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	SPIN DOCTORS—A crowd of 1,500 gathered in the Field House to see the Globetrotters, who were on a tour of Texas, with some of their stops including Dallas, Paris, and College Station.

Marketing Advisory Council hopes to reach many prospective students with new theme

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a business mission to empower students to succeed and excel in both career and personal development. Those are goals that certainly parallel the vision of our founder, Professor W. L. Mayo, a remarkable man who valued partnerships between students, business, industry and community.

Why is having a theme important?

JIM: Themes and institutional slogans are important language bites in attracting consumer attention and building esprit de corps and team unity. You don’t have to ask a Marine twice to explain Semper Fi. Would you rather drive a Buick or a Titleist? Fortunately, you can do both but not at the same time.

Have you realized that you can be, “all you can be?” Land Rover says that it is, “the best 4x4xFar.” Mercedes-Benz has long promoted “engineering excellence,” and when did you last ask yourself if you’ve “Got Milk?”

A theme can define our values, too. They need to be revisited and rejuvenated every semester of every year if A&M-Commerce is to remain a powerful force in educating the future stewards of industry, business and education. Now is such a time. The trick for the MAC was to explore and select a singular thematic approach that best distinguished the A&M-Commerce brand from others in our market.

Since our University cannot be all things to all people, the MAC didn’t want its message to look like a patch on a NASCAR driver.

Our purpose was to brand the vehicle that is on the track; the one that has an enviable record and the one that keeps runningan endless race against an increasing number of other attractive, super-fast competitors.

We can’t afford to be bunched in the pack and that understanding gave MAC members a chance to generate some spirited, out-of-the box thinking. The result produced a number of slogans, some good, some not so good. They all went on the board and several were discussed in detail by committee focus groups, but the one that best fit the strengths of the school was the one that was finally chosen. “Your Success Is Our Business,” is clearly our banner going forward.

What are you hoping to accomplish short- and long-term?

JIM: We are hopeful that increased awareness will result in increased enrollment for now and the future. A&M-Commerce has provided quality education opportunities since 1889, and while a vast number of high school seniors and junior college transfer students may be unaware of its history, they will all understand its purpose when it comes to preparing them for a job and a meaningful place in society. The theme strongly addresses those issues and speaks to the success of a university with an alumni body of more than 62,000.

Each graduate is a success story and each has shared the rewarding experiences offered by Professor Mayo’s vision to inspire ceaseless industry, fearless investigation, unfettered thought and unselfish service to others. Those core values became the school motto.

Now it isn’t easy to summarize the motto in a brief marketing tag line, but this one does a pretty good job of homogenizing Professor Mayo’s philosophy. The MAC wants to extend that rewarding philosophy to potential students; therefore its job is to take the message to the marketplace and convince each prospective student that, “Your Success Is Our Business.”

To borrow a sports phrase, Northeast Texas is “our house,” making it incumbent upon every student and alumnus to promote the opportunities of a quality education offered by A&M-Commerce.

Like students, faculty and alumni endorsements, the MAC can be another vehicle working to advance the qualities of A&M-Commerce as a premier university of choice. The marketing program will be gearing up by early summer to ensure that our multi-media efforts are received well in advance of the fall 2001 semester.

Jim Ball is a 1964 University graduate. He worked as a journalist and TV/radio program promotions director before serving in the Army. He retired as Sr. VP-Corporate Communications for Dr Pepper/Seven-Up Companies, Inc. in 1997 after a 28-year public relations career with the then Dallas-based soft drink maker. Jim is also a director of the A&M-Commerce Foundation. His wife, Shirley, is a 1963 graduate. They live in Rowlett.

Strategic plan calls for ‘culture of change’

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should ensure that it stays on top in Northeast Texas, Dr. McBroom said.

Making a bigger commitment to the Metroplex “should not be viewed as ‘turning our backs’ on the traditional campus environment in Commerce or the more far Northeast Texas areas, but rather as a broadening of our scope to respond to demographic realities,” states the report. To respond to profound changes in the education environment, Dr. McBroom said, will require that the University adopt what the committee called a culture of change. “We need to be responsive to these new circumstances, to even anticipate and act as a change agent ourselves,” he said.

Offering more distance education is one of those changes the committee recommended. Because of the rural nature of the University’s service area, the distance between Commerce and the Metroplex, and the increase in distance activities from competitors, the school must develop and deliver entire programs—not just courses—via distance education in order to stay competitive, the report states.

The committee gleaned information from sources as varied as focus groups, studies and open hearings. They heard from students, faculty, alumni, members of the community and business and education leaders.