Nassau From Afar: Distance Learning
Corrections or additions?
These articles by David McDonough and Barbara Fox were prepared
for the October 4, 2000 edition of
U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Thunder Marketing
What is the first thing that the public thinks of when
it hears your company name? What image comes to mind? Something
positive,
you hope. Rick Brenner, general manager of the Trenton Thunder,
wants the words “affordable family entertainment” on
everyone’s
lips when they think about going to Waterfront Park.
A part of the Thunder staff since its inception in 1994, Brenner will
speak to the New Jersey Communications, Advertising & Marketing
Association
(CAMA) on Tuesday, October 10, at 11:30 a.m. at the Doral Forrestal.
His subject: “The Value of Branding: How Trenton Markets
Thunder”.
Cost: $35. Call 609-799-4900.
“We’ve tried hard to make Waterfront Park a fun, exciting place
that’s affordable and appropriate for all members of the family,”
says Brenner. “That’s important with any company: you try to shape
it into what you want it to be, and make that your image. In our case,
we haven’t raised ticket prices in four or five years, and our parking
is still $1, as it has been from the beginning.”
Brenner acknowledges that in some ways, it is easier to create brand
expectations from scratch than to change the public’s already existing
expectations.
“We were a brand new team seven years ago,” he points out,
“and that’s not as hard as coming in and taking something over
and changing a brand or image. When somebody’s perception is already
set, and people are already used to not going, or have been turned
off by a franchise that hasn’t done the customer service thing, that’s
hard to overcome. It’s hard to combat a bad taste as opposed to no
opinion at all.”
Brenner offers these tips to businesses looking to establish and
continue
positive brand recognition:
When you are creating your marketing goals, it’s very importantto pinpoint the match between what your brand is going to be and whatyou can deliver.Recognize tradition and loyalty and do not ignore it; even asyou try to incorporate new things and keep things fresh.Pick your spots. Much as you’d like to, you can’t make everybodyhappy.If an opportunity comes along, seize it. Remember, says Brenner,that every situation begs for a different reaction.Always be improving your product. Anytime you sit still, you’relooking for trouble.There’s an old saying in the music business — just rememberthat every song is somebody’s favorite. Brenner, a 31-year-oldPenningtonnative, takes a lot of his experience from the music business. Afterhis graduation from the Hun School, he spent some time in school inNew Hampshire, and started his own music production company. “Alocal band up there asked me to manage them. I had them booked allover New England, and the business mushroomed. I ended up managingseveral bands, and doing audio and visual sound work. I did that forsix years, but went back to school (Plymouth College) and got a degreein physical education.””I wanted to do something with managing entertainment: on stage,court or rink. I just knew I wanted to be in that kind of role. Igraduated in December, 1993, and my parents told me about Thunder.I was hired as an intern. I worked for a few months with no pay, andthen with first game, I got all of $500 a month. That fall, anotherintern, Geoff Brown (now the general manager of the new LakewoodBlue Claws baseball franchise) and I got fulltime positions.”Brenner rose rapidly through the ranks, as director of communityrelations,director of public relations, director of production and eventoperations,director of operations, and assistant general manager. Last March,when Thunder GM Wayne Hodes left to take a job with the NationalFootball League’s New Orleans Saints, Brenner was the logicalcandidatefor the GM job. Now that the season’s over, he’s looking forward toattending his first Eastern League general managers meeting in earlyNovember. He’s been there before, but never as head honcho.”This is how you stay on top of things,” says Brenner. “Inthis industry, everybody shares and talks. In the off season, youtry to catch things — sporting events, concerts. You are alwayslooking at every facility for tips, even if it’s just the way theyput the paper towels in the bathroom. At the Eastern League meeting,each team presents a topic: what worked well for them, what didn’t.Everybody shares. Plus it’s also fun and you can swap horrorstories.”Brenner says he and his staff are already hard at work on making theThunder live up to its positive brand image. “I’ve been workingwith the owners and Eric Lipsman (director of marketing andmerchandising) and Brad Taylor (assistant general manager) sinceJune on what we are going to do next year. There should always besomething happening.”Brenner sums up his philosophy thus: “The most important peoplein our building are our fans. If you keep it fun and entertainingand affordable, they’re gonna come. If they continue to come, we allhave jobs. If they don’t, get the resume out.”— David McDonoughTop Of PageLate Course StartsRaritan Valley Community College is still acceptingregistration forms for Fall II semester credit courses, which runfrom October 5 through December 22. In-person registration is duringbusiness hours on weekdays on the first level of the College Center.Over 35 courses are being offered this semester, including ComputerLiteracy, Introduction to Psychology, English I, and two web-basedcourses, Internet and C-Language.Both day and evening classes are offered and are held at RVCC campus,the Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School, and Bound Brook High School.For information, call 908-218-8864.Top Of PageNassau From Afar: Distance LearningUntil now, Princeton University has not tapped thedistancelearning market. If you look in “Peterson’s Guide to DistanceLearning Programs,” just published by the firm at Princeton PikeCorporate Center, you will find that the university is nowhere tobe found.Now it has taken a big step forward to “go the distance”route.It will team with Oxford, Stanford, and Yale to launch a non-profitorganization, University Alliance for Life-Long Learning, to offernoncredit courses to alumni — at first — and the wider public,in the future.Herbert M. Allison Jr., former president of Merrill Lynch, willbe president and CEO. Jeremiah Ostriker, Princeton’s provost,is on the board of directors, as is Heidi G. Miller, CFO ofPriceline.com, Srinija Srinivasan, vice president and editorin chief of Yahoo! Inc., and other academic dignitaries.”Our two primary objectives are to provide the best learningexperiencesthat we can to our students and alumni and to enable faculty membersto explore new methods which may enhance the teaching and researchthey are able to carry out,” says Harold T. Shapiro, PrincetonUniversity’s president. Possible methods are multi-media programs,topical websites with links to research information, live and tapedcoverage of campus speakers and events, and lectures on tape.Oxford and Yale are as new to the distance learning game as Princetonis, but Stanford is one of the world’s leading providers of televisedfor-credit courses, at least in the technical area. Last year theStanford Center for Professional Development had 255 distance learningcourses with 1,500 students enrolled, according to the advertisementand listing in the Peterson’s book. Under certain restrictions, itoffers six engineering or engineer/business master’s degrees and aplethora of subjects outside degree programs, and it also has a numberof noncredit courses(www.scpd.stanford.edu). The cost ranges from$524 per unit for an audit to $995 per unit for graduate courses.About the book: “Peterson’s Guide to Distance Learning 2001,”at 924 pages and $26.95, could set any would-be student’s imaginationon fire, with its mindboggling array of courses in every possiblefield — and no geographical limitations. It has almost 3,000degreeand certificate programs at more than 1,000 institutions.Every school known to offer a distance learning program gets basicinformation printed in this directory, and more than 350 institutionspay to have an additional two-page spread with more details. Amongthe advertisers are New Jersey Institute of Technology ($206 percreditfor state residents, www.njit.edu/DL), Rutgers Online ($800 per coursefor state residents, www.rutgers.edu), Thomas Edison State College(a distance education pioneer, www.tesc.edu) and the New JerseyVirtualCommunity College Consortium, (U.S. 1, August 9), a partnership of19 community colleges including Mercer and Middlesex ($80 per creditfor everyone, www.njvccc.ccnj.us).Always had a yen to be a professional coach? The United States SportsAcademy in Daphne, Alabama (www.sport.ussa.edu) offers certificationin sport coaching for figure skating, body building, exercisephysiology,and personal training. A master of sport science degree is availablein your choice: coaching, management, or sports medicine. Tuitionis $350 per semester hour plus shipping and other fees. Yes, you canget the same degree from a nearby college, but then you actually haveto show up at specific times. This way, you can do your work at night.More than 90 percent of this school’s students are in a distancelearningprogram.At the other end of the scale is Harvard University, which put a solotoe in the distance learning water four years ago. Last year it had25 students enrolled in seven “distance” courses, mostly incomputer programming and information sciences, some that lead to anMLA in information technology. Noncredit tuition is listed in thePeterson’s guide as $950, $1,200 for a credit course(www.extension.dce.harvard.edu/).Noncredit liberal arts courses will star in the newly formedPrinceton/Yale/Stanford/Oxfordconsortium. Each school will chip in $3 million for the launch. Butthe potential participation of alumni (together, the schools have500,000 former students) presumably will help pick up the ratherexpensivetab for developing courses. Courses may be available as soon as theend of next year. The price of the courses were not announced.Also not addressed in the announcement: Questions of compensationfor intellectual property — what, if anything, the professorswill be paid for the taping of their lectures.— Barbara FoxTop Of PageTest Taking SkillsPatricia Shine of Thomas Edison State Collegewill teach a Sharpening Test Taking Skills workshop on Saturday,October14, at 9:30 a.m. for adult students who need help in preparing fortests. The three-hour workshop, held at the college at 101 West StateStreet in Trenton, will emphasize the preparation needed forsuccessfullycompleting credit-by-examination tests, though the material coveredwill be general.The class is limited to 10 or 15 people, so everyone will be ableto get their questions answered. Cost: $30 including materials andrefreshments. Call 609-984-1140 to register.Previous StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
