The Commons

I met last week with Gary McCullough, President and CEO of Career Education Corporation. Gary came up through the Procter & Gamble brand marketing group, and is the former chief marketing officer for Wrigley. He shared with me how he took “a page straight out of the P&G handbook – fewer brands with better differentiation” – and used it to refocus CEC’s approach to branding.

Upon taking the lead at CEC, Gary was faced with an organization that was in trouble in a number of ways – SEC inquiries, accreditation issues, consumer litigation.  “We were not as focused on quality as we should have been.  You need strong programs, great outcomes for students.  People come to us because they want something very specific: professional advancement.  We had lost sight of that because we were focusing only on the quantity of inputs, the number of new students.”

To get things back on track, Gary focused on developing measurements of quality that were understood and endorsed by administrative and academic staff who were operating in 80 locations on two continents.  “Promise makers, promise keepers” became his mantra.  He led the effort to refocus specific schools on their distinct core “offer,” rather than having them continue to spread into areas that made them harder to differentiate.  So far this has resulted in more than 20 separate brands being consolidated into 13 current brands, with more on the way.

“The secret of great brands is the product behind them.  If they aren’t high quality, there’s little left to brand.”  That’s what Gary is working on for the 90,000+ students who are enrolled at American International University, Le Cordon Bleu, Colorado Technical University, Sanford-Brown, and other institutions in the Career Ed brand family.

His advice for nonprofits?  “It’s incumbent on people who run institutions to really understand what you do well and what differentiates you from competitors.  Ask yourself:  What do you stand for? Does it match what your consumers want and need?”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

- Rob Moore, Managing Partner

Tags: higher education, nonprofit branding