Just yesterday as I was cleaning the house to prepare for moving, I dug up about 15 viewbooks from various universities. As a student, you always think “how do I get universities to want me”? In reality, many universities are thinking “how do I get the top students to come here?”
I started thinking about marketing and universities after reading Heidi’s post on “Marketing on Campus“. I agree with her that the Shaw campaign was not effective, and their rickshaws were gimmicky and stuck out in a bad way. Her post was about different organizations marketing on universities campuses, I wanted to analyze how universities themselves market.
Although, most universities in Canada are non-profit organizations, they spend a lot of money on marketing. Having the best students choose your university requires a smart marketing strategy and some way to differentiate yourself from all other universities which seemingly provides the same need: higher education.
From first hand experience, Sauder does not cheap out when it comes to marketing efforts. As director of the Campus Ambassador Program this year, we hired over 60 presenters to go to various high schools to promote and talk about their experiences with Sauder. We provide these free presentations at high schools in hopes of attracting the brightest and best students. The differentiation our program has is that we use current students as our presenters. Usually university presentations are done by recruiters and advisors. This can be intimidating for the students, and also the staff members aren’t as in touch with the actual experiences of student life.