Marketing to students
At Andrew Jackson University, we are using a series of "network" partners to help defray the cost of tuition for students. This unique program works by allowing us to leverage marketing relationships and pass those savings on to students.
The key to this 21st century marketing approach is that fact that college students attending online universities are "sticky" internet users who can be viewed as a target market for certain types of advertisers. By hooking up with these advertisers and allowing them to develop a relationship with potential students through acting as a marketing partner to AJU, we've been able to capture that value and pass it back to those who are creating it - the students.
When we first thought about doing this, we were worried about creating a concept where our students were a targeted market audience...but then I realized that traditional colleges have long realized - and acted upon - the idea that students are a target market for advertisers.
When I was in college, advertisers were all over the university, with booths at every event...almost at every corner, including simply infesting the student union building. Signage and flyers offering credit cards littered the entire campus.
Last week the New York Times reported (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/01/business/01student.html?_r=1&emc=eta1) how Michigan State University has a deal in place in which the University takes money from credit card companies in return for allowing them access to MSU student records for marketing purposes:
Bank of America’s relationship with the university extends well beyond marketing at sports events. The bank has an $8.4 million, seven-year contract with Michigan State giving it access to students’ names and addresses and use of the university’s logo. The more students who take the banks’ credit cards, the more money the university gets. Under certain circumstances, Michigan State even stands to receive more money if students carry a balance on these cards.
This practice is under intense scrutiny, but in these uncertain economic times, it seems likely to continue. Michigan State University reports that the money it receives from the deal goes toward scholarship and grants that it gives back to students.
So what we are doing at AJU is not really a new concept - we are just applying it in a new way. Rather than leverage our entire student body to benefit just a few students, we allow our entire student body to benefit as a group - equal access to all. Proving once again that we are here for one purpose - to provide the best education at the lowest possible price by allowing our students to access our network partners and thus to Take Education Anywhere - more money in your pocket to keep - more places for you to go!
Best regards,
Don Kassner
President and Chief Operating Officer
Andrew Jackson University, Inc
205-451-2072
www.aju.edu/educateamerica.asp
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