Why market your department?

This article by Russel Olwell of Eastern Michigan University provides some insights from an academic's perspective.

"For faculty and administrators, the skills of marketing are becoming vital. While university programs and initiatives should not be driven by marketing, faculty and administrators would do well to work at tightening up their message, using more emotion in their appeals, and trying to be more relentless about getting the word out."

Colleges and universities do not lack for good programs, but often lack the next step — getting the word out about their areas of excellence. First, unlike academic prose, the message needs to be succinct and clear. ...
Every sentence and paragraph I initially wrote for Education Minute was deemed too long, too complex, too many ideas. As an academic, there is almost nothing that comes out of my mouth that does not contain commas, colons and semi-colons. Messages to market a university or program are much more straightforward — subject, verb, object, punctuation, and I have had to learn to tighten and punch up my prose. ...
Second, marketing work draws on emotion far more than academic work. People who work in marketing and branding traffic in feelings, not abstract ideas....
I also learned that you need to be persistent in marketing your work. The media market place is a chaotic, loud place, and most professors are not used to attracting attention to themselves. But that is exactly what is expected in marketing — you and your product need to be out front, making noise. Marketing rewards those who make the phone call, send the e-mail, pitch the deal, shake a lot of hands and press their case to decision makers.