag lines) in public higher education have often been fraught with difficulty and a challenge to accomplish. As a result, key aspects of the change process have proceeded in private, behind the veil. This paper presents case research into an attempted university name change that has not progressed to completion. Theoretical frames from services marketing, branding communities and organizational theory in higher education are employed in the analysis. Managerial implications identify key elements and decision points in public university re-branding processes which leaders will want to consider carefully. Directions for future research--and a call for collaboration between marketing faculty and marketing staff to collaborate to increase the rigor of strategic marketing in the public university sector emerge from the research