Awareness (informs the potential buyer of the product)Interest (grabs the customers attention, interest)Desire (creates a desire, the need to buy the product)Action (makes the customer purchase the product)Nowadays, there is another letter added, S which means satisfaction. If a customer is satisfied with the product or service, he/she will return for the product and hopefully give positive feedback to others. Can we apply this marketing strategy to promote education? To be more precise, to promote post-secondary schools like universities? I’d like to concentrate on how universities build awareness and interest.
As commercial pressure increases on universities, the competition for students, researchers and funding is becoming increasingly fierce. If universities want to recruit and retain students, they need to make a good sales pitch to stay in business. One way to raise awareness is to launch ads that appear in magazines or newspapers. The ads are targeted to reach a wide audience locally and overseas. They can focus on the university’s reputation or success in research areas.
What is especially important when promoting a service like education is that you have to know your markets and target accordingly, you have to be consistent and different, you have to promote the benefits of your service, and you need to create clear messages. One university introduced a brand message, “What Starts Here, Changes the World”, which emphasizes the impact of the work of its faculty, students and staff and the university’s key role in a creative community.
Last but not least, each university has a logo which is a symbol that provides the consumer with instant and powerful brand recognition. Like with any other product, the logo should reflect the university’s heritage and credibility. If the association between your brand and logo is strong you have a better chance of attracting your desired target audience.
