Marketing and Public Awareness

Peter Seidman

Imagine a federally funded research, development, dissemination, and training organization, grappling with the most important educational issues of our time. This institution, national in scope, has researchers in every part of the country, and is doing exciting, cutting-edge research, as well as providing technical assistance to educators. How do you hear about this wonderful organization? Not on Donahue, not even on 20/20 (not yet, anyway!).

No, the marketing of NCRVE--for yes, that is the national, cutting-edge R&D, D&T leader we're discussing--is done by NCRVE itself. Many NCRVE programs do marketing for the particular conference or research project they are involved with, but the Dissemination Program has the task of marketing the entire Center, as well as all of the Center's products. To accomplish these dual tasks, the Dissemination Program uses printed materials as well as other marketing tools, such as an 800 telephone line, electronic "advertising," and a public information office initiative.

In addition, the Dissemination Program maintains the NCRVE display booth at approximately six national conferences each year; markets each of its new publications electronically to roughly 10,000 readers, and maintains an 800 telephone line and electronic communication channels. The 800 telephone line and electronic channels provide the general public with "front-line," easy access to NCRVE expertise. All questions are answered directly, or by referring the caller to the appropriate resource.

Centerwide Resources

The Dissemination Program provides a publicity venue for the entire Center through publication of several periodicals--CenterWork, CenterFocus, and Change Agent--a flyer, About NCRVE, and a yearly Agenda and Human Resource Directory, which respectively describe the Center's mission and areas of work, and the Center's personnel and their areas of expertise.

CenterWork, NCRVE's quarterly newsletter, carries articles by management as well as the staff of the several R&D and Dissemination and Training (D&T) programs, thus presenting all aspects of NCRVE work over the course of each year. CenterFocus is a series of topical knowledge syntheses (e.g., all aspects of the industry), while Change Agent provides digests of NCRVE documents.

Electronic Marketing

Information about Center products and events (such as conference presentations and teleconferences) is disseminated using the electronic services managed by NCRVE (the VocServe bulletin board system, the VOCNET electronic discussion group, and the NCRVE World Wide Web, Gopher, and FTP servers) as well as through other electronic services whose users are likely to be interested in Center products and activities (for example, the AERA discussion lists, the Training and Development discussion list, AskERIC, and School-to-Work Net). These non-NCRVE services (identified by extensive ongoing network monitoring by Dissemination Program staff), comprise more than 10,000 users.

The Dissemination Program in conjunction with the Professional Outreach staff is currently developing a searchable events calendar for the Center's Web server.

For more information about NCRVE's electronic services, see CyberSpace Update.

Publicizing Products

NCRVE has in print more than 250 products, including monographs, reprints, working papers, technical assistance reports, and videotapes. The NCRVE Materials Distribution Service (MDS) publicizes Center products, using multiple and simultaneous strategies to do so. MDS distributes a Products catalog as well as topical "mini" catalogs (for example, school-to-work, tech prep) in both hard copy as well as electronically over the Center's multiple electronic access points. MDS also advertises publications in various journals of education and vocational education; promotes products by direct mail (flyers, postcards); electronically markets publications over the Center's electronic services as well as several independent electronic resources, the exact configuration dependent upon the publication's topic; markets products in the Center's newsletter, CenterWork; and maintains conference display booths.

Public Information/Materials Display

MDS staff maintain a display booth at professional conferences and meetings in order to make attendees aware of Center resources. Products appropriate to the conference are displayed. MDS has a public information/materials booth at approximately six conferences annually.

Public Information Office Initiative

With the recent addition of two staff members, the Dissemination Program has expanded its public information initiative, which was begun several years ago. Damaris Moore, the Public Information Writer, joined the Dissemination Program in August 1995. Holly Halligan, Dissemination's newest staffer, joined the group in October 1995.

The public information initiative includes:

Damaris Moore is responsible for writing the majority of public information materials handled by the Dissemination Program: such items as topical backgrounders, policy briefs, and abstracts and marketing materials for NCRVE documents.

Holly Halligan, the Information Broker/Public Information Assistant, is the front-line contact for all field-initiated information brokering contacts received at NCRVE headquarters. She receives hundreds of calls each month, referring callers to appropriate experts, or sending out requested materials. Additionally, in conjunction with Moore, Halligan creates and distributes the New Products flyer, a bimonthly flyer distributed to targeted audiences.

Mary Carol Randall, the Publications Coordinator, acts as liaison with all Public Information Network members, as well as the freelance educational journalist, Susan White. White writes the advertorials, and critiques and advises on Dissemination's marketing of publications. In addition, she offers writing workshops to the Dissemination staff.

Both Moore and Randall write (or advise in the writing of) press releases and other publicity materials for the Dissemination Program and other Center programs. Last, the Dissemination Program subscribes to ProfNet, an email distribution list of public information officers (PIOs) that provides journalists and authors convenient mediated access to expert sources chiefly at institutions of higher education. ProfNet staff distribute requests to the PIOs who, in turn, pass on the request to an expert. The Dissemination Program Director acts as the Center's PIO, sending requests to appropriate Center staff.

Marketing: A Collaborative Effort

Marketing does not occur only once an outcome is conceptualized (much less after it is produced). Rather, marketing shares its seed with those of priority-setting, research, and development to conceptualize, produce, and disseminate quality products and services. Thus, inherently, marketing is a collaborative effort involving the Center's policymakers, researchers, developers, knowledge transfer agents, and customers in the entire effort of creating and disseminating quality knowledge. In addition, this marketing includes planning and managing of the Center's products and services for many differing customer groups.

At bottom, the Dissemination Program believes marketing is the responsibility of all players involved in the effort of generating ideas and moving these ideas into practice. Such a marketing philosophy means that any marketing strategy must include a process whereby all outcomes--from the moment they are a gleam in the eye onwards--are designed with "quality" in mind--that is, designed to be useful, usable, and accessible to the customer for whom they are meant.

Contact: Holly Halligan, Information Broker, at 800-(old phone deleted) or .

Table of Contents | Next Article | Previous Article