Time to Move On: A Successful Long-Term Partnership Comes to a Close
An Exit Interview with Dell Fascione, Vice President
October 2011
After nearly five years of providing strategic marketing consulting and interim staffing services to Delaware County Community College, Dell Fascione, Vice President of Marketing for Schultz & Williams (S&W) has just wrapped up a highly successful interim staffing engagement.
Here, Dell reflects on her experience in our version of an exit interview:
What did you enjoy most about your work with Delaware County Community College?
As a consultant, it’s not often that you have the opportunity to work with an organization through so many stages of its rebranding and marketing efforts. This was a benefit to the College as well as a very rewarding experience for me. I was able to work with the College long enough to complete a new marketing platform and brand identity, redesign all of the school’s publications and website and create and execute the College’s initial awareness building campaigns. We were also able to utilize the platform to create and execute targeted marketing and advertising campaigns after the initial awareness-building phase was completed.
What aspects of your work did you find most challenging?
Being in the middle! It takes a lot of talented folks and institutional commitment to successfully build a new brand identity and marketing platform for any institution. My job as the lead counsel was to oversee and manage the project from beginning to end, which meant coordinating efforts among the College’s staff, S&W consultants and three strategic partners (Leapfrog Advancement Services (creative partner), MayoSeitz Media and Allied Pixel (technical partner) throughout the branding and marketing planning process. What’s more, once the process was complete, my role changed dramatically by taking on staff responsibilities for planning and executing strategic marketing and communications campaigns, which meant switching gears rapidly and working with the College’s staff in a very different capacity.
Were there any specific advantages and/or disadvantages to serving as an interim staff member at the College?
Ultimately, working as interim staff was the perfect bridge from our branding and planning work as consultants. This move provided the College with the continuity and momentum needed to work as a team and successfully apply the new brand identity and marketing platform to all of the College’s marketing and communications efforts. There was no learning curve, I was already fully integrated into the organization and had been working toward the same goals and objectives during the first phase of my work. I can’t think of any disadvantages.
Based on your experiences, are there any Best Practices around effective marketing and messaging for higher education that you could share?
Higher education is one of the most competitive industries in our region, and in the country. In order to stand out in the crowd, especially in today’s marketplace, and capitalize on the strengths of any one institution, it is essential for colleges and universities to revisit their brand positioning from time to time to be sure it accurately expresses their current status and programs and is student-centric enough to attract the school’s primary target audience(s).
What will you miss the most?
I will miss the environment. Working in a college environment immerses you into the work and lives of such diverse and interesting people. It’s very stimulating because you are always surrounded by high achievers, academic scholars and students who are working toward a huge range of educational and career goals. You are reminded daily of how important it is to engage in lifelong learning and that access to education is really at your finger tips regardless of what phase of life you are in.
How are you adjusting to being back at the S&W office?
After 57 months serving Delaware County Community College, I believe I’m going through a bit of an identity crisis coming back to S&W and facing unknown challenges. On the other hand, it’s a very exciting time to take this experience and put it to good use for other clients. It’s a bitter-sweet moment because I didn’t leave on my own accord; I left because it was time.
Schultz & Williams is a national consulting firm based in Philadelphia providing management, fundraising and marketing consulting for nonprofit organizations, along with full-service direct marketing, database and creative/production services.
