Minneapolis Community and Technical College, one of Minnesota's largest two-year schools, has hired McVey Marketing to complete a comprehensive marketing audit. The firm will evaluate the college's current marketing efforts, as well as develop actionable recommendations for the future. MCTC is Minnesota's most diverse college, with half of its enrollment being students of color.

McVey Marketing and President Gary McVey were recently featured in a business story published by the Star Tribune in Minneapolis-St. Paul. The article, by business writer H.J. Cummins, was part of a larger feature about how technology allows business professionals to work from virtually anywhere.

Testimonials from clients are now available on the McVey Marketing web site.

"We retained Gary McVey and McVey Marketing Inc. to consult with us on the development of a college brand and a comprehensive marketing plan. He provided excellent strategic recommendations, new ideas, and provided tremendous value to our efforts. He was very responsive to our needs, a pleasure to work with, and a true partner in our work together. Gary helped bring out the best in our abilities, as well as constructively challenged our assumptions when necessary. We have adopted many of McVey Marketing's recommendations and believe they will successfully position the college to achieve even stronger results in the future."
-Jennifer Hayes, Communications Director
Olympic College, Bremerton, Washington

Build brands from inside out
When building a brand for your organization, it's best to think inside out. That's because the most successful brands are built inside the organization first, providing employees, board members and other internal stakeholders with the positioning elements and key messages they need to be effective brand ambassadors. After all, if your internal audiences don't know how your organization wants to be positioned in the marketplace, or within the hearts and minds of your customers, how will others? Said another way, who would build a house without constructing the frame first?

The truth about online surveys
New research by Harris Interactive indicates that surveys given by computer can often get different answers than surveys given by people. According to Harris researchers, people are more willing to be truthful when answering sensitive questions online compared to giving answers to a human being over the phone. Researchers have long fought social desirability bias, where people provide the most socially respectable answer. For example, respondents may claim they attend church regularly when the don't. While the Harris data indicate people are more truthful online, some researchers doubt computer-based surveys are superior to traditional methods such as phone and mail surveys.