The Student Cruise

Reach Students is delighted to be official marketing partner for The Student Cruise.

If you are a brand or agency interested in getting involved, get in touch with Luke. There are numerous opportunities, from the conventional to the creative.

The Student Cruise is two separate ocean parties taking place this October, one journeying from Portsmouth to St Malo, the other from Newcastle to Amsterdam.

Yes that’s right – a proper cruise on a proper ship featuring 3,000 proper students and a packed agenda of partying and quality entertainment.

The ship’s main stage is being filled by DJs from top house music brand Slinky.

Comedy acts are being delivered by Avalon, who represent the cream of UK comedy talent – everyone from Frank Skinner and Jenny Éclair to Dave Gorman, Harry Hill and Al Murray.

Brands already involved include Red Bull and Ladbrokes Poker.

Already thousands of students have registered an interest in The Student Cruise and media attention has begun.

Next week The Student Cruise begins an on-campus marketing campaign to promote the event.

To find out more about the cruises themselves sail over to The Student Cruise website.

To speak to Luke about marketing opportunities call 0870 199 6495 or email via the Reach Students homepage.

As graduate organisers Ian and David say: “It’s the biggest boat journey since Noah and his ark”.

Beach Break Live

This looks interesting...

The student beach break with a festival vibe
A unique and memorable three days, three nights on a stretch of land overlooking the renowned Polzeath beach, North Cornwall.

Emphasis on culture, performance and outdoor activity.

Student prices – tickets £65 (including camping) with return travel by coach from only £20.

The first democratic line up - ticket holders choose the band line-up by voting on their favourite breaking bands.

Where students “create the space”
Universities societies across the UK will showcase some of the UK’s best talents in film, comedy, theatre, surfing, dance etc.

Alongside leading artists
Live music from the UK’s best breaking bands including Baby Head, The Ray Barnaby Quartet, Suzerain, alongside top DJs including Scratch Perverts and Groove Armada (all TBC).

Guest speakers.

Underpinned by a strong ethical message
An ethically responsible, socially sustainable event that informs customers about its values using experience.

‘Fair business’ – a simple business ethic that addresses the disconnect between people and profit.

Contact Celia Norowzian for details of numerous sponsorship and commercial opportunities: 07917 421471.

More ways to reach London students

The student marketing environment is more competitive than it ever was, with all sorts of university keyholders and start-up media owners offering new ways to reach students.

Universities are thinking more commercially than they ever have, whether it's about their student recruitment markets or monetising their own assets.

It's a trend that I believe will only grow.

Here's an example. University of London Housing Services have traditionally relied on funding from the various colleges that make up the University of London. They topped this up with income from landlords, letting agents and private companies.

Now they are widening their net to capture broader student marketing spend, offering a range of opportunities to anyone interested in targeting London students, including print, email and web advertising.

They are the largest private sector housing advice service for students in London, with more than 40,000 regular users of their service.

To have a look at their rate card, contact Roland Shanks on 0207 862 8071.

It's clear that universities could exploit their situation and create complete, integrated marketing environments if they wished. To date, most haven't been interested, preferring to focus on the job of educating and supporting their student cohort.

However, slowly we are seeing universities becoming more inclined to consider their students as assets.

Today's student

Today's student originally appeared in 2005's book Targeting Students: A Marketing Guide and formed the introduction.

Students are widely recognised as a valuable audience to engage with. They are at an age when they make decisions that stick with them for many years. Compared with other audiences, the 18 to 24 year-old in full-time education is highly consumptive in various product sectors, such as cinema, mobile communications, music, internet banking, snack food, beverages and healthcare. And although many marketers find it hard to pitch their communications effectively to students, those that get it right often find the response is enthusiastic.

Student marketing has grown significantly in the last ten years and the marketplace has become crowded and competitive. Students have also become more marketing savvy, and any marketer that wants to engage should not underestimate the student's understanding of techniques and motives. The attitude generally of students to marketing is, in part, trend dependent; there was a cultural backlash in the late-Nineties which caught out those marketers behind the pace. Today's student, now fully aware of his or her worth to marketers, assumes an attitude of perceived power, striking deals and often seeking to get one over on the marketer.

Today's student is conscious that there is a literal price to pay for their education. They seek maximum value from the experience, whether that be on a social, academic or personal development level. The shift of funding structures in recent years has turned around the 'poor student' legend; today many students have relatively easy access to cash while at university or college but become poor on graduation when years of debt-accumulation begin to impact and loans stop. Imminent changes in the funding structure is likely to create an even more dramatic contrast between student and graduate finances: students will find university life easier to survive but post-graduation will bring some mighty debt.

Every year the student accommodation provider, UNITE, commissions MORI to find out what students feel about their university experience. The key findings of 2005's survey were:

Students are generally a happy and contented group, enjoying the freedom to live as they want and considering the experience to be worthwhile. On the downside, increasing proportions are feeling stressed since coming to university.

Financial constraints are likely to be adding to the stress factor with little money, debt and the lack of a regular income being the three worst aspects of student life. Trying to juggle studying with other commitments, especially work are also key triggers.

Students enjoy their social lives, a large majority feel that they have good opportunities for social activities, to meet people and to try new experiences.

The pub is their favourite activity but despite a high level of awareness of the risks of binge drinking, significant proportions buy more alcohol than the recommended levels for safe drinking. Similarly, significant proportions continue to smoke and do not acknowledge the risks involved. However, they are more likely to recognise the dangers of smoking cannabis and, especially, using hard drugs.

Despite their vices, more students today care about fitness than in previous years. Seven in ten now claim to care very much about health and fitness in body and mind compared with the four in ten who said three years ago that they spent their spare time playing sport or taking exercise.

Mobile phones with picture messaging are the gadget of choice with males owning the most gadgets overall.

This book takes a look at more of the research findings that help create a vivid picture of today's student in the marketing context, including chapters on advertising that gets noticed, segmentation opportunities and market research techniques. There is also a close look at some specialised areas, such as field marketing, student television and working with students' unions.

In the preceding book to this, the Reach Students Handbook (2003), we predicted it would be a critical year for the big student websites and student brand manager schemes, that new student media such as SUBtv (students' unions plasma screens) would be worth watching closely, and that new innovative methods would be employed in student marketing to engage students.

Since then Virginstudent.com and StudentUK.com have both lost their financial backing, The Guardian has ended its brand manager scheme (one of the most successful in its time) because it feels the idea has been exhausted, and SUBtv has developed into one of the market's most interesting and versatile media. There have been various new advertising ideas employed, projections onto university buildings being a popular one, some of them more gimmicky than others - the fleeting availability of students foreheads for advertising messages springs to mind.

This year we believe that clients will start to demand more accountability from their student marketing, which in turn will either force results or bring more pressure on those at the front line than can be managed. A massive amount of student marketing is eventually realised by or within students' unions, institutions that are not overly concerned with profit-making. They will be asked to deliver more, and inevitably there will be those that can't or won't, encouraging the search for other routes to access the student audience.

Among specialist agencies there is a spirit of co-operation and consolidation that is welcome: the cowboy days that gave this sector a bad name are fading, and experienced student marketers are willing to work together to create a more attractive and rewarding experience for clients.

All in all, it could be the year that student marketing comes of age.

Making student marketing budgets accountable

Guest article by Ben Marks, Opinionpanel. First published in the book Targeting Students: A Marketing Guide (2005).

Ben Marks set up Opinionpanel in January 2004 in association with Professor Martin Collins, former Chair of the Market Research Society and leading writer on research techniques. Ben has over fifteen years of marketing and market research experience and an MBA from City University. Opinionpanel Research runs The Student Panel comprised of 22,000 students in UK higher education.

Here he explains why he set up Opinionpanel, the first online research panel dedicated to the student market, and how it could help deal with one of the key issues in student marketing: accountability...

Student marketing budgets have, for too long, been unaccountable due to a lack of access to quantitative research. Over the last year, The Student Panel has made quantitative research among students affordable.

For many in student marketing, market research simply means thinking back to being at university. For the more analytical and those prepared to accept that times change (and rarely has there been more change in higher education than over the past decade or so) market research often means the focus group. These have reached almost mythical status; politicians - and marketers - announce no changes unless their plans have been shown to 'research well' in groups.

But while focus groups are ideal in certain circumstances, they simply cannot answer many of the important questions. If you need to determine your market size and share accurately, measure the effectiveness of your campaign and compare it to the national norm, segment your market, benchmark against competitors, run opinion polls, test customer satisfaction or measure brand awareness, you really have no alternative to quantitative research. Yet in the student niche, quantitative market research methods usually get overlooked.

For example, as we reach a tipping point in the PC market, it is quantitative research that is best suited to provide time-sensitive, market share data. We researched a representative sample of 1031 students and found that today, more own laptops (38%) than desktop PCs (37%), and an astonishing 22% of students own both a laptop and desktop PC. With the rapid proliferation of wireless hotspots on campuses and in halls, it seems mobile computing is finally coming of age amongst students, and marketers need to know these kinds of 'hard facts' as they happen, not a year later, and not through an anecdotal sense that laptops are becoming popular.

The reason quantitative methods have been neglected: there simply hasn't been much available on students. While the general UK consumer market has plenty of independent sources for tracking and market measurement, they have all tended to let students slip under their radar. Long holidays, variable work hours, frequent home moves and a lack of fixed line phone contacts have conspired against representative samples appearing in (supposedly) UK representative research. In terms of research tailored specifically for students, very little has been developed, either for ad hoc or continuous work. Research firms have traditionally baulked at making big investments in what they see as niche market (despite the spectacular growth in recent years). Finally, samples of students that are specially recruited tend to be either of poor quality (just a few sampling points on each campus at a small number of universities) or time-consuming and extremely expensive. The result: students have become a research blind spot.

This has been bad news for student marketing. It has led to a proliferation of 'best guess' marketing strategies based on the unsubstantiated claims of media owners. It has meant substantial marketing investment in the student market that has not been made accountable - which has led to some spectacular failures over the years. It has meant marketing has been heavy on implementation and light on analysis, planning and control. Not a very fertile business environment; and where angels fear to tread…

Most of the bespoke student market research services, in the past, have been provided by media owners and marketers with big student subscriber lists. They have tended to fail due to a lack of independence, lack of expertise, unrepresentative lists and importantly, subscribers who got fed up with providing free research for companies they were contracted to for other purposes.

Opinionpanel is different because we are specialists, independent and fully accredited. We have the only fully representative online sample, with over 22,000 students covering almost every one of the 170 higher education institutions in the UK, and large enough to provide robust coverage for almost every sub-group: sex, ethnicity, type of course, individual institutions, etc. They are all pre-recruited through agreement with UCAS (the UK's central body for handling university applications) and word of mouth.

Face-to-face recruitment on campuses fills quota gaps, making the panel nationally representative. Each panellist has actively submitted a detailed joining questionnaire, is rewarded by Amazon vouchers, and receives regular feedback bulletins. Our panel members are never approached for sales or marketing purposes. Rigorous security procedures mean there are no multiple identities and every panellist is a 'real' higher education student.

There are two ways to use the panel. Our Student Omnibus Survey reaches a representative sample of 1,000 students once a fortnight. Clients can place as many questions as they like. Recent questions into student drinking habits found a diverse picture. Once upon a time student drinking patterns were straightforward: beer (and lots of it) at the students' union. Today most students start drinking at home before a night out. And while the students' union is still popular, it's no longer the automatic choice, with local pubs and style bars playing an important part of nights out. Our other main service, The Student Access Panel, allows researchers to reach any profile of students at any time. Fieldwork normally takes three days and response rates are typically above 60%; 'clicking through' is minimal and open ended questions yield rich detail.

So let's consider how it works. How, for example, can you determine your market size and market share? A questionnaire that addresses issues of spend, usership and brand preference allows market size and market share to be logically inferred. At Opinionpanel we set quotas for year group, university type and gender, made nationally representative using data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency [HESA]. And we can easily set quotas for many other discriminators such as course, degree, social grade, region, ethnicity, etc. Because our samples are representative, we can multiply up to obtain market size and share. So we offer a unique capacity.

In terms of tracking student opinion, The Student Panel has evidenced a dramatic change in student political views, highlighting just how volatile and dynamic this market can be. The Student Panel carries out continuous research into student voting intentions, and has built up research over the past year. Heading into the 2005 general election, we've noted a fall-off in support for the Liberal Democrats from 40% to 31% of the student vote, with a concomitant rise in the Labour vote from 20% to 28% between August 2004 and February 2005. Voting intentions are just one of many metrics that can be tracked.

When it comes to products, we can collect data on purchase locations, frequency and brand preference as the basis for a full marketing plan emerges.

We can help unravel some of the contradictory rules of student marketing. For example, some say that freshers week is the best time to market to students as so many of them are receptive to marketing messages and on the point of making important decisions that they will stick to for some time. Many others say freshers is too busy; unless you have a big budget behind your campaign you will not cut through the noise.

We researched when students choose to switch mobile phones (contract and/or handset) and found that campaigns taking advantage of the freshers' fairs chose an important switching occasion. Despite widespread criticism of these events as being too crowded for brands to get heard, 9 per cent of students overall changed phones during this short period; even higher - 14 per cent - for first year students. Research can help you identify the key moments in the year around which to base your marketing schedule.

Then there's the delicate matter of getting your tone right. Many brands fall into the trap of patronising students with hackneyed creative - booze, bonking and baked beans. Research can help get the message right. This is often best achieved using qualitative techniques - depth interviews, focus groups and ethnographic methods can be really powerful in this pursuit. The Student Panel comes into its own when testing alternative creative approaches.

The message is that it is worth doing your research. For too long student marketing budgets have been largely unaccountable. My three key recommendations to those interested in understanding students are:

1 Don't spend significant amounts of money based on hunches and guesses, or what you remember of student life from your time at university. The market moves fast;

2 Use a mix of qualitative and quantitative research to understand what motivates students and what will make them engage with your brand;

3 Make sure you evaluate. This is the key to making your marketing budget accountable. Quantitative research methods will be central to achieving accurate measurement.

I believe that those that do their research in the student market will see a year-on-year return on investment grow.

Field marketing to students

Guest article by Chris Johnstone, of the Campus Group. This piece originally appeared in the book Targeting Students: A Marketing Guide (2005)

Field Marketing is one of the fastest growing disciplines in the marketing industry so it is perhaps surprising that its precise definition still causes some confusion.

In a nutshell, it's about using people to communicate with consumers. As the Direct Marketing Association puts it: "Field Marketing is the provision of highly skilled and trained people to conduct brand-building strategic (long-term) or tactical (short-term) exercises on behalf of clients."

It encompasses a broad spectrum of activities from 'big bang' brand experience events and roadshows through to flyers and posters. Somewhere in the middle of all this are more technical services such as POS [point of sale] work, merchandising, auditing and mystery shopping. Outsourcing these activities enables clients to utilise the specialist staff employed by a field marketing agency in order to achieve specific goals and targets

Successful above-the-line marketing is fine for increasing brand awareness, but given that the average person is exposed to over 2,000 advertising messages and images a day, it's difficult to measure the impact your spend is generating.

Field marketing, on the other hand, is widely considered to be one of the most efficient and economical ways of re-enforcing brand positioning. It is measurable, quantifiable and perhaps most importantly, completely targetable. As long as the habits of human beings continue to be in the least bit predictable, field marketing will remain an important part of the marketing mix.

I still remember the first major field marketing campaign I came across while holidaying in Canada in the early 1990s, the Pepsi Taste Challenge. To this day I can remember everything about it, the taste obviously, but more importantly the friendliness of the staff, the thrill of the game and the rather naff (but to a 16 year- old, incredibly exotic) prizes that people were getting for taking part. I remember feeling pretty impressed that a big company was taking the time to come out and talk to me as a young consumer rather than shouting at me through the TV or via a massive billboard at the side of the road.

On the other hand I can't tell you much about Pepsi's above-the-line campaigns. I know that in the past they've used Michael Jackson and more recently Beyonce, Britney and the entire Real Madrid team. I couldn't recall them using Ray Charles, Fred Savage, The Rolling Stones or even the Spice Girls and I certainly couldn't describe the content of any of these adverts.

So how does this translate to the student market?
Student numbers across Europe have grown rapidly over recent years. In the UK 43 per cent of 18 to 24 year-olds now experience higher education and, despite the stereotype of a restrictive student budget, their spending power is estimated at £10 billion per year.

The majority of this market is concentrated in 150 or so large institutions around the UK. Each student remains in this single geographic area for three or four years of their lives. Their daily movements are planned and published in timetables. We know where they are, when they are there, what they consume and why.

In fact, student cities and campuses offer brands a near-perfect environment for successful field marketing but like everything else the success of the campaign will ultimately depend on the planning and execution and this is where many brands and their agencies go wrong.

Planning
Our position as an agency is to remain completely neutral when it comes to advising clients on the route to market. If field marketing is the way forward then we guide our clients in that direction but when an online or offline media campaign would be more effective then we advise them so. In this niche market I think we are quite unique in this regard.

We ask our clients a series of questions which helps us build up our
conclusions as to the most effective strategy.

1 What do you want to achieve?
2 What investment do you want to make?
3 What results do you expect?
4 How do we measure success?

Sales, an increased long term brand awareness, the launch of a new product, data capture, market research. All of these can be achieved through field marketing - but only if the answers to 2, 3 and 4 support them.

Successful brands invest in the student market. Long term strategy and long term consistent spend are vital. We can help our clients understand this market but they must be committed to it. If they do commit then the results can be phenomenal.

Some of the most successful and memorable student marketing campaigns of recent years have had been delivered predominantly through field marketing. These include the Orange Enjoy Music Tour, The KPMG Pods and the regular campaigns employed by The Times, Barclaycard, Lynx and O2. Any conversation with a student about marketing on campus will ultimately result in one or more of these campaigns coming up. They work for the students and they work for the brands involved. These brands invest in the student market and the result is that students feel empathy towards them.

I believe that brands should link their student campaigns to those running in other markets. At the same time however students should not feel that a national campaign has simply been rehashed for the student market. The effort of brands such as those mentioned has resulted in a level of expectation from students. They expect brands to have a 'student campaign' and expect to be an important target market for any self respecting brand.

Students are the ABC1 consumers of tomorrow. They spend now and worry about it later. They are an attractive proposition to any marketer and they know it! With this in mind, field marketing becomes an increasingly attractive proposition. The face-to-face nature of the marketing makes it feel personal and relevant. The flexibility of field marketing allows a national campaign to be adapted to the audience and the cost effectiveness of it makes investment in the student market a sensible business strategy. We've been working with The Times on its student campaigns for over four years and their field marketing campaigns remain an integral part of their overall marketing strategy. Their objectives are simple:

Data capture to build up a database of readers allowing them to interact with their audience in a more regular and effective manner;

Drive sales by offering students discount vouchers which allows this objective to be completely measurable;

Sampling to increase readership amongst students who wouldn't normally consider purchasing The Times;

Build empathy amongst students through regular contact and lots of freebies (from bottle openers to DVDs, books and chocolate).

They use their national campaign slogans to keep the campaign relevant but personalise it through the vouchers and goodie bags. The results are
consistent and excellent value for money.

Execution
We are firm believers in the use of local, unbiased student advice and
assistance in the planning stage and just as importantly, in the execution of any campaign.

We consider the students we employ (campus brand managers) as our insiders. The eyes, ears, hands, feet and voice of our clients on campus.

The debate over the use of campus brand managers has been rumbling on for a couple of years now and our position on this strategy is the same as everything else. If it is the most effective strategy for our client then we will use it.

There seems to be a common misconception that campus brand managers are all about trying to sell something to their friends, like some kind of student pyramid scheme but that is not the case. Most campaigns are designed to keep a constant level of brand awareness and insight between major activities such as fresher fairs or roadshows. This can be nothing more complex than a regular distribution of posters and flyers, carrying out market research and sourcing PR and other marketing opportunities. Make no mistake that campus brand managers can be extremely cost effective and measurable. The insight they give the client can be worth the investment alone.

Many of our campus brand manager campaigns are in the area of graduate recruitment, helping a recruiter get ahead of the game. With over 600 recognised graduate recruiters in the UK, competition is fierce and using students is an excellent way to gain a competitive advantage. It's also easily measurable by looking at the number of applications the company receives, or how many people show up to the on campus recruitment presentation. One of our clients employed a team of students covering their nine key target universities. Applications from these universities increased 400% in one year.

Another important point to make is that not all campus brand manager campaigns are long term, major projects. We have developed a national team of generalist student staff who work with us on a wide range of projects and take part in all field marketing campaigns we work on. Even if we are running a national roadshow we ensure our permanent staff are supported by our local student teams, who have the opportunity to work towards a Chartered Institute of Marketing qualification through their work on our campaigns.

Remember that field marketing is all about people, and students like to see their peers being integrated into any marketing campaign. It reassures them that the campaign has been thought about, that it will be relevant to them and that the brand cares enough about this audience to involve them in the execution of it.

We try to strike a balance between specifically trained, professional, full-time staff who move the equipment and marketing collateral around the country, and local student staff who use their local knowledge to improve our results on the day. It's an important balance as neither one extreme or the other would be as effective.

Involving the students' unions
Students' unions are another important piece of this puzzle. They are the gate keepers to the campus and collectively are the largest student media owner in the country. They offer a wide range of media and have come on leaps and bounds over the past few years in terms of commercial outlook and awareness.

The biggest challenge remains their fragmented nature. Each students' union marketing department is independent and therefore there is minimal
standardisation amongst them. Prices, the media on offer and even standards of reporting vary wildly and this is where agencies such as The Campus Group fit in well.

We offer a link between the 150 institutions we work with and our client. We offer one point of contact and consistent, high quality reporting to the client while bringing marketing spend they wouldn't be able to secure independently to the union.

Our independence is vital here also. Students' unions quite rightly encourage all spend to be put into their own media. That is after all their prerogative. But students' union media solutions are not always the best solution for a client. Sometimes a national campaign via university PC screensavers, situated in the university library, might be far more appropriate, but unfortunately no-one associated with a students' union would ever want to give that advice.

We work closely with the students' unions on our field marketing campaigns and would encourage everyone to do the same. Our events and tours for The Times, Shell, 3, Deloitte, Kingsmill and O2 have all taken place within the students' union. They have vital knowledge of locations and footfall and can add a lot of value to the campaign.

Some things to remember when working direct with a students' union:

It can be hard to get hold of people. They are usually small teams with lots of responsibilities which keep them out of their office. Get a mobile
number!

Bear in mind the bureaucracy and hierarchy that comes into play when dealing with a university. If you are trying to do something bespoke (especially if it is outside the union building) check and double check that all necessary permissions have been sought.

Make very clear what you expect with a service level agreement. Things like copies of mailings, photographic evidence and detailed reports should not be taken for granted.

Conclusions
Field marketing is ideal for the student market. The general benefits of this part of the marketing mix are accentuated by the nature of the student market.

Field Marketing campaigns are very well received by the student audience as they are direct, personal, tailored to the market and relevant to the audience.

The majority of campaigns we eventually recommend to clients involves a major element of field marketing. In most cases it will provide far more measurable, targeted and cost effective results than any other part of the marketing mix.

If you target students, make sure you are there for the long haul. Invest in the market and you will reap the rewards.

Never make assumptions about this exciting and dynamic audience. Things change quicker than you can ever imagine. Work with people who are involved with the audience on a day to day basis.

Involve students in everything you do. As well as being your audience they can become a vital part of the planning and execution of any campaign.

Work with both a specialist student marketing agency and the students' unions. Bringing the agency on board is often no more expensive than working direct with the students' unions but you will benefit greatly from one experienced point of contact.

Students and the student market

Article by Luke Mitchell
This article formed the introduction to The Reach Students Handbook (2003)

Every year the student demographic changes slightly. Every year something happens in the student market that affects the way communications take place. The changes are incremental, but significant enough that if you studied at them over a five year period you would clearly see the differences.

Five years ago, when tuition fees were just starting to impact, the student populous was a much broader mix. Today, the defining characteristic of the student mass is that, almost exclusively, it is middle-class. Only 17 per cent of students, according to the latest Student Living Report, are from C2DE backgrounds. And those working class students are statistically more likely to drop out. It is hard to survive three years of the modern student lifestyle without expendable credit.

Five years ago the internet and email were around, but not the essential part of student life they are today. Now only 1 per cent of UK college and university students don't use the internet. A third use it every day, while over half use it three to five times a week. Email is the most popular use of the web, but also popular are online games: students make up 28 per cent of the gaming community.

And five years ago no-one would have guessed that the following quote, taken from a recent article in The Guardian, was an assessment of today's typical student: "Uniquely flashy, conditioned to expect a lifestyle of cocktails, designer clothes anden-suite travel."

Above, just three examples of notable changes. The pages that follow document other ways students are changing. They will interest, and in some cases surprise, anyone who has not considered the student situation for some time.

The most striking message of all is that students are not the sloppy-living, penny-scrimping, banner-waving revolutionaries they once were. One contributor within describes them as the new generation of Gordon Geckos (the materialistic Michael Douglas character of Eighties film Wall Street).

How, in a short space of time, has the student stereotype gone from 'low budget layabout' to 'high-flying, big-spending trend-setter'?

The abolition of grants in the late Nineties created a huge demand for borrowing. And while there is demand, there are always those who will meet it - the financial sector has tripped over itself to lend money to students. Today a student can borrow a lot of money, and from a variety of sources: banks, credit card providers, store cards, student loans and, of course, mum and dad. They have a 'live today, pay tomorrow' attitude and make the most oftheir opportunity to borrow. When there were grants, and students from a broader range of backgrounds, there was a sense of solidarity and community among those at university. Now, every student has to find entrepreneurial ways to get themselves through. Whether it involves selling body parts, lapdancing, becoming a human billboard (all reported in the media in the last year) or just finding a new pitch to give parents when they need another cheque, students are cutting their way through the jungle alone. There is an 'everyone for themselves' mentality.

But those who like to romanticise students will be assured to hear some characteristics endure. Students haven't changed in all respects. They are still rebellious, innovative, idealistic, reactive, smart, subversive, experimental and adventurous. They are a vibrant, creative and challenging audience.

It should be pointed out that, although there are over five million students in the UK, the primary focus of this book are the 1.8 million in higher education. This is where the current demand for insight and information is centred. However, it is likely that the next few years will see an increase in commercial interest in the further education sector, particularly among organisations that regard their contact with students as an investment for the future rather than a revenue source today.

Looking at the more immediate future for the student market, this year promises to be typically full of change. In marketing particularly there are some interesting developments afoot.
Student brand manager schemes, a subject that divides opinion in the student marketing community, face a challenge. Students' unions, always eager to channel commercial interest through their union set-up, have become frustrated with unsanctioned marketing on what they regard as their territory. A proposal has been put forward by one agency to create a union-run student brand manager network across the UK. If that is accepted by the unions, those firms independently offering bespoke schemes may find the atmosphere on campuses significantly more hostile this year. The popularity of these schemes is such that it is hard to find a student-orientated brand that doesn't have onenowadays. It will be fascinating to observe.

Definitely rolling out this year, in a less isolated way than previous forms, is plasma-screen television. Over 40 unions will be running oneparticular firm's system in their bars, receiving content delivered by broadband and using a screen that can be divided and manipulated to offer various advertising formats. It has taken the people behind this project over four years to sell their idea to the student market. Media buyers, always keen to find new ways to target the student audience, will be keeping an eye on how this develops.

And there are other bubbling (and some simmering) activities to be monitored. SMS marketing is growing, with many agencies keen to promote their offering. One new start-up is dedicated entirely to this medium. Those working in field marketing and graduate recruitment are promising campaigns that will break boundaries. And this will surely be a critical year for the heavily invested-in websites aimed at the 'homogenous' student.

There's lots happening. This handbook promises to come back next year with a review of it all, plus some more stats, some fresh thinking and further ways to reach students.

Copyright Reach Students

The seven myths of student marketing

Article by Luke Mitchell

Just some of the myths about students and the student market...

Myth1: A few marketing companies have the student market sewn up
If you are a marketer new to the student market you may have researched some of the specialists. Whatever you've heard or read about 'unrivalled access', 'unique relationships' and 'credible connections', the truth is no one organisation has good links to the entire student community, whether they market through universities, students' unions, media, brand managers or any other means. No-one can offer you the attention of all five million* students in the UK.
*Figure includes FE students and part-timers

Myth 2: Students are hard to reach
Only if you follow the wrong path. In physical terms students are very easy to reach. They visit their place of study every day (generally), they socialise in packs and in regular venues, they consume more media than most, are online checking messages and networking every day and their exact whereabouts is often timetabled. Those who get a poor response from their marketing are usually communicating in the wrong way.

Myth 3: Students are gullible
While it is true many of the consumer choices students make will stick with them throughout their lives, students aren't gullible. Aware that some regard them as vulnerable, they are actually more suspicious, sensitive and aware than most.

Myth 4: Students love wacky stuff
What's wacky? Interpretations vary, and what a marketing executive finds wacky a student may not. The stereotype of students experimenting with conventions - traffic cones etc - will always have an element of truth, but student behaviour is becoming increasingly conventional. With a price tag of £10,000+ on your average degree today, students take themselves more seriously.

Myth 5: Students love funky stuff
Some companies get it into their heads that to appeal to students they need to make themselves seem 'funky'. Why? When it comes to buying insurance or choosing a bank, a student doesn't care about 'too kool for skool' image. They want an insurance company who will pay up and a bank that will keep extending the overdraft. Those who funk up their image in order to appeal to students are in danger of being seen like middle-aged men who cruise nightclubs and drive open-top sports cars. Naff. Students appreciate good design, language that speaks to them and original ideas.

Myth 6: Student brand manager schemes bring instant success
Everyone wants a student brand manager scheme nowadays, having heard the results they have brought for brands such as Red Bull and The Guardian. But for every successful scheme there are literally dozens of failures. Mass enthusiasm for the schemes from brands has been their downfall: too many students are now working for brands, too many schemes are upsetting university marketing stakeholders (who object to unlicensed marketing on their premises) and too many brands have bought into the concept without seriously considering whether it suited their objectives.The Guardian recently ditched its scheme, feeling that the idea had run its course. There are still opportunities, but there is a need for a fresh approach and an re-think about the methods used by SBMs.

Myth 7: You can afford a bad reputation in the student market - the audience moves on
Nobody can quite explain why, in a market where the consumer is 'replaced' every three years, reputations last so long.The likes of Nestle, Jarvis, News International and Stagecoach have found out that reputations earned some time ago do not go away. Similarly, research conducted recently by Reach Students shows the UK's top brands among students are those that have been investing in student marketing and good PR for years: Endsleigh, NatWest, The Guardian, Orange and STA Travel to name a few.

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