Public universities across sizes are adding chief marketing officers to oversee branding, enrollment campaigns, and public communications. Data from 167 public universities (2010–2021) show that institutions with CMOs experienced on average 1.6% higher student enrollment compared with those without CMOs. CMOs help universities better understand prospective students, fine-tune recruitment messaging, and coordinate outreach across channels such as social media and targeted advertising, producing tuition-revenue gains. The presence of a CMO does not produce a consistent positive effect on endowment growth; in some cases CMO characteristics, such as holding MBAs, corresponded with slower endowment performance.
From flagship universities to small regional colleges, public universities are increasingly hiring high-level marketing executives to oversee branding, enrollment campaigns, and public communications. Why is this happening now? And is it paying off? As a marketing professor who researches leadership structures, I recently co-authored one of the first major studies on CMOs in higher education, along with my colleagues Aisha Ghimire and Cong Feng.
We found that having a chief marketing officer is linked to a significant boost in enrollment. On average, student enrollment rose by 1.6% more at schools that had chief marketing officers than at those that didn't. That may not sound like much, but in a competitive environment where many schools are struggling to maintain their numbers, even small gains can mean millions of dollars in tuition revenue.
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