Putting students at the heart of marketing efforts to enhance impact

Abstract

This paper shares practical experiences of how institutions can take an integrated approach to market research and campaign creative so as to calibrate their interventions for greater relevance and impact. During periods of heightened competition and socio-political turmoil, universities can ill afford to be homogenous in their messaging and brand positioning if they are to enjoy sustained success. This situation is made even more challenging by the fact that our typical student target audience has never known a world without widespread internet connectivity, social networks and smartphones. As a result they have an unprecedented level of access to information at their fingertips, making them highly discerning and acutely aware of brands as well as global issues. In order to ensure that they meaningfully engage with prospective students and their network of influencers, universities must differentiate their offering by being bold and distinctive in their promotional execution. This can be achieved by bringing students, parents and advisers into the marketing planning and design process, to understand what drives their needs, aspirations and ultimately behaviours. Read on to learn how Swansea University has taken such an evidence-based approach to shape their latest national student recruitment campaign collateral, digital deployment and publications.