Why the Marketing Director Belongs in the Strategy Room

Show notes

Almost every major university decision has reputational consequences, yet marketing is often brought in after the decision is made. I explain how to earn the seat, and how vice-chancellors can offer it.

• Speak the executive's language: recruitment, income, research reputation and student outcomes.
• Bring insight and challenge, not just output, and build relationships with deans and finance.
• Ask for reputational impact in every major proposal.

Read the article: The marketing director belongs in the room where strategy is made

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.

When I became Director of Marketing at Newcastle University, one of my first priorities was changing how the team was seen. Like many university marketing functions, it was viewed as a service. Colleagues brought a brief, and we produced the campaign, the brochure or the web page. We were good at it. But we were rarely involved in the decisions behind it. By the time I left, the team was a strategic partner across the institution!

The difference wasn't a restructure or a new title. It was evidence, relationships and the right seat at the right table. Almost every major university decision has reputational consequences. Which markets to enter, which programmes to launch or close, how to respond to policy change, how to communicate a restructure, which partnerships to pursue. Every one lands with an audience somewhere.

When those decisions are made without marketing and communications expertise in the room, institutions often find out too late. Picture a programme closure that's sensible on paper, announced before anyone has thought about how current students, alumni or the local press will hear it. The decision might be right. The way it lands can still cost you a great deal of goodwill. That's when a marketing director in the room helps.

In the commercial world, chief marketing officers increasingly sit on executive boards, because customer insight is recognised as strategic. Higher education has been slower, and I think it's costing institutions dearly. But marketing leaders have to earn their place. Nobody is owed a seat, and the directors who get one work hard to deserve it.

I worked with many of those directors as Chair of the Russell Group Marketing and Student Recruitment Forum, and the successful ones share a few habits. They speak the institution's language: recruitment numbers, income, research reputation and student outcomes, not impressions and click-through rates. They connect their work to measures the executive cares about. And they bring insight rather than output: evidence about what students, employers and partners think.

They build relationships right across the institution. Strong partnerships with deans, finance and the vice-chancellor's office matter more than any reporting line. And they're willing to challenge, saying when a decision carries reputational risk and proposing an alternative. That takes confidence, and credibility built long before the difficult meeting. None of it happens overnight, but it compounds.

The responsibility doesn't sit with marketing leaders alone. Vice-chancellors and executive teams can involve marketing and communications early in strategic discussions. They can ask for reputational impact in every major proposal. And they can hold the function to account for evidence, rather than activity. Some give the director a place on the executive team. Others build a strong relationship with the vice-chancellor and a standing role in key committees.

The structure matters less than the principle: reputation should shape strategy, not simply follow it. Institutions that make this shift decide better, communicate more effectively and respond to change faster. They also attract and keep better marketing talent, because ambitious leaders want their expertise valued. And colleagues notice. Once they've seen marketing spot a risk early, or bring evidence that changes a decision, they invite you in sooner.

So, marketing directors: build the evidence and the relationships now, before you're invited, so you're ready when the invitation comes. Vice-chancellors, if your marketing director isn't in the room when strategy is made, ask what the institution is missing. The best strategy in the world still has to be understood, believed and trusted. The people who know how to make that happen deserve to be there from the very first conversation!

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.