Brand new success for ECU

AN effective communication and marketing strategy is paying dividends for Edith Cowan University, which was among the major winners at this month’s Australian Marketing Institute (AMI) WA 2003 Awards for Marketing Excellence.

ECU entries won in two of the five categories – the ‘Breaking the Mould of Uni Marketing’ campaign in the innovation category, and ‘A Commitment to Great Careers’ in the internal marketing section.

Success in the AMI awards follows the results of a WA Business News branding survey, published on August 21, which found the ECU brand was the State’s fourth most recognisable emerging brand

ECU Office of Marketing and Development director, Dr Lianne Cretney-Barnes, said the awards reflected ECU’s pursuit of creative and successful marketing strategies.

“These awards reflect our commitment to innovation and give us confirmation that outside organisations recognise the quality of our marketing strategies,” she said.

Dr Cretney-Barnes said statistics also portrayed the successful nature of ECU’s marketing strategies.

“These awards help us to realise that corporately we have taken the right steps in the development of marketing strategies that have shifted perceptions about ECU,” she said.

“This year’s first preference applications were up by 31.7 per cent, compared to last year’s.

“Such advances help to verify that we are successfully communicating to our target markets and set a precedent for us to live up to.”

Despite ECU’s obvious successes in communicating its message, however, Dr Cretney-Barnes was surprised at the performance at the AMI awards.

“We have had awards success before – last year winning the State and national titles in the National Awards for Marketing Excellence in the Education category – but this year came as a complete surprise,” she said.

“It’s good to know that the award judges also value the sustainability of our marketing approach.

“While we can see that our strategies are yielding strong results when communicating them to the public, it’s also nice to be recognised as a department that has come a long way internally, for the good of the entire university.

“We will continue to watch developments in the education sector and respond to them creatively.”

Moreover, she believes ECU’s results are a testimony to how such awards encourage the marketing practice to foster long-term commitments and achieve beyond expectation.

“Our results are testimony to the fact that all award programs have value to their industry because they help lift standards and provide a source of peer and external benchmarking,” Dr Cretney-Barnes said.

“They give the various winners credibility and build staff pride, which fosters a positive working environment and an ability to strive beyond expectation.

“They also foster flexibility, innovation and forward thinking in the workplace, as well as encouraging long-term com-mitments to achieving.”