The Guardian - 25 years of student marketing
This case study was a chapter in The Reach Students Handbook (2003)
The Guardian has had a commercial interest in students for over 25 years. It's an interest that today consumes £500,000 of the paper's overall marketing budget. Its portfolio of studentmarketing activities is broad and diverse:a student brand manager network; the Saturday careers supplement, Rise, aimed as much atundergraduates as graduates; the Student Media Awards; a discount voucher scheme;regular on-campus promotions, ranging from quiz nights and debates to sports events. Plus miscellaneous sponsorships, such as careers fairs, arts exhibitions and talent showcases.
The paper is not unusual in investing large sums of money in the student market - broadsheet competitor the Daily Telegraph is rumoured to spend a six figure sum each year, and The Times also has a large student marketing budget. But The Guardian is different in that it has achieved great success. Not just as a daily newspaper, but as a student brand. Whether or not they buy the paper, every student knows The Guardian.
Good marketing has created the desired impact on sales; in the mainstream market the Telegraph outsells The Guardian by two-to-one, yet among students The Guardian is by far the biggest-selling broadsheet.It's not so simple as to say The Guardian, aleft-thinking, comparatively radical paper is bound to be more popular with the student audience. Because students can no longer be assumed to be left-thinking and radical. Recent research by the Index on Censorship found most of today's students accepting of authority, happy with the status quo and keen on the idea of a nanny state. The current ruling executive of the National Union of Students is made up mainly of centre-aligned independents and includes a Tory - once upon a time unheard of. Students just aren't the banner-wavingrevolutionaries they once were.
It's more accurate to look at the quality, consistency and commitment of The Guardian's student marketing.
In conversation with Marc Sands, Marketing Director at Guardian Newspapers, it quickly becomes apparent as to why the paper has achieved such striking success with a supposedly difficult audience. Sands explains the philosophy behind The Guardian’s student marketing: "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, liberalperspective is conveyed to as wide an audienceas possible.
"Newspapers clearly have a role in shapingopinion. 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 an audience 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 toadopt it."
The Guardian marketing team is on a mission to promote liberal views, as well as sell papers. Their evangelical belief in their product, and how it can impact on society, drives their work. It's no coincidence that other brands that do well, like Orange and STA Travel, have an offering that it is 'easy' to get passionate about - they have an innovative and engaging product that students feel can genuinely benefit them.
Lots of businesses try out the student market. Some like what they find and hang around. Many - often to the amusement of student market stalwarts - get a fright and bail out. An awful lot of businesses never consider carefully why they want a relationship with students in thefirst place.
The Guardian is absolutely clear on why it wants to attract students. "Historically people tended to read the newspaper their parents read," says Sands. "But now many don't, and the period when they go touniversity is a time when they make their decision. Choosing your paper, particularly a broadsheet, is part of the transition made between childhood and adulthood. It begins to define you. So, in terms of life stages, students are at a pivotal period. From a commercial point of view, students are the future of the paper."
"People rarely change newspapers, and the life-cycle value of a reader is a lot. Readers are our lifeblood. There are good commercial reasons for reaching them as students."
The Guardian's student marketing works, but why does it work? Sands feels their student brandmanager scheme is behind the good results: "You'll hear lots of people talking about student brandmanagers," says Sands, "but the truth is The Guardian invented them [this is hotly disputed by Tony Harbron, who founded the Red Bull SBM scheme]. Everyone else copied The Guardian's model. They thought: that's a good idea, let's apply that to our business. That's the way it goes."
"The brand managers are the advocates for the paper. You'll find them mainly in the liberal arts universities rather than the science baseduniversities, because that's our constituency. We targeted those universities specifically."If, in the newspaper, we're giving away a CD on Saturday, we'll brief our brand managers to adopt that and plug it like crazy on campus. They run their campaigns to tie-in with everypromotion the paper does.
"I think the reason we don't make mistakes and our student marketing works so well is because we give an awful lot of autonomy to the brand managers. If it was down me I'd make lots of mistakes because I was at university 20 years ago. My idea of a good promotion is a pile of discount vouchers inside a packet of what looks like Rizlas - when I told the person who runs our student brand manager scheme that idea she looked at me and laughed. Because she's aged 24, not 39. So we don't go wrong because we don't do things like that."
While Sands may steer clear of the creative side of marketing, he pays close attention to the way students have changed over the years and makes sure his marketing evolves accordingly. "Because funding has changed, the onus on the student is so much greater than 20 years ago," he says. "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 chose 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."
Like other top student brands, The Guardian is now considering ways to reach students off campus. They have noticed that today's student is a moremetropolitan character, and that the city centre is a valid place to make contact. Sands is looking at ways to operate the daily discount scheme in high street newsagents - another example of the paper staying ahead of the game.
So how does he sum up the overall effect of this 'student marketing from the frontline'?
"Some students may not like The Guardian," he says, "but they will be aware the paper is an important influence. And that is important."
Copyright Reach Students
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18 November 2006
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.
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.
17 November 2006
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.
Copyright Reach Students
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.
Copyright Reach Students
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