Ever wondered why you cannot differentiate between any two Indian business schools except by their rank and placement salary figures? It is because b-schools do a shoddy job of telling their own story to the outside world. Ankush Trakru, an alumnus of FMS, Delhi and a Manager at Tata Administrative Services dissects all that is wrong with how Indian b-schools brand themselves. (Special column written for the PaGaLGuY B-school Rankings, 2010)
Chocolate Horlicks & Bournvita are two chemically nearly identical brown malts. The former is considered healthier & the latter tastier. Both these brand positions have been planned for & built over a period of time. Let’s stretch this example a bit. As a student you would get nearly identical placements across, say ranks 5-7 in the b-schools listed in the PG rankings. Your mileage will NOT vary. This is a statistical fact, not just my opinion. So, what’s the difference between the three?
Maybe you’d feel smarter passing out of #5 than #7? Or would you be richer? Better placed?
I am sure there is some reason. As a marketer, the question is who influenced that? It was probably parents, peers, coaching institute, the Uncle from Dubai, whoever. But did those b-schools influence your influencers?
My guess is not really! This collective opinion was built primarily by rankings in magazines and the placement reports published on school websites. Which sometimes throw up data like $50,000 pre-MBA average salary. But that is an off-topic separate discussion thread in itself.
The real problem is that b-schools in India are yet to use a promotional strategy which is not just data (real or otherwise) or random PR about campus events. The market is literally governed by numbers.
Let’s take look at the PR issue a little closely. In their quest to match with the number of guest lectures and panel discussions that other societies within the campus or similar student groups across campuses have organized, there are dozens of these events organized which have no connection to each other. The resultant message coming out of b-schools is often meandering and incoherent. Somebody needs to connect the dots, how is a marketing lecture connected to an economic one. And how are these two marketing lectures similar or different?
Consistency & repetition of message are the twin pillars of Branding 101; sadly b-schools preach this particular homily more often than they practice it.
Engagement with potential students is yet another area where b-schools have done next to nothing about. There is an increased focus on Share of Conversation (SoC) rather than just the Share of Voice (SoV) in the market; and yet when was the last time, a leading b-school of the country tried to (a) provide a platform for engagement & (b) actually engage with prospective students?
Promoting one’s school through faculty is another area which has also never been used effectively, though it does have its own problems. Education is a very didactic business. There are established scholarly paths of promotion that one must follow. Given this environment, faculty are reluctant to experiment on how to promote oneself, or one’s work using any other medium. Added to this is the often murky world of academics in India, that even if one were to do it, there’ll forever be question marks on it. There are unfortunately, no collegiate rockstars in the country.
Till now, the three major points which I’ve raised; rankings, PR and engagement all apply to b-schools which are reasonably well-known, say ranks #1-20 subjectively. There is a huge swathe of uncharted territories as soon as one goes beyond that limit. Here are schools which are competent in some areas, probably deficient in some others, who are just struggling for basic recall and there are others who are extremely visible but viewed derisively due to a penchant for utilizing mass-media in an extremely loud fashion. The first ones are trying to figure out what to do to get recall while the second ones are just fighting for respectability. Their problem and solution lies in the same; how to connect with students.
Let’s take an example of schools who have managed, in some way, to address each of the points raised before
Generally considered to be the best in the world, US b-schools operate in a slightly different fashion. They don’t do an arbitrary guest lecture rather it’s a lecture series organized throughout the year. They organize and participate in MBA fairs across the globe where their best students from that region and otherwise would usually go to have a one-on-one chat with prospective students. Although it sounds oxymoronic, but these are the institutions who have embraced the social web to do their hard work for them. With all the social networks & real-time news aggregators of the world, you are never too far away from someone who is either a current/former student or just otherwise connected with these places. How many Indian b-schools can boast of this statistic?
In other words, they’re sending a consistent and clear message and connecting with applicants. How hard it is to do that?
The best example in India is that of a well-known school in Hyderabad which has come up from nowhere to being considered one of the better institutions in the country. It’s through the single-mindedness of pursuing top talent and relentless focus towards building their brand that they have come this far in just 8 years (or so).
The prevalent question is that of attitude and gumption. B-schools still cling to the adage of merit speaking for itself. In today’s times, that attitude is a little naive.
Ankush Trakru, a PaGaLGuYA member (user-ID: Quintessence) graduated from the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi in 2007. He now works as a Manager at Tata Administrative Services (TAS).