University of Denver + Qualtrics

When the University Relations team at the University of Denver launched its experience management (XM) program, team leaders expected to focus initially on either employee experience or customer experience. But during initial conversations, it became clear that the university needed to focus their attention on developing a stronger brand in the eyes of the public. So, using Qualtrics along with partner market research firm Y2 Analytics, DU pivoted and made brand experience (BX) the cornerstone of its XM efforts.

DU created a BX baseline by collecting feedback from more than 1,600 people across seven different core markets such as Denver and Chicago. The findings backed up the comments that inspired the BX exercise: the university’s brand was pretty amorphous in the minds of most respondents, especially outside of the Denver market. 

But the exercise established a powerful baseline for DU’s brand-building efforts. It not only showed where the university rated compared to a series of competitors on a series of perceived attributes such as academic quality, campus beauty and overall value, but also demonstrated which of those attributes was most compelling to prospective students and other decision-makers. Through that exercise, the team discovered that a sense of belonging was the important driver—and one where DU had plenty of room for improvement. 

“We really needed to focus on concepts of community and belonging and welcoming and home,” says Sarah Foley, DU’s director of brand marketing. 

The brand baseline project also enabled DU to demonstrate that several other attributes didn’t carry much weight with survey respondents, which was useful in building internal buy-in around belonging (rather than those other attributes) as the focal point of subsequent BX efforts. 

Making the case for a brand campaign

To gain budget approval for an expanded BX program, the DU team also needed to demonstrate that a marketing campaign would earn a return on the required investment. It made the case using two other metrics. The first was Net Promoter Score (NPS): people who recalled seeing a DU ad gave the university a positive NPS, while those who didn’t recall seeing an ad gave the institution much lower scores. The second metric correlated seeing a DU ad with likelihood to enroll at the university. Eight percent of prospective students in DU’s enrollment funnel who recalled seeing a DU ad went on to enroll; among students who didn’t remember seeing an ad, the enrollment number dropped to one percent. Those stats, along with a series of meetings with campaign advocates and board members, helped University Relations win widespread buy-in for its BX program.

The BX baseline also showed DU leaders how perceptions of the university differed across seven core markets, and which messages resonated most strongly in those different cities. That data helped inform DU’s choice to launch an initial campaign in Denver and Chicago, and DU is using Qualtrics to power quarterly Pulse surveys that will quantify the campaign’s impact. 

“The insights that we get are just things that we never had access to before. We're really, really excited to take the next step.” — Sarah Foley, Director of Brand Marketing