Campuses are Fertile, But Require Study - marketing to college students

Eric Weil is managing partner of Student Monitor, Ridgewood, NJ. He can be reached at (201) 612-8100 or Weil@smcinc.com.

This month and next, more than 15 million college students will descend on nearly 3,600 U.S. college and university campuses. And, as they return to school, these students will be targeted by companies across a gamut of product categories, from telecommunications to soft drinks. What companies should bear in mind, though, as they covet the spending power and unformed brand preferences of students, is that while certain media offer the opportunity to reach this valuable demographic group, treating college students as a monolithic market is a mistake.

The lifestyle, needs and consumption habits of a dorm student (representing about 40% of all four-year, full-time undergrads), for example, often are very different from those of a student living off campus who is acting essentially as a head-of-household. Think about how different the daily regimen is between a four-year, full-time undergraduate student and the typical part-time student enrolled at a two-year community college. Both are college students, but it's likely that the student attending the two-year school is a part-time student while holding down a part-or full-time job. That two-year student's employment status and resulting income, too, represents a dramatically different consumer spending profile.

Some categories of consumption are nearly equal between on-campus students and those living off-campus: hours of 1V watching in a week (12 and II hours, respectively); plan to purchase a vehicle in the next 12 months (19% and 18%, respectively). But there are categories with far greater gaps: among off-campus students polled, 43% had drank coffee in the previous week, compared with only 28% on-campus; 27% of off-campus students plan to buy a personal computer in the next two years, compared with 14% on-campus; 30% of off-campus students bought books on the Internet, versus just 11% for on-campus dwellers.

How does a marketer make use of this information. Hyundai may do well to evenly weight its campus communications to on-campus and off-campus media in a college town. Maxwell House, on the other hand, might do better to target a sampling program to off-campus addresses and advertise in an off-campus newspaper.

Even as it pertains to students' media consumption, it behooves a company to not make too many across-the-board assumptions. Perhaps the most glaring revelation, and surprise, is that while personal computer media consumption (Internet) trends upward among college students (17 hours per week, including 4.6 hours on the Inter net), the latest surveys show that there is no erosion of time spent with traditional media like magazines and TV programming. In other words, the Internet is not taking away the efficacy of an MTV, ESPN or USA Network media buy. The same holds true for Sports Illustrated and Cosmopolitan.

Marketers targeting college students have a myriad of student-specific media and promotion options that go well beyond time-tested TV programs and print titles. These options include print (at the national, regional and individual campus level), broadcast, various forms of location media, cooperative sampling, campus events and tours, and direct mail. The optimal tools and techniques employed are a function of which segment(s) of the college student market one is trying to reach, and what the marketer's specific objectives are.

The college market is viewed differently by different companies and for different reasons. Some, like Gillette and Unilever, see it as simply fertile ground to foster brand loyalty and reach young consumers who aren't locked into certain brand preferences yet. Others, like Daewoo, the Korean car company now entering the 11.3., are looking for something more, like open minds that may not have dismissed all Korean cars as lemons.

Who are they exactly? What characteristics do both on-campus and off-campus students share? And what makes them so alluring to marketers?

First, they are curious and "trial receptive," still embarking on their independent adult lives and open to new ideas, information and experiences. Second, as consumers, they're experiencing a number of major transitions in a short period of time: from high school to college, from on-campus to off-campus, and from college to whatever is next.

Each transition leads to a shift in lifestyles, media and leisure activities, consumer attitudes and needs. All that activity makes them a moving target, but one that is hittable through an understanding of their varying lives, rather than a simple desire to sell them stuff.

COPYRIGHT 1998 BPI Communications, Inc.
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