Cost-Cutting Year? Don't Switch Off the Lighthouse

Show notes

When savings are needed fast, marketing and communications look like the easy place to start. I explain why that is usually the wrong call, and how to cut smarter rather than deeper.

• Switch off the bottom quarter on cost per enquiry, application and enrolment.
• Keep a core of reputation work running in priority markets and with academics.
• Communicate with staff early and honestly during any restructure.

Read the article: In a cost-cutting year, don't switch off the lighthouse

Full transcript

Hello, and welcome to Marketing Greats in Higher Education. I'm Jonathan Sabarre, your host, and this is where we explore the ideas shaping how universities are seen, chosen and trusted around the world. Everything I share on this show is my own personal view.

Almost every university I speak to this year is looking for savings. Restructures, severance schemes, spending freezes. Behind every one are people's jobs. When money has to be found fast, marketing and communications look like the obvious place to start. The spend is discretionary. I understand that logic. I'd still argue it's usually the wrong call, and I've seen the consequences from both sides!

I learned this long before I worked in universities. At the Cairn Hotel Group, demand could fall off a cliff with very little warning. The brands that came through strongest rarely went quiet. They kept investing in visibility, focused their spend ruthlessly on what worked, and used their competitors' silence to take share. We grew revenue from sixty million pounds to a hundred and ten million pounds, and much of that came from staying visible when others weren't.

The wider evidence agrees. Research from the IPA and others shows that brands holding their share of voice through a downturn recover faster and grow more strongly afterwards. Think of a lighthouse on a rough night. Switching it off saves a little fuel, and for a while nothing changes. But the ships you needed are still out there, now steering by someone else's light. Reputation, once lost, is slow and expensive to rebuild. Universities have more to lose, for two reasons.

The first is time. Higher education has a long purchase cycle. International students may start researching two years before they enrol. Cut visibility now, and the impact lands in your pipelines two or three years from now, often after the decision makers have moved on. The second is the story itself. During a restructure, staff, unions, local media and students are already telling it. Pulling back on communications doesn't make it go away. It means someone else tells it.

None of that means budgets should be protected without question. Difficult years are a good moment to be rigorous, often the only moment an organisation gives itself permission. So cut smarter, not deeper. Start by being honest about what isn't working, because every marketing function has activity that carries on purely out of habit.

Look hard at cost per enquiry, application and enrolment, channel by channel, and switch off the bottom quarter. Then protect the long term brand work. Don't keep only short term recruitment campaigns. Keep a core of reputation activity running, especially in priority markets and with academic audiences, because that feeds future demand. And if headcount is falling, redesign how the work flows. Automated reporting and AI assisted content can protect output while the team adjusts.

One more move I'd never compromise on: communicate internally, early and honestly. During a restructure, your staff are your most credible ambassadors and your biggest reputational risk. Picture a colleague learning about changes to their department from a local news site. Whatever they say next, to friends, to students, online, becomes part of your reputation. Clear, respectful internal communication is never wasted.

The most useful conversation I ever had with a finance director was about treating marketing as investment rather than overhead. Once we agreed how to measure return, from enquiry to enrolment and from campaign to income, everything changed. We weren't defending a budget any more. We were deciding together where the next pound would work hardest.

So if you're a vice-chancellor or finance director facing difficult choices, have that conversation before the cuts are made, not after. Be ruthless with what doesn't work, and be brave with what does. The universities that keep their light on through the hardest years are the ones people will steer towards when the weather clears!

Thank you for spending this time with me. If this episode sparked something for you, hit subscribe, so you never miss the next one. And our full season, with guests from leading universities around the world, is coming very soon. Head to Jonathan Sabarre dot com and sign up, so you're the first to know when it launches. Until next time, keep building something great.