Marketing Strategies?

Sometime this week, I was reading the newspaper and saw an ad about a management institute. It covered a whole page and has been seen very consistently in the last few days. Till recently, they had their tag line as "Dare to think beyond the IIMs". It was annoying enough to see a not-so-well-known institute making a statement like that. But the latest ad crossed all limits when it said - "Dare to think beyond the IITs". Then, they also print the photo of the dean of their institute, who had written one best seller loooong ago. Apparently he is a management guru. And they have a note below his picture saying that to know about his skills, we should read his best seller book.

The first thing that struck me when I read this ad was - either the guy who has written this ad is still in 5th Std, or, maybe this institute is one of those which hasn't got enough recognition inspite of good work. Or, maybe I was just totally ignorant about this institute. Hoping that someone would go - "What! You don't know this institute? Its almost as good as the IIM!", I decided to find out about the institute. And, after learning some things about it, what can I say? I haven't been more disappointed about an ad before. Anyway, I go to visit their website to check if they have some rankings put up. I see that they have "Rankings don't matter" in one of their sections, and yet, put up an ad saying that they are ranked so-and-so in a top magazine. Disappointing. Especially considering that the dean of the institute is one of the more successful management guys in India.

Then, I started to wonder, how should an upcoming management institute advertise? Well, I might not be able to give insights on advertising technicalities, but here are my 2 cents -

1. Do not compare yourself to the big competitors you have, esp if you haven't made a lasting impression on the public from a long time. You need to first make a name for yourself.

2. Do not intentionally use a name which *sounds like* your competitor's name. You are out there to make a name for yourself, and have an identity of your own. ( Seriously, I have not understood the motivation to use names like that - do these people think that educated public falls for these kinda things?)

3. You might have the most successful guy in the field as the head of the institute, but you still need people who are NOT connected to the institute and who have NO compulsion for praising the institute, to make statements about how good you are. Just putting up "promises" from the dean would not persuade people to join. )

Well, those are the few things I could think of. But I am sure any MBA guy with a decent advertising experience could think of better strategies.