Penn: beyond the brand name

In efforts to market Penn as a brand, the University’s name seems to be the biggest stumbling factor.

“We might as well rename our school name to Wharton,” College alumnus Shan Gian said. “It’s already an established name, and that way we don’t get confused with Penn State or IUP [Indiana University of Pennsylvania].”

Penn, despite being one of only eight Ivy League universities, is often considered a state school due to its name, Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School David Reibstein said.

“In fact, it is the only Ivy League school that is named after a state, and probably the only school that’s named after a state that is not a state school,” he said.

Perhaps as a result of this, the Penn Bookstore even sells a T-shirt that sports the phrase “Not Penn State” with a “P” for Penn on it.

Even if students find the shirts amusing, there may be a negative side to them. “We are two separate schools … we don’t want to be linked with Penn State,” Dean of Admissions Eric Furda said.

“There’s an old adage in advertising that if you mention other brands, you end up being associated with that other brand. Internally, it’s cute. Externally it’s not the best way to publicize who we are,” Reibstein explained.

Lillian Chou, a Wharton and Engineering junior, said she believes Penn doesn’t always do a good job at marketing itself.

“Many people don’t associate Penn with Ivy or being a top U.S. university,” she said.

“Unfortunately, Penn often gets associated with Penn State, which is well known for its football team — hardly one of our strengths,” she added.

Still, Penn’s location in the city, its beautiful campus, flexible curriculum and reputation for being “the friendly Ivy” were some of the main reasons why students chose to matriculate at the University, according to a questionnaire sent to admitted students by the Admissions Office.

Every school has a different strategy in appealing to prospective students. During preview days for admitted students, Princeton University promotes its own unique aspects. The “essential elements of a Princeton education” such as residential colleges and eating clubs are revealed in depth, according to Cole Crittenden, Director of Studies of Whitman College at Princeton.

“No tag line or commercial video can convey all the complexities of an educational institution,” he said. “Choosing which college you’ll attend for four years should be a very different process from choosing which movie you’ll see on a Friday night.”

While its brand name is perceived differently from geographic area to geographic area, Penn’s overall position is one “that is linked to a strong reputation, history and tradition,” Furda said. “Reputation is important to people … to most families academic reputation is a top requirement.”

In addition to admissions, Penn employs marketing strategies in other areas. For example, the Office of University Communications exists to advance Penn’s reputation and to strengthen Penn’s brand image, according to University Spokeswoman Lori Doyle.

“Placing positive stories about Penn in the national news media … and positioning Penn President Amy Gutmann as a national and international leader in higher education, among other things” are some of the strategies used by the office, Doyle said.

Despite Penn’s disadvantage in general brand image marketing due to its name, Chou acknowledged Penn’s strength in attracting job recruiters.

“I think Penn has an extremely strong brand with companies, which is why top companies come to our campus to recruit,” she said.

Career Services markets Penn to employers by sending out invitations to recruit on campus and to attend University-sponsored career fairs, according to Career Services Director Patricia Rose.

“Obviously, we’re anxious to market Penn to prospective employers,” she said.

Rose also highlighted the fact that having outstanding students is one of Penn’s main advantages in attracting recruiters.

“Penn students as a group are career-minded, and most employers will find a critical mass of interested and qualified students here,” she explained.

Regardless of confusion over its name brand, Penn students are defining the brand themselves.

“Our students are being recruited and are doing well at organizations literally all over the world, so our students have an excellent track record,” Rose said.

Comments (13)

Franklin.

Franklin University.

We were founded by Ben Franklin in 1749 (the 1740 date is a legalistic trick to make us older than Princeton. All that happened in 1740 was that a building was built for a charity school that never opened. We bought that building in 1750.) In 1749 Franklin wrote the plan for the University - including our unique mix of practical and theoretical studies, brought together the first board of trustees in America, created the first non-sectarian school in the country, and raised the money to establish the school.

We are not Penn, who Franklin never liked.

We are the only school established by one of our nation's founders.

We are Franklin -- and eventually the name will be changed to that.

Steve Marmon C'71, WG'81

Considering this is the first day in ages that I haven't seen Penn State gear advertised on the front page of the DP, I think there is still a lot Penn could do to distinguish itself from Penn State and IUP without changing its name.

Firstly, get rid of the advertising for other schools on the front page of our newspaper's online presence (hopefully today marks the beginning of that change). Novel idea: have Penn buy the space so it will link to the official U website, and maybe even to specific programs in need of promotion.

Secondly, as much as I feel like my job search suffers because of the lack of "Penn = Ivy League" recognition outside of the East Coast, I don't think we should change our well-respected name. "Franklin" would open us up to the familiar problem of getting the school confused with another (in this scenario, Franklin & Marshall). Without having the more respected and older name, Penn could very well spend a billion on branding and wind up with the same name problem.

Thirdly, why does this exact article pop up every year and a half? We all throw out Franklin, which is rebuffed for the reasons above. Then someone suggests we sell the naming rights to Google to endow scholarships. Then there are the die-hards like myself who would seriously consider donating our millions elsewhere if the school eliminates the name we know and love.

Fourthly, "Penn" seems to have only become the preferred moniker of the university in recent years. As much as I prefer the more elegant "Penn," the term "UPenn" still seems to suffice in making the distinction between us and the school in Happy Valley with the football team.

I like the general rule: those who need to know Penn is an Ivy, know. It would be great, however, for Penn to do a better job reaching out to business leaders and hiring departments throughout the world to ensure that the Penn degree is respected and recognized for what it is, particularly so that alumni have an easier time of getting a foothold in the job market (OCR only goes so far, especially in a bad economy and for those not looking to go to New York).

I agree with West Coast Quaker...First, Franklin sounds as mundane as Brown, Smith, Cornell, etc. It just falls flat...

As a concession to the age of rapid electronic communication, Penn should just shorten its name to "Penn University". Such a simple but elegant name is texting friendly.

Most importantly, as West Coast Quaker put it, the people who need to know Penn is a top notch university know. Over the years, I have kept an informal running tally who know Penn and who don't know Penn. It is not geographic based but socio-economic based. Generally speaking, highly educated people in prominent positions know Penn. In contrast, the typical "sanitation engineer" or blue collar worker would not care what Penn is, or for that matter, give a hoot about the Ivy League.

Do what I do: use the "Penn test" to separagte the truly sophisticated from the empty suits!

Bigkahuna

I agree with West Coast Quaker...First, Franklin sounds as mundane as Brown, Smith, Cornell, etc. It just falls flat...

As a concession to the age of rapid electronic communication, Penn should just shorten its name to "Penn University". Such a simple but elegant name is texting friendly.

Do what I do: use the "Penn test" to separagte the truly sophisticated from the empty suits!

Bigkahuna

Steve71 don't forget Tommy J started UVA ... and "We are Franklin" University just doesn't have that branded ring to it ... so chillax Stevie and West Coast Dude ...Its all about the people ... Dont be a fool, Penn is cool.

Such marketing anomalies happen because of names chose a long time ago when branding and advertising weren't all that common. A may be able to find way to dissociate your school from the others but in people's minds, the analogy will still exist. It's a problem that can be solved by changing it's name but I'm sure this is not an option.

d, it is a challenge. Camardelle said he is trying to create summer jobs for teens to earn a bit of spending money and give them somethin

The University endowment has shown a “strong rebound” from last year, but Penn is still faced with serious economic realities, according to a statement from Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli.

The Associated Investments Fund, which constitutes the majority of Penn's endowment investments, has returned 13.7 percent as of December 31, 2009 — the close of the second quarter in fiscal year 2010. This is “ahead of the benchmark,” according to Carnaroli.

Penn's total endowment is valued at approximately $5.8 billion, up from $5.17 billion at the close of FY 2009. Endowment goes toward purposes that tuition does not fully cover, including faculty support, financial aid and research.

The value of a dollar invested in the Associated Investments Fund is now within five percent of its June 2008 value, according to Carnaroli.

Penn President Amy Gutmann said this means that Penn's "planning is on track" for this year. As long as the market remains more or less in its current position, Penn will not have to cut into student services, she said.

Still, Gutmann remains "wise enough not to predict what the market will do” next year.

Peer institutions are also struggling with the economic climate.

Princeton University is projecting a 10-percent increase in its approximately $12.6 billion endowment during FY 2010, according to the Daily Princetonian.

Harvard University’s endowment is valued at $26 billion, making it the largest of any U.S. university. Harvard plans to sell around $500 million in assets out of a roughly $5 billion real estate portfolio, the Wall Street Journal reported in February.

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