Colleges advertise for target students

Parents Forum
1

<p>Good article on college advertising trends - the focus is on Kent State's new recruiting campaign geared to face fiercer competition for students. The campaign revolves around a fresh message as Kent State ditches its seven-year-old Imagine campaign in favor of Excellence in Action. The university plans to more than double the sum spent on advertising just two years ago:</p>

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Nationwide, colleges and universities are spending 50 percent more on marketing and communication than in 2000, said Rae Goldsmith, vice president of communications and marketing for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education in Washington, D.C.</p>

<p>Because few schools have the immediate name recognition of a Harvard or Yale, they have to fight to break out among the 4,000 two- and four-year institutions that dot the national canvas. The advertising effort is a dramatic shift, as just a dozen years ago, many schools relied on direct-mail brochures to students, college fairs and the goodwill of high school guidance counselors to speak on their behalf...</p>

<p>`There's a direct correlation between how much you spend and what types of students you get.''...</p>

<p>Today's schools are likely to seek certain kinds of students, be they those with higher test scores to help elevate the school in national rankings, those majoring in environmental science to fill classes, or those from outside the state to expand diversity, for example.</p>

<p>So schools have become increasingly sophisticated in trying to reach the students they've decided they want, Goldsmith said.</p>

<p>They tailor printed material to specific students, send them text messages, encourage direct e-mail communication between prospects and current students, and offer online tests on their Web site that match students with potential careers the schools offer.</p>

<p>But they're also trying to get the word out, period...

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<p><a href="http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/16924350.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/16924350.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

2

<p>Kent State's decision to revamp its media image is particularly interesting since its first foray into college recruitment advertising brought home a CASE "grand gold medal" for most effective integrative marketing campaign. Kent State's first campaign design apparently did target all important audience groups extremely well, which led to increased alumni association membership and related increases in donations to the university. The new Kent State campaign directly addresses the only perceived weak link in the Kent theme line "Imagine Kent State University" which in today's even more aggressive market is just too vague - the new campaign wants targeted audiences to come away with a clear core message and, of course, just getting the word out these days leads to enhanced brand name recognition.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.case.org/Content/AwardsScholarships/Display.cfm?CONTENTITEMID=2131%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.case.org/Content/AwardsScholarships/Display.cfm?CONTENTITEMID=2131&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

3

<p>I hate to say it, but to a parent in their late 40s/early 50s, the phrase "Imagine Kent State University" has kind of a negative connotation. I would have nixed that tagline.</p>

4

<p>Several recent articles in the news highlight the University of Michigan's holistic admissions process and their introduction of the College Board's Descriptor Plus program into the mix. Colleges that use this program propose to target students deemed to be most likely not just to apply but actually attend. So, in some cases we may see a change in the type and volume of college related mail this type of recruiting approach is more cost efficient and designed accordingly - as in the case of Brandeis - with the most mail, including the glossy and more expensive viewbooks, only sent out to those students identified by the CB student search and geo-demographics as most receptive to the material. In other words, the hope is the stuff won't wind up in the circular file.</p>

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U-M used Descriptor Plus, a new program from the College Board that helps admissions officers get a broader view of each applicant by using geo-demography, while sifting through about 27,000 applications for this year's class. And it hopes the program, which costs $15,000 a year, will help the school maintain a diverse campus in the wake of the passage of Proposal 2.</p>

<p>Right now, 40 U.S. colleges and universities use the system, and Michigan State University plans to use it in its next admissions cycle, said Steve Graff, director of admissions and enrollment services for the College Board.</p>

<p>He said Descriptor Plus uses census data, information from students, income and education statistics to create clusters. U-M and other colleges can then target particular clusters to achieve the mix of students they would like to see on campus.</p>

<p>"We're really looking to show that where a student lives and where they go to school have an influence about where they'll go to college," Graff said.

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<p><a href="http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007703290320%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007703290320&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>