The marketing effort is to position ourselves in the market as experts on families. The time was right - no single event brought this effort about. County staff had been initiating their own local efforts, legislators were scrutinizing programs based on outdated observation or perceptions, and state staff provided leadership. Finally, the completion of a four-year plan gave credence to the development of a marketing plan that would incorporate needs identification and planning efforts already developed. Even though the budget was passed, decreased funding in the future is still a threat.
Marketing plans are proactive rather than reactive to budget cuts.
Competition for clients from other educational institutions and private businesses emphasized the need for a plan that would distinguish as well as highlight our credibility through our university campus link and role in teaching local professionals. A committee of county and statewide faculty members met for two days with a professional marketing consultant. It tells our communities what home economists do, who our audiences are, and that we're a statewide agency. A slogan rather than a logo was chosen because it more completely, yet concisely, describes what we're about. It was felt a logo would promote a biased mental image of home economics in audiences' minds and wouldn't encompass the broad range of roles we play.