Stop trying to be different. Distinction is the key to college survival.

“Well … we’re just different from other schools.”

Some of us have spoken a version of this phrase representing in-house teams. Others have heard it as strategic partners. I’ve been both a speaker and listener, representing a large private and a large public university, and now as a branding consultant — and it comes up during qualitative interviews in every project I’ve ever led.

But here’s the truth: Our colleges and universities are not that different.

In fact, your school is more similar to its peers and competitors than it is dissimilar. And that’s OK.

Deep breaths. We’re in this together.

In the name of being a good partner, I’ll offer you this: Being different isn’t, nor should it ever be, the hero of your college branding strategy. Nor is it the authentic message higher education needs in 2024 — when perception and trust in what we offer as an industry have waned, shifting our tectonic plates so far from the terra firma where we once stood.

We have focused on differentiation to our detriment.

Here’s an example. If your faculty conduct research, chances are they’re partnering with faculty at other similar institutions that are competitors. Yet, instead of our headlines reading “Faculty here collaborated with faculty there on groundbreaking research to do this great thing that is important to our brand and to the world,” we nearly always read something like, “Faculty here [insert full endowed chair title, college affiliation, and institute name] got a grant thiiiisss biggg to conduct research.”

From higher education working together to higher education isolating itself from … itself. From bridging divides to building walls (using AP style, to boot).

The problem with being different

It’s extremely hard, nearly impossible, for any of our institutions to be truly different. Unless you’re a co-op school functioning on the quarter system, or a school like San Francisco Bay University that is charting a new course for teaching and learning, we’ve got small privates, medium privates, large privates, large publics and massive publics. We’ve got Ivies and “soft Ivies” and land grants and liberal arts schools. We’ve got community colleges and HBCUs. We’ve got face-to-face, online, and hybrid modalities. Flexibility that is customized and tailored!

Yet we still, without fail, tout these features as advantages.

And all of us — and our third-party rankers — have been feeding the public the very language that dices us up and separates us into the siloed groupings we say we want to rise above.

• We all have the same academic schedules (more or less).
• Our faculty have the same merit and tenure process (more or less).
• Our students have access to the same kinds of support systems (or at least we say they do).
• Our locations are either urban, suburban or rural (which mostly makes location a moot point when trying to differentiate from other similarly sized schools in your area).
• We’re liberal arts or STEM. Or maybe STEAM — in which case, we still tend to talk about STEM and the arts in separate sentences to separate audience segments.
• We’re all ranked by the same third-party lists and aggregators.

What sets us apart in our college branding strategy has never been, nor will it ever be, those things we do that no one else does. We need to stop thinking about what sets us apart and start thinking about what we do extremely well and how it directly confers value to students, alumni, partners, and employers.

A case for distinction in your college branding strategy

Now, let’s consider distinction vs. differentiation through a branding lens. We have focused too much on differentiation in our efforts to stand out, which has laid bare the reality that we have forgotten the value of being distinct to stand for something.

It’s the difference between saying “I’m special” and “I’m here to help.”

Differentiation is about features, offerings, products and services — those things we do. Yet, far too often, I see, read and listen to higher education leaders talk about differentiation as a way to stand out in their college branding strategy. Our offerings are the unique selling propositions (USPs) that we all want to own (but rarely can). Think about Coors Light’s “blue” mountains. Or my favorite childhood chewing gum, Fruit Stripe (I mean, it was the only gum that had stripes!). Those products have USPs. But we’re not marketing beer and gum. We’re marketing an educational experience that transforms lives.

Distinction, my friends, is where it’s at because distinction is about being memorable.

Distinction is about mining to the core of what your brand values, who it stands for, and why it exists in the first place — and shouting that one thing, from the rooftops.

All we need to do is look outside of our industry for examples of branding built on distinction. Let’s take two children’s brands.

LEGO® honors the creativity and imagination in children.

Crayola® believes in unleashing originality in every child.

Imagine LEGO® leading with, “Our Lego bricks are made from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene!”

Or Crayola® shouting from the rooftops, “Our crayons are made from paraffin wax and color pigment!”

Now, imagine higher education leading with “We have rigorous academics!” or “Our curriculum will teach you how to think, but also how to get a job!”

Well, we don’t have to imagine, do we?

Differentiation means features. Distinction means feelings.

As we continue to move higher education forward, together, it will be the ethos of distinction that will nourish and help our college branding strategy, keeping institutions memorable, visible, and viable in the face of our shared headwinds. Being different will only tear us apart.