Harvard Seeks to Leverage its Brand Name

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Officials at Harvard University, one of the world's most recognized learning institutions, are considering moves to capitalize on its name and reputation in cyberspace — a move that will be closely watched by other universities.
Harvard is famous for tapping the academic elite, both at a professorial and at a student level, a reputation that could prove lucrative on the Internet, says Susan Rogers, former chief technology officer of the Harvard Business School and now a consultant.
"It is a global brand name without a global distribution system," Rogers says.
Last spring, Rogers gave Harvey V. Fineberg, the university's provost, a 75-page memo detailing five paths Harvard might take on the Internet. The suggestions included upgrading existing technology, enhancing distance learning and creating a full-blown Harvard Internet business subsidiary to sell the university's educational products.
Administrative and faculty response to the memo was overwhelming, Rogers says. "I thought the reaction would be, ‘This really doesn't apply to us,'" she says. "But I saw lightbulbs going off at the highest level."
Because a Harvard commercial Web site would be easy to construct and market, the question raised by Harvard's decentralized schools and departments isn't how, but rather, if the idea is a good one.
Should the university dilute itself — its brand name recognition — by putting its teaching and research on a Web site? Should the site charge users for its content, and, if so, how should pricing be determined? And would a virtual Harvard course detract from a real undergraduate degree that costs more than $30,000 each year to attain?
Fineberg answers those questions with queries of his own. "Does quality and exclusivity equate one to the other?" he asks. "It's arguable. Exclusivity is the wrong dimension of expression of quality of the Harvard experience. If you read an excellent book, does it matter that there are 100 or 100,000 copies?"
Harvard already does business in cyberspace. The Harvard Business School Publishing Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of the business school, signed an agreement last month with Denver-based eCollege.com to market 10 of its courses on the Internet. The online marketing service also put 3,500 of Harvard Business School's case studies on the Internet last year for the 130 colleges and universities it services.
Such projects are extensions of the business school's philosophy to spread its educational product for the broader good since it started selling its case studies in 1922, says Kim Clark, the business school's dean.
But, Clark said, the school would not offer a master's degree in business online. And Clark says he would not allow Harvard's name to be used in joint ventures where control and quality would be at risk.