Branding: Are We Delivering Jesuit and Business Curriculums?

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Branding Are We Delivering Jesuit and Business
Curriculums?

• La Verne Hairston Higgins
• Le Moyne College
• Colleagues in Jesuit Business Education 9th
  Annual Conference
• 28 July 2006

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Branding

• The process of placing an image of
  distinctiveness in the minds of a targeted
  audience

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Branding

• is anti-intellectual it is morally vacuous and
  manipulative it so dignifies materialism as to
  compromise the Catholic and Jesuit identity of
  our schools
• John Hollwitz, 20041

1Conversations, Spring 2004
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Language of Branding

• Brand equity
• Assets
• Liabilities
• Brand awareness
• Brand loyalty

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What is a Brand?

• Based on distinctiveness
• Key that elicits attributes or characteristics
• A heuristic
• name
• symbol
• Jesuit heuristic?
• ?

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What is the Jesuit brand?

• Historical reputation
• Quality education
• Faith based
• Commitment to social justice
• Strong basic skills
• Strong discernment/critical thinking emphasis
• Non-ethnocentric, accepting of diverse
• catholic

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What is the business education brand?

• AACSB
• Quality
• Learning objectives
• Disciplinary expertise
• Diversity awareness
• Global awareness
• Technologically savvy
• Portability
• Heuristic ??
• ??

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How is the Jesuit brand being meshed into
business curricula?

• What is a Jesuit business education?
• What is the curriculum?
• What is the Jesuit business brand?
• What makes it distinctive?
• Are we delivering it?
• Not just
• Professional preparation
• Job training

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Questions

• Is reliance on our liberal arts core enough?
• For example Humanities as the purveyor of
  ethical education
• Are we subconsciously saying that the content of
  business isnt part of Jesuit education?
• What are we communicating?
• Are our business programs seen as just add-ons
  to Jesuit higher education?

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Putting the Jesuit into our business programs

• Not just community service projects in capstone
  courses
• Economics
• Public good
• Corporate social responsibility
• Business, government and society
• Pre-Milton Freedman curriculum
• The whole person for today and tomorrow
• ?