Over the past decade, deliberate efforts to "market" colleges and universities to specific audiences have gone from being a marginal--and somewhat suspect--activity in higher education to becoming a strategic imperative. Heightened competition for top students, increasing bottom-line pressures due to tuition discounting and comparative "shopping" by prospective students and their parents, alumni and stakeholder concern about reputation and rankings: all encourage institutions to take a more market-oriented approach. Presidents and chancellors at some of the nation's leading colleges and universities also have become increasingly interested in an idea that college and university communications professionals often term "integrated marketing"--the process by which institutions coordinate all their outreach activities to try to enhance their particular image or "brand" in the educational marketplace. Academic leaders are realizing that if they want to attract the right faculty, win important contracts, and recruit the desired students, a clear and consistent set of messages about institutional character and value can "cut through the clutter" more effectively than a cacophony of voices. And, much as they might dislike the language derived from the corporate world, many provosts, deans, and department heads have been forced to come to terms with a set of new marketing responsibilities that have been added to their traditional roles. Effective marketing programs can and do make colleges and universities--and their component units--stronger, more able to withstand changing market conditions, more ready to take advantage of opportunities as they develop.