My Interview with Maria Scalise

Introduction:

I decided to interview Maria Scalise. Maria is the Director of Community Development and Marketing manager at Bryant and Stratton College in Rochester, NY. Maria’s job responsibility is to be a liaison between the nine New York campuses. Maria approves ads, monitors how the advertising is doing, works with sponsorships, does event planning and any type of promotional activity. She is learning about digital marketing, since technology is advancing. Even though she collaborates with all nine campuses in New York State, her job functions are to serve the Greece and Henrietta campuses. Bryant and Stratton’s headquarters are in Buffalo, NY but there are a total of 18 additional locations in New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Virginia. There is also an Online Education Division. Bryant and Stratton’s products are certificates, Associate and Bachelor degrees. As well as offering GED training.

The Interview:

Q-What does marketing do for your company?

A-“Marketing gives Bryant and Stratton’s the opportunity to give students the information they may need in order to achieve their educational and career goals.”

Q-What importance do you attach to market research in your profession?

A-“A tremendous amount. One of the things that this college really prides itself on is the fact that we are offering programs where there is a high demand, so it is very important for us monitor and keep a tab on where are the jobs and looking at Department of Labor and Statistics. Spending time on this research gives us forward thinking so we can stay ahead of the curve. Market research also plays a role in our strategic plan and direction.”

Q-How is the marketing manager’s role related to product development?

A-“Bryant and Stratton keeps a tab on what we are hearing out in the community. We then use this to focus on what the needs are, and then we do what we can to fulfill the education need.”

Q-What are your qualifications as a Marketing Manager?

A-“I’ve just celebrated 25 years here at Bryant and Stratton College, I was in Admissions for 19 years, and I have been a Marketing Manager for 6 years, so I would have to say that there is a lot of history. I have a Bachelors Degree in business but I have a strong interest in the marketing aspect of business. I do a lot of reading and go to educational seminars and events in marketing. Lifelong learning is something that we practice internally as well.”

Q-What is the importance of team work in marketing management?

A-“The importance of team work is huge. I have to work very closely with campus directors, directors of Career Services, and director of admissions. For me to accomplish some of the goals for the college, I need to be able work as a team with these people. I cannot do this alone. I depend greatly on their feedback.

Q-How do you participate in product development?

A-“Product development for me is not an ongoing thing. I only participate when I’m asked. For example, there was a time when we were developing new program, and I was asked to do market research on developing this new program.”

Q-How do you define marketing?

A-“I would define marketing as any activities that helps create brand awareness and helps drives customers to a particular organization.”

Q-What is your marketing mix?

A-Our marketing mix is everything from television, radio, print ads, digital marketing, e-mail blast, and social media. We are doing more and more digital advertising since it is becoming more and more popular.”

Q-What metrics would you use to measure success in this role?

A-“One way is the use of our qualifications call center in Buffalo, NY.  We use this to measure inquiries on the certain programs offered. We also measure how many people are responding to e-mails. We also have a series of Lunch and Learns, where we give the students the opportunity to bring a friend to a venue. We provide lunch and people get the opportunity to learn more about Bryant and Stratton. The amount of RSVP’s we get for these events is another indicator.

Q-How does this role contribute to larger company goals?

  A-My role contributes to being very efficient as we can. The more efficient and effective I am in measuring opportunities, the more it will help us with reaching our financial roles as well as enrollment goals.

Q-What are some of the challenges and roadblocks one might come up against in this role?

A-“The fact that a lot of people don’t understand who we are, and how Bryant and Stratton fits into the landscape of other colleges. We are a college that is built on high ethics and we have the same accreditation as U of R, Nazareth, and any college in New York State. I find myself constantly trying to change peoples’ perception.”

Q-Why did you decide to be a marketing manager here at Bryant and Stratton College?

A-“When I was in Admissions, I doing a little marketing as part of my job. I was in the admissions department for so long, that I was ready for a new challenge. I am very proud of my outcomes because of my dedication and loyalty to Bryant and Stratton College.”

Q-Can you tell me about a project in which you had to coordinate and manage a diverse team of people?

A-“When don’t I do that? (Chuckles) In order to accomplish company goals, I have to work with a number of diverse people. For example, I work and get feedback from the Director of Admissions and Representatives. For our new Lunch and Learn projects, I had to work with career services in order to help develop a panel. We are also starting them in Syracuse, NY, so I had to work with a whole new team there as well. We all need to work together.”

Q-Can you give me an example of how you effectively managed a tight budget to develop a marketing activity?

A-“It’s all about establishing relationships. For example, for the Lunch and Learn projects, we pay for the advertising on the radio for the venues. In return, the venue provides us with the food free of cost.”

Q-Give me an example of effectively you used online marketing tools?

A-“We do a tremendous amount of search engine marketing. We monitor how many online inquiries we have for our programs. We constantly monitor what works and what doesn’t. We are constantly making adjustments.”

Q-Can you give me an example of a campaign that did not work out as you planned?

A-“The lunch and learn event that we had yesterday did not work out as we planned. We needed students to be interested in bringing others to obtain recognition of the college. A lot of students did not bring did not bring others to this event.”

Q-What factors do you consider the most important when attempting to influence consumer behavior?

A-“The most important factor is understanding what the needs are to understand their behaviors.”

Q-Can you tell me about a marketing project that you brought in on time and on budget?

A-“We throw a Back to School Bash every year. The Back to School Bash is when we buy $500 work of school supplies, and we donate them to students in kindergarten to college level. We have done this successfully on time and budget every year.”

Q-Describe a situation in which an innovative course of action was necessary?

A-“This was necessary for the Lunch and Learn project. We were having open house here on campus but no one was coming. If we want to engage people we have to do something different. This was how the Lunch and Learns came about.”

Q-What need does Bryant Stratton College fill?

A-“We fill an education need. The education needs are Associate degrees, Bachelor degrees, certificates and GED preparation for employment. We also fulfill an employer need. Once students are done, employers may need our graduates for employment purposes.”

Q-Do all Bryant Stratton College markets use the same marketing mix?

A-“I would say yes. We use the same marketing mix.”

Q-Bryant and Stratton has many commercials on television. Has Bryant Stratton thought about advertising the Bachelor programs?

A-“We don’t have any now, but that is something that is in development now.”

Q-Does your organization use a bottom line measures. A bottom line measure is an organization’s economic, social, and environmental outcome as a measure of long term success?

A-“The way we do this is by understanding peoples’ wants and needs. We also do this by student surveys and offering classes around student’s schedules. We offer a lot of support from our staff as well.”

Q-What marketing skills do you bring to Bryant Stratton College?

A-“I have a good understanding of student’s needs. I think I bring marketing skills needed to make this company successful. I have been told that I keep strong relationship management skills that is needed for partnering and development. I am a team player an open to new ideas. I have great organizational skills.”

Q-Have you ever owned and marketed your own business?

A-“I have not, although I love the thought of it.”

Q-How do you handle marketing ethics?

A-“I’m always mindful of making sure that we are accurately portraying who we and what we do. The college sets high expectations for our students. We are very mindful of misrepresentation.”

Q-What is your target market?

A-“This is something that I struggle with because it so many people we can serve. I don’t want to exclude anyone. Our Target market, I think, is any student with an education and/or employment need.”

Q-How do you develop strategic planning?

A-“A lot of that is driven out of the systems office. This is a very sophisticated and thought out process. Everybody that is a part of Bryant Stratton’s team has the opportunity to give feedback on the strategic plan.”

Q-How do you develop a marketing plan?

A-“It’s a combination of looking at our history and comparing them to our future goals we would like to accomplish.”

Q-How do you measure customer equity?

A-“One of the things that we look at is our graduation rate. What steps can we take to improve this? We use our placement rate, our student satisfaction surveys as well as the amount of referrals we are able to generate, if we are giving a good customer value, they will recommend other students.”

 

Conclusion:

I learned a lot of what it takes to be a Marketing Manager. You have to have dedication In order to make your organization successful. Not only did I learn about job functions, but the fact that Bryant Stratton College way to succeeds is highly depended on understanding the student’s needs.