Late last fall, we published an Insight in which I discussed some connections between marketing and anthropology that would be the subject of a paper I co-authored with RHB’s Rob Zinkan to be delivered at the American Anthropological Association conference. The point of our paper was that anthropology and marketing share the goal of understanding…Read more
Author: Aimee Hosemann
Connecting the Human, the Felt and the Humane in Marketing and Anthropology
This November, I will be back amongst the anthropologists at the American Anthropological Association meetings in Seattle. This will be the first academic paper I have given in years. My contact with the academic research side has been peripheral since I joined RHB in January 2020. I am presenting a paper co-written with Dr. Rob…Read more
Transcript: Strategic Planning That’s Truly Strategic
On October 12, RHB’s Aimee Hosemann and Rob Zinkan hosted a webinar, Strategic Planning That’s Truly Strategic, to share findings and critical lessons from RHB’s yearlong study of 108 current strategic plans across higher education. For additional resources, you can watch a recording of the webinar, download the executive summary of the research, purchase the full-report book…Read more
Webinar: Strategic Planning That’s Truly Strategic
Do you know whether your institution’s strategic plan priorities are visionary or hallucinatory? How can you tell the difference, especially given the disruption of normal operations during the last two years? During our October 12 webinar, RHB Vice President for Marketing Leadership Dr. Rob Zinkan and I shared insights about how strategic planning can be…Read more
Your Institution Fits Inside a Circle (of Influence)
One of our favorite services at RHB is Circles of Influence (there’s more background here and here). We love talking to students and the people who influence their college journeys as we look for alignment or gaps between the student experience and marketing messaging. We use our analyses of the conversations we hear to provide…Read more
Inspiration, Reflection, Recharging: RHB’s Annual Summer Reading List
In higher education, when summer comes the work doesn’t stop. It takes a new seasonal shape. We hope you have been able to get away from work for a little while and spend time reconnecting with the people, activities and ideas that matter most to you. Even when you can’t travel, books can reliably take…Read more
Make a Real Statement about Diversity in Tenure-Track Faculty Job Ads
Many institutions are ramping up for the spring cycle of faculty hiring. It’s a time of excitement and overwhelm for everyone on all sides of the hiring equation. In a context in which a single tenure-track job ad can harvest 400 or more applicant packages, institutions are asking for greater volume in application materials as…Read more
Why You Don’t Need to be Afraid of Performativity
In our study of 108 active higher education strategic plans, we discovered that by far, the most common theme in strategic plan goals or priorities was diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB). Further, because DEIB-related initiatives were often distributed across all the goals in some plans, it became clear that some institutions were holistically reimagining…Read more
Is it Time to Brand Your Core or Gen Ed Curriculum?
One of the fun components of our jobs providing counsel at RHB is helping institutions develop branded core or general education curricula. These distinctive experiences encapsulate your market position and can create strong brand awareness. Before I came to RHB, I spent a semester teaching at an institution on a block plan, meaning students took…Read more
What Do You Really Say When You Talk about Race and Culture? Part II in a Series
As we at RHB conduct diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) audits, guide executive leadership through consequential moments or conduct research and discovery for institutional marketing projects, we encounter a lot of different institutional language about recognizing human diversity. The fact that we continuously encounter race and culture as themes which make themselves evident in…Read more