Marketers Focusing More Efforts to College Campuses

With tuition costs higher than ever, approximately 52% of students work a part-time jobs to make ends meet during the school year, and about 47% need financial aid to attend college at all. With those statistics, it’s no wonder why today’s college students feel more conscious of budgeting than ever before. However, this hasn’t stopped advertisers from bombarding students with marketing tactics.

This year’s graduating class desired labels, branding and bling, according to the CEO of Mr Youth, Matt Britton. Alternatively, the class of 2015 witnessed firsthand their parents stressing about financial matters during the Great Recession. Because of this, the new class is much more value-conscious.

Regardless of the need for saving more cash, students still spend approximately $500 a month on clothing, personal care, food, travel and other unrelated expenses while in school. Many students are having to decide what type of soap, toothpaste and other basic necessities to buy for the first time. They also have to purchase dorm furniture, electronics and new clothes on their own, often without parent’s help for the first time.

Brands cannot suddenly stop marketing to college students because of the change in a mindset. Bitton says, “The student audience will always be important to marketers, because they see it’s not just what they purchase today, but what they can purchase tomorrow.”

For this reason, marketing departments in companies like Ford keep a large presence on college campuses, even though fewer students take cars to school each year. These companies are marketing to a generation that will eventually be in the place to purchase from the brand.

Ford has focused their marketing to students in universities that cater to the Zipcar business, that provides car rentals to students. Ford has formed a two year partnership with the company, and has added 1,000 Ford vehicles to the company’s car fleet.

Chevrolet also works hard to reach campus students by place products in front of the them so that the product is at the forefront of their minds when they decide to purchase a vehicle. Chevrolet focuses on advanced marketing students. They allow the students to oversee the development of marketing campaigns and how to implement it into the company.

Microsoft has also increased its marketing to college students. The director of marketing for Windows, John Dougherty, is working to create summer internship programs for student athletes to build their resume, while working around the athlete’s 30 to 35 hour a week practice schedule over the summer.

The company also has over 500 student representatives that promote its products throughout the campus. Victoria’s Secret’s Pink, Zipcar, and HP also use student representatives to promote the products on campus. Bitton says, “Students are realizing right now that they’re in college in order to become marketable to corporate America. They have to have more than a job or internship today.”