"GO GREEK" Is Not A Marketing Strategy
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Marketing solutions to grow fraternities and sororities
“GO GREEK” Is Not A Marketing Strategy
Four Marketing Insights for Fraternities & Sororities
By Matt Mattson
“GO GREEK!” the brochure shouts. “GO GREEK!” the T-shirt declares. “GO GREEK!” the sidewalk
chalk pleads. “GO GREEK!” the website implores. This phrase is the rallying cry of fraternities and
sororities across North America. This phrase is the most commonly used “tagline” in marketing
efforts chosen by Greek Life communities. And for
good reason. It is inclusive, it is direct, it is short, it is
sweet, and it requests specific action. But it’s also a
little like some radio announcer yelling “SUNDAY,
SUNDAY, SUNDAY! COME ON DOWN TO THE FRAT
HOUSE FOR A SALE ON BROTHERHOOD!” We can do
better. It’s time for a new more sophisticated
approach to marketing for our organizations. It’s
time for more than a tagline. It’s time for less
shouting, more relationships, and better marketing
strategy.
As a marketing company that focuses on building values-centered, research-based, relationship-
focused strategies for fraternities and sororities, we believe that Greek Life has a compelling story to
share with the world. Our fraternities and sororities offer the best opportunity on any college campus
for a young man or woman to get all of their collegiate needs fulfilled in one place. Fraternity and
sorority is this incredible gift that we have to offer that changes lives; that helps college students
grow, learn, and become the best version of themselves. We believe that the marketing efforts for
our organizations should follow “Four Marketing Insights” (which we’ll share later in this article).
Before we get to those insights, however, we want you – the reader – to understand our point of
view. We want you to know what we believe. Read the manifesto below and identify (underline) the
phrases with which you agree.
Our Marketing Manifesto
We believe that fraternities and sororities change the world - for the better - every day. We
believe that fraternities and sororities help people become the best version of themselves.
We believe that fraternities and sororities matter - matter to people, communities, and the
world. We believe that more people in fraternities and sororities = a better world.
We believe that people – real human connection – is at the center of all great marketing
work. Our products and services help people come together, they facilitate relationships, they
are conversations on a grander scale. They grow fraternities and sororities, and they make
the world better.
www.InnovaGreek.com 1
Marketing solutions to grow fraternities and sororities
The fraternity/sorority industry has existed for over 200 years yet it enjoys less than a 10%
market share of 4-year college students. This is a problem. We can do better. The industry
lacks a professional data-driven marketing strategy to sell its value to prospective members.
In the last decade, the industry has adopted more effective tactics for front-line sales (i.e.
Phired Up’s Dynamic Recruitment training for members, staff, and volunteers), and that sales
force deserves strong marketing support.
Marketing is selling. Marketing for fraternity/sorority = selling fraternity/sorority. To
prospective members, to current members, to alumni. Marketing is personal. It is a
conversation. The buyer must be at the center of the strategy. Their needs. Their beliefs.
Their values. Know your audience.
Marketing is a conversation. Social excellence on a larger scale. Marketing is done by the
people. The brochures and brands just make it easier, broader, and more consistent.
Marketing is emotional. It is an expression and exchange of values. It is a heart to heart
exchange of beliefs. A nod of deep understanding and an affirmation of mutual worth.
Our marketing must be rooted in human connection.
"Go Greek" is not marketing. It's begging. It's shouting. It's demanding. It's selfish. We can do
better.
We don't want to be the biggest marketing firm. We don't want to make the most brochures
or catalogs or t-shirts. We want to be the firm that does marketing differently. We want to put
people and relationships and real human connection in the middle of everything we do. We
want to know Greek Life more intimately, more authentically than any other marketing firm in
the world. We want to be the marketing firm that grows Greek life in quantity and quality.
We want to get results. Your goal is not prettier t-shirts, clever events, louder social media
shouting, or showcase brochures. Your goal is more members; better members. The kind
that join, stay, lead, and live the purpose of your organization. The goal is a better fraternal
movement. Innova isn’t another marketing firm, we are the only marketing firm whose
mission is 100% tied to yours -- let’s work together to grow Greek Life by bringing more
people to your cause.
The Four Marketing Insights for Fraternities & Sororities
Marketing is a somewhat convoluted word. It is often confused with its tactics – advertising, public
relations, direct marketing, content marketing, online marketing, social media strategies, SEO, etc.
One of the simplest definitions of the term “marketing” comes from Ryan Holiday, author of Growth
Hacker Marketing, “Marketing is anything that gets or keeps customers.”
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Marketing solutions to grow fraternities and sororities
For fraternities and sororities, our primary customers are our potential (and current) members. So
marketing for fraternity/sorority growth can obviously include many tactics, tools, and methods; from
online efforts, to billboards, to branding, to member training, to brochures and booklets, to events,
and the list goes on. As you consider your marketing plans to grow your section of our fraternal
movement, consider these “Four Marketing Insights” to shape your overall strategy:
1. Know Your Audience
2. Be Remarkable
3. Share Your Values
4. Build a Relationship
Know Your Audience
John Steinbeck once said, “If a story is not about the hearer, he will not listen.” In fact, one of the
oldest idioms of the marketing worlds is, KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. This is rule #1. So what do you
know about your audience? If your target audience is
high performing non-Greek students, and not just
average students who will automatically seek out
Greek Life, then chances are there is important work
to do to learn about them so that your marketing
efforts can be targeted toward them.
If you search the internet or library for
fraternity/sorority market research – solid research
to help our 200+ year old industry understand its
primary audience, you’ll find very little. This is a
problem our company is working to fix right now. In
This Marketer Knows Its Audience
fact, our sister company Phired Up Productions
(www.PhiredUp.com) has started to execute some of this important research already. You can read
the full report on a recent study of non-Greek students titled, “What Do Non-Greeks Really Think of
Us? You Might Be Surprised.” (Link: http://blog.phiredup.com/?p=3143). Here are a few important
insights to whet your appetite for more knowledge about the non-Greeks you are targeting.
1. We are seen as “Drunk Buddies.” The research shows that when non-Greeks are asked to
identify words that describe fraternities and sororities, the majority choose words that fall
into either the “Friendship/Brotherhood/Sisterhood” category or the “Drinking/Partying”
category. All the rest of the words accounted for less than 20% of the responses. We’re seen
as “Drunk Buddies.” Non-Greeks don’t know much more about us than that.
2. Their interest level is neutral. The research shows that despite what most Greeks assume
about non-Greek perception, most non-Greeks are pretty neutral when asked about their
“interest level in joining” fraternity/sorority. Less than half said that their interest level is low,
and most indicated that their interest level was simply neutral. It’s no surprise really, the
www.InnovaGreek.com 3
Marketing solutions to grow fraternities and sororities
research also shows that only 17% of those surveyed had ever even been recruited! We
ignore over 80% of the students on our campus and they freely admit that they’re not anti-
Greek!
3. They want to join something great. When asked bluntly, “If you heard there was an
organization on campus that was about high moral development, human connection,
leadership, and making a positive impact on the world would you be interested in learning
more?” About 96% indicated that they would have some level of interest in learning more.
When we shout “GO GREEK!” they don’t hear that there is an organization about values and
excellence, they hear something average that isn’t for them.
There is major potential on North America’s college campuses for fraternities and sororities to
dramatically increase their share of the student involvement market. There are millions of lives at
our institutions of higher learning that desperately need what fraternity and sorority has to offer. We
have to start our marketing efforts with good research to learn who they are, what they value, what
they’re looking for, and how they can hear what we have to say. Know your audience.
Be Remarkable
Seth Godin has authored dozens of books about marketing. (We recommend reading Tribes and
Purple Cow to get a primer on his lessons that apply directly to Greek Life). He has so much to teach
our organizations. A favorite quote from Mr. Godin
goes like this: “Quit or be exceptional. Average is for
losers.”
Much of the marketing efforts for fraternities and
sororities is average. “We’re about Leadership,
Scholarship, and Service” (Sound familiar?) But
fraternities and sororities are meant to be anything
but average. We’re challenged to be excellent. Each
of our great organizations was founded to be uniquely
different than the ones that came before us. We are
supposed to be the purple cow in a field of regular
cows. But are we? Too much of our marketing efforts
suffer from painful averageness.
As you consider your fraternity/sorority marketing strategy, challenge yourself and the other leaders
working with you, to find a powerful, fascinating, enchanting story to tell about fraternities and
sororities on your campus.
Unfortunately, too much of the more creative marketing efforts for the Greek world are focused on
the lowest common denominator – sex, beer, glitter, and grunts. We’re better than the bottom of the
www.InnovaGreek.com 4Marketing solutions to grow fraternities and sororities
barrel messages that our average members sometimes gravitate towards. Remember high quality
people are attracted to high quality stuff. Be intoxicating, not intoxicated.
Share Your Values
In an internal meeting as he was about the announce the now famous “Think Different” marketing
campaign to Apple executives, the late Steve Jobs said, “Marketing is about values. It’s a
complicated and noisy world, and we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much
about us. No company is. So we have to be really clear
about what we want them to know about us.” (Link to
video: http://youtu.be/keCwRdbwNQY)
Marketing is truly about values. Well, great marketing
is about values. Most marketing is about stuff. Most
marketing is about features and benefits. Most
marketing is boring, average, and uninspiring. Great
marketing is an expression of deeply held beliefs that
either grabs the heartstrings of others who share
those beliefs, or captures the curiosity of people who
might be influenced by those beliefs.
If you’re marketing materials or messaging is a bullet-pointed list explaining fraternity and sorority, it
probably isn’t about values it is about WHAT your organizations do or HOW they do it. But Simon
Sinek, one of today’s most influential thinkers and writers implores us to “Start with WHY.” Consider
how your marketing materials and strategy can express (not just list) the VALUES or
fraternity/sorority life – the WHY of fraternity/sorority life.
Here’s the transcript of an excerpt from his TED Talk video (Available here:
http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en)
About three and a half years ago I made a discovery. And this discovery profoundly changed
my view on how I thought the world worked, and it even profoundly changed the way in
which I operate in it. As it turns out, there's a pattern. As it turns out, all the great and
inspiring leaders and organizations in the world -- whether
it's Apple or Martin Luther King or the Wright brothers --
they all think, act and communicate the exact same way.
And it's the complete opposite to everyone else. All I did
was codify it, and it's probably the world's simplest idea. I
call it the golden circle.
Why? How? What? This little idea explains why some
organizations and some leaders are able to inspire where
others aren't. Let me define the terms really quickly. Every
www.InnovaGreek.com 5Marketing solutions to grow fraternities and sororities
single person, every single organization on the planet knows what they do, 100 percent.
Some know how they do it, whether you call it your differentiated value proposition or your
proprietary process or your USP. But very, very few people or organizations know why they do
what they do. And by "why" I don't mean "to make a profit." That's a result. It's always a
result. By "why," I mean: What's your purpose? What's your cause? What's your belief? Why
does your organization exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should
anyone care? Well, as a result, the way we think, the way we act, the way we communicate is
from the outside in. It's obvious. We go from the clearest thing to the fuzziest thing. But the
inspired leaders and the inspired organizations -- regardless of their size, regardless of their
industry -- all think, act and communicate from the inside out.
Build A Relationship
The last of the “Four Marketing Insights” challenges fraternity and sorority leaders to see marketing
as a long-term relationship-based process – not just an event, campaign, brochure, etc. Marketing
for fraternities and sororities should be about establishing and deepening a relationship between
non-members and the organization.
Relationships are personal. After all, “People Join People.” Marketing should be personal as well.
Fraternity/sorority marketing should be full of personal stories, because (among other reasons)
research shows that only personal stories work to defeat stigmas, like those that surround
fraternities and sororities. So often fraternity sorority marketing is full of statistics, data, or claims.
These can all be valuable, but Greek Life is such an intimate experience – nobody joins because of
statistics about Greek affiliated politicians, service hours, philanthropic donations, GPA in relation to
the average student on campus, or the like. Nobody stays in our organizations for those reasons
either. Nobody supports our organizations for those
reasons either. Fraternity and sorority is such a
relationship-oriented product – our marketing
should be from the heart, personal, and full of
emotion.
An important quotation credited to Dr. Donald Calne
and featured prominently in a great marketing text
called Loveworks by Brian Sheehan and Kevin
Roberts should be instructive for fraternity/sorority
leaders who are building a marketing strategy, “The
essential difference between emotion and reason is
that emotion leads to action, while reason leads to
conclusions.” We should not try to convince anyone of the benefits of fraternal membership through
our marketing efforts. We should not aim for the head, but instead aim for the heart. We should not
tell, report, detail, or outline – we should provoke, enliven, inspire, flabbergast, flummox, or stir.
www.InnovaGreek.com 6Marketing solutions to grow fraternities and sororities Relationships aren’t formed due to reason. People don’t often find themselves moved to join fraternities or sororities due to reason. We are emotional beings in emotion-filled organizations, and our marketing should be emotional. Relationship Marketing = Emotion + Stories + Time. These lessons come from many people much smarter than the author of this article. Hopefully you will be at least as smart as me and choose to dive deeper into their teachings. We recommend reading books, blogs, and posts (and watching videos, listening to podcasts, or just Googling) the following thinkers to get started: Seth Godin, Simon Sinek, P.T. Barnum, Walt Disney, Jay Conrad Levinson, Guy Kawasaki, Dan Pink, Ryan Holiday, Robert Cialdini, and of course Steve Jobs. P.S. Read a book called “Social Excellence: We Dare You” too if you get a chance. Marketing should be an important part of our fraternal movement. There should be major international marketing campaigns to support the growth of this great thing we call fraternity and sorority. The marketing you do to grow chapters, alumni groups, councils, communities, or inter/national organizations should be based on the principles that are followed by the greatest organizations and companies in the world. We are worth it. We don’t need to shout “GO GREEK!” anymore. We can share the powerful story of Greek Life in smart, efficient, effective ways. That’s why our company exists, and that’s how we hope to help you. About The Author Matt Mattson is co-owner and VP of Innova, a marketing company 100% focused on growing fraternity and sorority life. Mattson has a B.A. in Advertising and Public Relations, a Master's in Education, and has been helping fraternities and sororities grow through his entrepreneurial ventures for over a dozen years. Learn more at http://about.me/matthew.mattson. ABOUT INNOVA We believe that fraternities and sororities deserve a values-centered, research-based, relationship- focused approach to marketing. We are fraternity men. We are sorority women. We are dedicated, long-term, experienced, proven higher education professionals. We are storytellers. We are recruiters. We are a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens. We are a large network of talented artists and creative minds. For over a decade, Innova has helped the fraternity/sorority movement with premium marketing solutions. In 2014, Phired Up Productions purchased Innova. This new relationship with Phired Up, and our other sister company Techniphi, allows Innova to be part of something even more powerful – a family of companies dedicated to growing fraternity/sorority life. Innova specializes in MARKET RESEARCH, MARKETING STRATEGY, RECRUITMENT MATERIALS, and CREATIVE SERVICES that help fraternities and sororities grow. We have services to meet every budget. We choose to put relationships before profits, so please reach out to us to see how we can support growing your slice of the fraternity/sorority world. www.InnovaGreek.com www.InnovaGreek.com 7
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