Student marketing in Europe

Guest article by Kirsten Williamson, Managing Director, Petrus Communications
This article was a chapter in The Reach Students Handbook (2003)

L'Auberge Espagnol, Cedric Klapisch's recent film, was enthusiastically acclaimed by students across Europe last summer, highlighting aninteresting phenomena. There now exists a generation of students who consider themselves to be in part European, with as many similarities as there are differences between them and their fellow students from other European countries.

This presents an opportunity, but also many headaches, for UK marketers with student-oriented brands, products or services. The European student market is a good source of potential customers (several million), withsimilar lifestyle and spending habits to their UK counterparts, but the market is so vast and diverse - despite the similarities the students recognise in each other - that it is hard to know where to start.

Following the current trend in marketing toidentify and target 'micro groups' of potential customers, segmentation can be the key to establishing an effective relationship with students in mainland Europe and to building a successful marketing campaign that doesn't simply involve handing control to a 'network' of ad agencies and watching the budget disappear faster than you can say Erasmus.

For this approach to be effective, the segment needs to meet three criteria:

There needs to be enough members in the segment to make them economically viable as a target

The members of any segment need to be clearly identifiable as part of that segment

Tools must exist (or we must create them) which allow communication with the segment members

The size and nature of the potential market'Over 2.5 million students with a spending power of 20 billion euros1, for whom two thirds of their favourite brands as students remain with them as adults.'[2]

Does this sound familiar? This description would not be out of place for the UK student market, but in fact relates to France, and the research goes on to suggest that 50 per cent of household spending is influenced by student preferences.

In Germany there are also approximately2.5 million students3, followed by Italy with2 million and Spain with 1.7 million. And whereas the Northern European countries have much smaller student populations (Netherlands 500,000, Sweden 300,000, Norway, Finland and Denmark approximately 200,000 each), reflecting the size of the national population, the structure of the education system still allows for cost effective targeting. For example, students in Norway are divided into just four keyuniversities and six university colleges - quite different from the 600+ universities, grande ecoles and institutes in France.

It is also worth identifying what is meant by 'European' and 'student'. The three main country groupings I would consider to be covered by the title 'Europe' are the European Union, The European Economic Area, and the Accession Countries (Cyprus, Czech Reublic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia). We could also consider Romania, Bulgaria and Russia, however these countries hold their own challenges in terms of the economic situation and the structure of university and student support, and would require a different approach again. Students can generally be classed into the 18 to 24 age group, however graduation age extends to 29 in some countries.

Having spent time on campuses in almost every mainland European country, I notice that student spending habits seem to cover very similar themes regardless of nationality. Travel and related services, music and the equipment on which to play or record it, video games, books and materials, computers and internet access, clothes and trainers, socialising - although this happens very differently depending on the local culture - and the all important mobile phone.
It is dangerous to generalise about the different education systems in Europe, however there are a number of features which can be identified and which affect the practical aspects of running a successful campaign:

Work placements are usual, with some students spending up to half of their degree time away from campus

Foreign travel is encouraged and a foreign work or study exchange is compulsory in many institutions

The size of the institution varies greatly, even within the same country, from just three or four hundred students up to 40 or 50 thousand

Linked to this is the degree of specialisation at the institution - for example, one French institution is dedicated to studying durable development, economic and aid policies in Africa, Asia and Latin America (with implications on the likely travel destinations of this group) while another with just 700 students focuses entirely on chemistry and the chemical engineering industry. Online learning opportunities are developing for many different ages and subject groups, affecting the amount of time spent online, and the nature of the sites consulted
The lack of a national/local students’ union structure, comparable to that of the UK, means the buildings to target, and the kind of organisations available to work with, varies again within just one country as well as between countries. Linked to this is the abundance of independent student societies covering many sport, cultural, social and humanitarian activities.

And also related is the range of different contact points which will be needed on campus in order to be able to carry out local marketing, as without a central students' union structure fulfilling the role carried out by the NUS and NUSSL in the UK, each institution has its own way of co-ordinating student organisations and campus activity.

Identifying different segments
Selecting the target group clearly depends on the nature of the product, but also the distribution method (sales on campus, sales from non-student-specific outlets, own point of sale, online or by subscription) and whether the company or brand has already established a good market presence.The most obvious criteria by which to select the target group is geographical. If a product already has distribution network in certain countries then this could be a good base for launching a student campaign in that country specifically. However, if a product can be sold online, or is in fact a website, a segment of the student population across Europe could provide the target. Poland is a good example of where city based rather than country based targeting makes more geographical sense, with many of the more affluent students living and studying in Warsaw. A marketing campaign in Poland could start in just two or three key cities, covering up to four large institutions in each to be effective.

Another effective form of segmenting would be to identify certain factual or lifestyle characteristics, to establish the profile shared by the target group across several countries. This could be include one or some of a range of clearly definable critera,such as:

Subject of study (particularly with so many clearly defined specialist technical and business institutions)

Quality of institution

Gender - women in engineering being a particularly hot topic at the moment

International travellers - for example, the group of students getting ready for their Erasmus placement could be of great interest to an online travel insurer or telephone card company for example

Students going onto a work placement

Alumni

Students starting their university life

International Students

Sporting societies

Other hobbies or interests

Business groups

Pro-active, opinion leaders eg Those involved in organising the student activities for their campus

The categories identified above all have their own organisations, publications, websites, events, mailing lists and campus support staff, allowing them to be reached as a separate entity from the rest of the student population.

How to target the chosen segment? Consider the following:
Stna klat without gniyas a drow! Did you know that when stna touch each other with their eannetna, it is one way they klat or etacinummoc?

Can you see what this message means? After a couple of minutes you will identify the key and decipher the phrase - 'Ants talk without saying a word! Did you know that when ants touch each other with their antennae, it is one way they talkor communicate?'

Now compare your experience with that of a student in a poster and flyer filled entrance hall. The student market is already so busy that, as in the UK, marketing communication needs to be clear and interesting, without requiring a great deal of effort from the student to understand the basic message. This means the language of your marketing materials is important (as well as the concept behind the campaign!). The law in some countries insists that materials are translated and the attitude of local students towards English language materials needs to be considered. Many French students automatically delete English language emails, assuming them to be marketing and junk mail. This is not to say that English should not be used at all - it is very trendy at the moment in a number of European countries to include English words in spoken or written communication, but the balance has to be right.

Understanding the attitude of the target group is - as in the UK - also important and market research can be illuminating. While the buying habits of students may be similar, their motivations can differ greatly. Understanding this enables us to build a profile of a certain target group that can be used to identify similar students in other countries.

The tools available to reach the chosen segment can certainly be compared to what is available in the UK. The key issue is implementation, as the structure of the institutions varies greatly, as well as the timing and day to day activities involved in student life. It may take time to identify the best channel to use. There are 7000 student associations in France alone, and at least eight structured pan-European organisations, of which only AIESEC seems to be visibly active in the UK. National and local students' unions do exist in many forms and the lack of a students' union structure comparable to that of the UK presents an opportunity. The variety of different student associations and activities is greater in Europe and there are more than enough opportunities to identify and communicate via a group or event which is relevant to the brand.

For example:
A national sailing (golf or other sporting) competition - as held in France each year - is a great brand building and sampling opportunity

Working with university staff to create a case study on your brand or product

Sampling at target institutions and relevant events

The most simple (in principle!): effective distribution of posters and flyers

Targeted email shots (via an institution or student group)

Creating a sponsored newsletter for the target group allowing them to connect in a way which they hadn't previously

Creating a national competition - the inter-university competitiveness is a motivating factor for participation

There is no lack of creative opportunities available to communicate the message. I strongly feel that the practical aspect of reaching the target group requires more focus and effort. There are probably only two weeks in the calendar year when the whole of Europe's student population is on campus and not sitting exams (without taking into account those students who will be away on work placements). Similarly, there are only two to three weeks during the calendar year during which all students are on holiday. Working with campus brand managers - or whatever title is currently in favour - offers clear benefits in terms of getting the practical aspects of the campaign right and allows for a much better quality of contact with the target group. I don't recruit brand managers to be a tool in themselves, but work with students on campus who, in my experience, are effective when their role is to stimulate ideas, ensure good local implementation and gather feedback, rather than being a walking brand or selling the product themselves.

When a product or service is relevant to the student market in Europe, a successful approach needs then to incorporate three things: the target must be identified and understood; an interesting, clear message must be created; the practical aspects of implementation must be got right.

The increased importance within the EU of encouraging movement and access across Europe, as well as the development of more regional priorities and spending programmes, means that soon, particularly with European enlargement, institutions in mainland Europe will be competing for UK students just as UK institutions compete for their students. The current 5.5 per cent of students in the UK coming from Europe is set to increase. It is worth getting out to students in Europe, as soon the UK will simply become part of this market and the products students choose will be those whose brands have been built strongly across the continent.

References
1 : Observatoire de la Vie Etudiante 2002
2 : Secodip : étude Consojunior 1999
3 : Eurydice 2002

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