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| About Teri Lucie Thompson |
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* Title: Vice president for marketing and media * Professional experience: Safeco Insurance, Seattle, 2006-2008, vice president; State Farm Insurance, 1994-2006, director of customer segment marketing and variety of corporate and regional office positions in marketing and public * Academics: Bachelor's degree in English and business in 1978 and a master's degree in education in 1987, both from Illinois State. * Why she came to Purdue: Great opportunity to work for a world-class organization in a role that combines two loves: marketing and education. This position leverages both my experience as a corporate marketing executive and my teaching/school administration experience. * Family: Husband Lyle, who after 30 years in management for State Farm’s life and health insurance operations is eager to get back to his avocation as a pilot. Two stepsons: Alex, a recent Mizzou graduate who’s learning the ropes at State Farm, and Jake, a college freshman. * Other interests or hobbies: Running, gardening, reading, shoe shopping, following the Dallas Cowboys and St. Louis Cardinals, and spending time with friends and family. |
June 11, 2009
VP for marketing and media discusses recent activity, upcoming initiatives
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The leader of Purdue's Office of Marketing and Media outlined new initiatives and actions in that area in a May 29 report at the Board of Trustees meeting.
Teri Lucie Thompson, vice president for marketing and media, discussed benchmarking activities, recent endeavors, and the 2009-2010 marketing plan.
"Our mission is to elevate the reputation of Purdue by delivering marketing and media services that are strategic — resourceful, measurable, and based on informed decision making," Thompson said. "We are focused on being customer-centric, relentlessly building the Purdue brand, and combining the art and science of marketing."
Marketing and Media oversees the communication of news and information about Purdue to both internal and external audiences in print, photo and video, and via a variety of Internet platforms; branding and advertising; the Purdue Web site; and community partnerships.
Benchmarking Purdue's online presence and media coverage provided a starting point for Thompson's team.
Thompson worked with marketing agency Zocalo Group to analyze how Purdue is represented in online conversations.
"Purdue has a significant presence within social networks, but most of the activity functions to distribute messages instead of engaging people in conversation," she said. "If we can give students, faculty and alumni easy-to-use tools for blogging and teach them how to become better participants, we can create more sustainable recommendations and word of mouth for Purdue."
Another measurement involved using internal analytics to benchmark unique visits to the University's home page against those of the University of Michigan, Indiana University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology over the period of April 2008 to April 2009.
Purdue showed a 23 percent increase over the last year, but had less traffic than its peer institutions.
"This difference may be partially attributable to poor search engine results, so we will be working with Google on search engine optimization," Thompson said. "We will also be utilizing more real estate of the home page to have searchable and linkable content to increase our numbers."
In order to gauge the University's media coverage, Purdue was benchmarked against the University of Wisconsin, University of Iowa, Penn State, Indiana University and Georgia Institute of Technology.
"We found that there is a fierce competition for voice among these peers," Thompson said. "Purdue is doing a credible job with national media placements, but needs to focus on specific topics, enhance its media relations, and use public relations tools such as media intelligence, monitoring and ongoing coverage analysis.
"The audit also shows that Purdue has to compete as Purdue. In other words, we need to concentrate on our strengths of research, innovation, engagement and technology commercialization. It is difficult to compete on topics like health with universities that have a medical school, but we can own science, technology and engineering."
Several adjustments have been made based on the benchmarking data. For example, Marketing and Media replaced the traditional scenic photos in the Purdue home page banner with photos related to University news to better illustrate what is happening on campus. Another ongoing project involves improving the Purdue news site to allow for easier navigation and improved access to information.
Thompson also noted recent success in viral and social marketing. The story of Purdue's "Compliment Guys" spread after the launch of a YouTube video, which has received more than 40,000 views. The duo have appeared in more than 1,000 print, online, and broadcast news media.
As Marketing and Media moves forward, several key strategies are expected to be part of the 2009-2010 marketing plan. These include:
* Building marketing and media infrastructure by continuing work on the Purdue Web site, creating college-specific marketing plans and focusing on digital asset management.
* Leveraging advertising, events and other opportunities to promote Purdue. One such way would be to create an "ownable idea" for the University.
"Purdue needs its own signature event or resource that is branded Purdue," Thompson said.
* Positioning Purdue as a top-tier education and research institution.
"Our aspiration is to exemplify the contemporary model for a collegiate in-house marketing organization," Thompson said.