Being a top student brand

Article by Luke Mitchell
This article was a chapter in The Reach Students Handbook (2003)

The UK's top student brands 2003/4
In the course of researching this Handbook, a wide range of student marketing personnel were asked to name their 'top' student brands. These were the names that cropped up most often, in order of popularity:
1 Orange
2 The Guardian
3 STA Travel
4 Pot Noodle
5 Playstation
6 Student Barclaycard
7 Scream
8 Nat West
9 Adidas
10 Red Bull

Look down the list of top student brands (right) and, initially, it's hard to find a common thread to link their success. A mobile communications company, a newspaper, a travel firm, a snack product, a gaming machine. Two finance sector brands have made it into the list, but the obvious connections end there. A pub chain, a sportswear manufacturer and a soft drink only add to the eclectic nature of the mix.

However, once you start investigating themarketing philosophies of these top names it becomes easier to unite them. There are three tangible themes that bring the student brands together. They are investment (financial and emotional), long term strategy and acuteunderstanding of audience. These are all themes that, given time, can be applied by any ambitious brand owner eager to succeed in the studentmarket. But businesses should bear in mind that the very best student brands often have their own unique and developed ethos, and it is sometimes one that defies the science of marketing.

Sheraz Dar, Senior Acquisition Manager at Orange, provides an insight into his company's approach: "What we try and do is give something to students without there being any catch involved. We don't approach them wanting to sell them something, we want to create a relationship so that next time they decide to buy a phone they will have empathy with our brand and think of Orange.

"We put on music events with artists who students can relate to. We will have examples of ourtechnology on display at the events for students to find out about, but we won't have sales staff there trying to sign up new customers. The students have come out for a good time and we want to help them enjoy themselves; they won't change their mobile on the night - it doesn't work like that - but they should go away feeling positive about the brand.
"We don't want to put on an event that studentsreally look forward to and then spoil it for them by selling."

Orange talks to students, no strings attached. When the student is ready to buy, Orange ensures the products they need are there. "You do have to back up your marketing with a product that studentsactually want," says Dar. "It's not all about creating awareness and empathy, it's also about making sure you offer the right product and services. Today the phone is more than something for making calls on. Many people don't wear a watch because they have the time on their phone. Mobile phones are fortexting, for sending pictures, for getting information. New services are joining the list all the time. Students readily adopt and want to engage with these services, so long as they find them useful. We deliver products that students want."

Over at The Guardian, the marketing ethos is grounded in the newspaper's liberal agenda. Marc Sands, Marketing Director, explains: "In my view it would be a disappointing and scary world if everybody only read either the Telegraph or the Mail. The Guardian has a remit about reach and influence, we're about ensuring a more progressive, liberal perspective isconveyed to as wide an audience as possible.

"Newspapers clearly have a role in shaping opinion. The point at which a person leaves home and goes to college is a period when they are at their most influential and influenceable. It's a time when they make decisions that are key, some of which stick with them for many, many years. So there is a window when people are making massive decisions. Students are anaudience to whom our message shouldbe receptive.

"From an ideological perspective, it's crucial that the student audience is open to the message of the Guardian, even if they choose not to adopt it."

Meanwhile at STA Travel, PR manager Louise Clark summarises the leading student travel agent's approach very simply: "We're youngat heart."

Trawling through student websites, newspapers and magazines it's hard to ignore STA Travel. "We are one of the biggest investors in student media," says Louise Clark. Indeed, it often seems that wherever there is a student-orientatedpublication, event or promotion there is an STA presence. "We'll be at 150 freshers fairs this year. We'll be running Student Travel Week again - that's a solely student-focussed promotion that we promote heavily through student media. And I will beoffering some more press trips - I took six student media editors to Brussels recently. I should get six articles out of that."

Few marketers would think to take a group ofstudent journalists on a European jolly. Although things are changing, they too often expect to satisfy student media with the scrappiest of scraps. The only exception is in music plugging where it is common for student journalists to be offered one-to-one interviews with high-profile acts and receive advance CDs at the same time as the regular music hacks. STA's enlightened take on student market PR - essentially treating student media withrespect - brings them rewards.

The company employs two staff to look after relationships with student media. The staff deal directly with editors and union marketing managers every day and ensure at least one press release is sent to them every week. This direct contact is appreciated by student media, as is - obviously - the large amount of money being driven into the union. An investment in student media is also a donation. It pays for more pages, better resources and training courses. The majority of student media is union run, meaning they are non-profit-making.

Long-term strategy"If you're looking for a quick win," says Sheraz Dar, "it may not work. Brands that are popular with students have normally had a dialogue with them for some time."

It is a peculiar phenomenon. If any market could provide a quick win, the student market should be it. After all, almost a third of its customer base is replenished every year with fresh imports. In the space of three years the entire student audience has changed. But no, brands that have taken a short-term approach to student marketing have consistently suffered, while those that invest year-on-year have reaped the benefits.

There are two explanations. Firstly, whilestudents move on, the marketing produced for them leaves a legacy. University and students' union personnel - who don't necessarily move on so quickly - are still on campus remembering, for example, the Orange Student Tour or the STA stand at freshers fair. The profile of those brands remains high among the people who run services for students. When Orange turns up to do an event, staff welcome them back. When STA arrives at freshers fairs, new students have been briefed by those who were there last year that the stall is not to be missed. The brands are familiar and everyone on campus is comfortable with them.

Secondly, brands that have operated in the student market for a long time have learnt lessons. They have got their marketing down to a fine art. Thesuccess of Orange, The Guardian and STA has no doubt come from many years of evaluation. This is certainly the case for The Guardian and STA who, between them, have over 50 years experience marketing to students. Nat West, also on the list of top student brands, has been targeting students seriously since the 1970s.

"Students prefer to discover things for themselves," reveals Sheraz Dar. "Be it TV programmes, be it bands, be it the first time they choose a mobile phone, if you try too hard to overtly target them they will look at you and think 'You are overtly targeting me'. They won't like that - they'll look for a brand that's cooler.

"Students are very sharp, very marketing savvy. There's a fine line between engaging with them and appearing to try too hard."

At STA they have used their knowledge of the changing student demographic to shape the direction of their business. "We're doing packages now," says Louise Clark, "which is revolutionary. We're also offering Global Clubber - trips to the clubbing capitals with discounted entry to the famous clubs. We have to think more widely. Students are so savvy, they've got so much choice. The research we've done shows that students take one independent and one package a year, plus a city break. We have to provide for all their travel needs."

The Guardian's Marc Sands explains the main reason today's students are different: "By the time a student is half way through their second year they're starting to think about what they might do when they finish. It's a fundamental change. When higher education was funded by the state you had time to luxuriate in your student life and get severely into the subject you were studying. If you're being asked to pay such a lot more for education, I think it radically alters why you choose to go to university and what you do when you're there.

"That's changed the Guardian's approach. The Guardian has been a recruitment and jobs paper for some time. But now we push that very hard to undergraduates: we're the place to find your job."

All three top student brands have worked very closely with students. Orange mainly through intelligent field marketing, The Guardian through its well-organised student brand manager programme, and STA through direct, daily contact with student media. They have invested time and money and as a result they have tuned into the campus zeitgeist and earned student respect. With that market advantage they have been able to deliver products with confidence.
In short, the top student brands have worked hard for their success.