Editor’s note: This article is adapted from a conversation with Vanessa Marquez-Kramme on the Illumination Podcast. To hear the full discussion, listen to the episode here.
For decades, prestige has been one of higher education’s most powerful marketing tools. Rankings, reputation, history and institutional accomplishments have helped colleges and universities differentiate themselves in a crowded market. But as skepticism around the value of higher education grows, prestige alone is becoming a less compelling answer to a question more people are asking: Why does this institution matter?
That question creates an opportunity for higher education marketers to rethink the stories they tell.
Rather than simply telling audiences that an institution is exceptional, marketing can show them what happens because that institution exists. What problems are faculty solving? What ideas are being explored? How are students contributing to those efforts? And perhaps most importantly, how does that work ultimately affect people, industries and communities?
This shift is particularly important when communicating complex research and innovation. Universities are home to groundbreaking work, but the significance of that work is not always immediately apparent to someone outside the discipline. Making research accessible does not have to mean stripping away its complexity. Instead, marketers can create an entry point that helps audiences understand why they should care before inviting them deeper into the details.
One approach is to think of storytelling as scaffolding. Start with something relatable—an analogy, a familiar problem or an everyday impact—and gradually introduce the research methods, nuances and implications behind it. Someone may not understand an abstract mathematical discovery, for example, but they understand cell phones, satellites, radios and medical devices. Showing how seemingly distant research can ripple into technologies and experiences people encounter every day gives audiences a reason to engage with the larger story.
But meaningful storytelling also requires knowing exactly who the story is for.
The same institutional accomplishment can mean something entirely different to a prospective student, donor or employer. For a student, groundbreaking research might represent an opportunity to learn alongside a leading scholar or explore questions that were previously impossible to answer. A donor may see an opportunity to help fund the next stage of discovery. An employer might recognize access to emerging expertise, talent and ideas relevant to their industry.
Trying to make one story speak equally to every audience can ultimately make it resonate with no one. Audience-centered storytelling asks marketers to move beyond communicating what happened and instead consider why that development matters to the particular person they are trying to reach.
That mindset becomes even more important as prospective learners scrutinize the return on their educational investment. Institutions cannot solve concerns around affordability, access or career mobility through marketing alone. But they can do a better job of showing how the educational experience has evolved alongside the world around it.
That means demonstrating connections to industry, highlighting the technologies learners actually use, and showing the range of pathways an education can create rather than presenting a degree as leading to one predetermined career. The value proposition becomes broader than earning a credential. It is about helping learners understand what becomes possible because of the knowledge, experiences and connections they gain.
Ultimately, this requires higher education marketing to become more comfortable moving beyond its traditional playbook. The institutions that stand out may be those willing to communicate differently while remaining authentic to their missions and reputations.
Higher education has stories worth telling—not only because institutions educate the next generation of workers but because their research, innovation and community contributions can shape society more broadly. The opportunity for marketers is to make that impact visible.
Prestige can tell people what an institution has achieved. Meaningful storytelling can show them why it matters.