MN Latinos in Higher Education

Once we have come to a common understanding of the essence of the organization, we can start plotting out how we deliver this essence to the segments of our audience that we identified in our "segmentation scheme." This single page is a simple representation that shows our overarching theme or promise, some foundational concepts (what the  organization means and what it is), and the way we are going to split out our messages to the different audiences. Here is where we start to get core talking points that we can use consistently in our communications to all the various publics we want to reach.

Page 7-9 of this pdf shows briefly the process of pulling together the research garnered in the earlier phases of the exercise.  The first page is an "at a glance" view of our strategic situation, with a brief statement that characterizes the essence of our message : the "brand promise."  The second slide shows a bit of the rationale, and the third slide shows a "For...It's....That" statement.  This exercise is a challenge, but it helps us understand how we communicate the essence of our organization.

This segmentation scheme lists our organizational and operational goals, suggests a strategy for reaching those goals, and then offers a way of thinking about how to reach the communications audiences based on their needs.  In this case, I created segments based on the barriers that were keeping students from graduating from the University (our operational goal.)  MNLHE would probably use a different sort of segmentation scheme-- perhaps based on demographics, level of education, position in higher education, or something else related to our goals.

Attached is a sample "Strategy Canvas" for the field of student services in higher education.  It compares 4 institutions on nine different characteristics. It shows how the University of Minnesota differentiates itself by offering a single source for complex student services information.

First response to your feedback :

I have attached a pdf of an initial run at a "strategy canvas" for the organization. Let me know if you think we've identified appropriate reference organizations, and if you think we are using the correct evaluative components.  I hope this is just a starting point for this portion of our organizational communications analysis.