Marketing to students of color: you need a marketing strategy, yes, but make sure you lay your groundwork first - Marketing

University Business, March, 2003 by Bob Sevier

2--Set up on advisory team to guide your efforts. No matter how well-intentioned you might be, a learn of all-white administrators on a largely-white campus in the middle of a virtually all-white community simply will not be aware of all the issues and nuances it must navigate before it begins marketing itself to students of color. If possible, your advisory team should include the following individuals from your minority, or ethnic, communities: parents, educators (including high school guidance counselors), students of color, religious leaders, and business and opinion leaders.

A strong, interested, and sincere advisory group can save you a great deal of time and energy. It can also save you a great deal of public embarrassment. Recently, I listened in as an advisory group reviewed the prelim for a new set of recruiting publications. One advisory group member pointed out that the only photos of black men showed them playing sports.

3--Do the research. Before you develop your brand- and direct-marketing strategies (especially if this is a fledgling effort), take the time and spend the money to conduct some basic, defendable research. In particular, you must know:

* How is the college currently perceived in the minority (or ethnic) community? Are there positive issues that can be exploited, and negative issues that must be addressed?

* Why do some students of color apply, get accepted, yet not enroll?

* Why do students of color withdraw?

* How do students of color who are current students, or even alumni, feel about their experiences at the institution?

* What are the media habits of students of color?

* Who influences these students?

* What are their college motivations and expectations?

* What fears do they have about attending college?

* To which recruiting strategies are these students likely to respond?

This research will help you determine initial perceptions, and student interest in your institution and programs. And it will help you develop meaningful market, message, and media segments.

4--Segment your recruiting and marketing strategies. Interestingly, there is great diversity within diversity. "Students of color" is a label often used for many different kinds of students, and market-sensitive colleges know that young Latinas choose schools differently than do older black males or students of Korean ancestry. Just as you would segment different kinds of white students, be willing to segment students who are not white. The key to developing meaningful segments is to collect data that is sortable by ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, and myriad other demographic and even psychotographic variables. Then, build different message strategies around relevant media strategies. For example, we discovered two important findings in a study of Hispanic students: First, in the college choice process, mothers in the family were more influential than the fathers. Second, Latina students were more confident in their abilities than were Latino students. We used these findings to develop some highly customized messages.