Focus On:  The School Market
Navigating the Learning Curve

     Every fall, thousands of high school graduates nationwide enter into a post-secondary institution. As part of their freshman orientation, many will receive logoed products with the institution's name across the item. In fact, many post-secondary schools refer to promotional products for a variety of purposes including student recruitment, school spirit, alumni support and seasonal events.
     Post-secondary institutions can be categorized into three segments--the university, community college and technical school. While each has its own program of study and educational goals, they all use promotional products in a similar manner.
     The largest post-secondary institution is the university. The majority of universities are publicly funded by the state where they are located. Many emphasize a liberal arts education to give students a broad range of knowledge. Most universities also specialize in one or more areas of study including medicine, law, education or business to draw students into the university who are specifically interested in those fields.
     In addition to educational offerings, many universities have a wide range of athletic events during the year. Students and alumni frequent these events to support their school by wearing school colors and displaying logoed items from flags to stadium cups.
     The next largest segment of post-secondary education is the community college. There are nearly 1,200 community colleges in the United States that enroll more than five million students. Community colleges work closely with high schools, community groups and area employers to help students arrange a schedule to attend classes. The community college system is ideal for students and adults who want to stay near their home as they enter the college system.
     Students often attend a community college so they can hold a job while attending school, take courses with smaller classes, have easy access to instructors and to save half the tuition costs associated with a university. In fact, nearly 55 percent of all freshmen begin their post-secondary education in a community college. While community colleges do not have the athletic capacity of larger universities, promotional products can often find a niche in the partnership between the college and community.
     The technical college is another option for students and adults interested in a specific area of study that they want to enter immediately after high school. These schools offer immediate employment in areas such as clerical work, medical technology, computer technology, graphic design and culinary arts. Many of these programs are from one year to two years in length.
     Some technical colleges have several branches throughout the country that students can attend. Similar to universities and community colleges, technical schools work closely with high school counselors to attract potential students.
     There are a number of promotional opportunities for post-secondary institutions; however, because many are public institutions that are funded by taxpayer money, schools are required to be selective on what the money is spent on. For this reason, many schools focus on specific events during the year to market their name.
     In addition to selecting an event, most universities have a trademark office that must approve the use of a logo before it appears on an item that promotes the university. Designs must be approved to ensure suppliers are adhering to the correct colors and design of a logo. Oftentimes, a licensing fee must be paid in order to have permission to reproduce a university's logo. This is especially common in the athletic side of the university market where athletic logos are the most recognizable symbol of a university.
     Carole Custer, director of university marketing for Ames, Iowa-based Iowa State University, says the university incorporates a variety of promotional products into its marketing plans. Items such as refrigerator magnets, pencils, shopping bags, mugs, mousepads and apparel are common for most universities. The primary concern, says Custer, is the residual value of the item.
     "If the university holds a reception for some of our larger donors they may receive a promotional item as an acknowledgment of their support, but the other intent is for the item to have lasting value for additional people to see," she says. "We not only like to see the recipient enjoy the item, but also hope they will use it for others to see as well."
     Custer says Iowa State reaches its largest audience during the Iowa State Fair, when workers apply temporary tattoos for people who stop at their booth. There are nearly 100,000 people walking past the exhibit and 25,000 tattoos that are applied to the cheeks of attendees interested in Iowa State University. The tattoos not only function as a promotional piece but attract the attention of other attendees curious about where they can get a tattoo.
     "The university uses the tattoos to attract people's attention so when they see an Iowa State logo on somebody's face, they will ask where they can get one as well," says Custer. "It draws people in so they can learn more about the university."
     She says other advantages to the tattoos are the free media advertising they create when people at the fair appear on television wearing an Iowa State logo on their cheeks. There also are times during the football season when the tattoos are given to students attending the games.
     "From a marketing standpoint, we're not looking for a product that people are going to stuff in a drawer, but rather an item they're proud of and will display for a prolonged period of time," Custer says.
     "With the fair lasting 10 days, those people wearing the tattoos will go back home and attend church or other community events with the logo still visible on their cheek, because it takes three to four days before the tattoo wears off. The residual effect is that the logo gains exposure in both the media and within the recipient's community," she adds.
     While a large university has a multitude of departments that benefit from promotional products, there are some misconceptions about how many items a university purchases and for what events. Many student organizations such as fraternities and sororities are responsible for funding their own events.
     "There is a misconception that the university has a room full of promotional items to hand out at events, when in reality we're a public university using tax payer money," says Custer. "Unless the item can really be effective for what we're trying to accomplish at the university, we won't use it. As a public university, departments have to be very selective in ensuring that the item has a reasonable goal and can be effective."
     Custer explains that distributors need to research the needs of an institution to find an effective item that fits the goals of the university. Arriving with a portfolio of pens, pencils and calendars is not enough, unless the distributor can demonstrate how 50,000 logoed pens will benefit the university.
     "The more a distributor can understand the goals of their client at the university, on what they're really trying to achieve, the more effective the product will be and the more satisfied the client will be," she says.
     A similar post-secondary institution using promotional products is the community college. Many of these two-year institutions also are publicly funded, so product selection is paramount to a successful promotion. However, many community colleges do not have licensing fees that are often associated with universities.
     Kate Lynch, public relations director with Phoenix-based South Mountain Community College, says the school has several departments that use promotional products for a variety of purposes. For instance, recruiters in the records and admissions department travel to high schools and community groups to promote the college. While at these events, recruiters will pass out lower cost items such as pencils, keychains and balloons with the South Mountain Community College logo on them. Other events include career fairs, leadership programs, and on-campus presentations.
     "Promotional products are an important aspect of the overall awareness program that South Mountain has as part of its community recruiting," she says. "We will supply special gifts for counselors in high schools to keep the college name in front of them, because we want them to refer students to us."
     Lynch says the school chooses items based on price, audience and their appeal. An item that was very successful with school educators was a leatherette holder with an imprint of the college logo on the front. It held a package of Post-It(TM) Notes to keep in a purse or pocket. The item was so successful that educators continue to call asking if they can have another.
     She advises researching the audience of a school to understand what items are best suited for them. It saves both the distributor and the client time in brainstorming ideas, because the distributor knows in advance the items that could be most effective.
     "Because we are a state entity and tax payer supported, we have to compare everything on price," explains Lynch. "Distributors can really tap into the community college market if they think in terms of how to pre-sell certain items."
     The competitive nature of the college market reaches into another segment of the industry--the technical college. Suzanne Robinson, public affairs officer of Indianapolis-based ITT Technical Institute, says the institution refers to the same distributor for all its 63 locations nationwide, because it allows the school to order in a large volume and ensures the proper logo is used on all the promotional items.
     She says the school incorporates promotional items into student incentive programs where a student receives an ITT jacket for perfect attendance for a number of quarters. The campus also has several student groups that order T-shirts for their members. High school coordinators for ITT will visit with teachers and perspective students and leave behind promotional products. There also is an alumni association with 55,000 members who receive a special keychain as a new member of the association once they graduate.
     "When ITT sends a new member packet to the graduate, we give them a registered keychain with the ITT Technical Institute Alumni Association logo on it," says Robinson.
     "Attached to the keychain is a card that the graduate fills out with their name and current address, which goes into our database along with their keychain number.
     "The beauty of the keychain program is that on the back it has the ITT headquarters address, so if the graduate loses their keys, the person who finds them puts the keychain in a mailbox to have them sent back to our headquarters," she explains. "ITT will then pay for the postage, lookup the keychain number in our database, and return it to the graduate because we have their current address on file when they returned the card."
     Robinson says every ITT Institute has its own budget to order promotional products; however, each location will use the same distributor who knows what items the school deems acceptable based on quality and image.
     "When a school is passing out a promotional product to a student or potential student, the school needs to make sure the product is relaying the quality of the institution," says Robinson.
     As a distributor working in the collegiate market, Janice Godfrey, college sales representative for Exettor, N.H.-based Forbes Marketing Group, says student activity groups are large users of promotional products. Items such as stadium cups, insulated mugs, T-shirts, footballs and Frisbees are common for today's college student.
     She says there are many applications that colleges use promotional products for including orientation where they have giveaways to new students, gifts to alumni who help support the school after graduation, athletic events to show school spirit by waving pom-poms, and general items with the school logo on pens, pencils and notebooks.
     "The budget is the main concern, because of the number of activities that are going on throughout the school year," says Godfrey. "It's important to have the activity boards thinking about what events they want to promote a semester ahead of time, rather than waiting until the last minute."
     She says the community and technical colleges also are using promotional items on a greater level because many students live off-campus. The items are a method of enticing students to get more involved with on-campus activities.
     While the college market is booming with promotional products, the harsh reality is ad specialty companies need to have experienced account executives and good product to entice the many schools to use them as their distributor.
     Dee Saeli, university coordinator for Whittier, Calif.-based R&D Specialty Co. Inc., says the college arena is not only competitive and specialized, but distributors who want to sell promotional products to universities must be licensed with the university or licensing entity.
     "It can be difficult to sell to colleges because distributors must be licensed with every school they represent and the licensing entities such as Licensing Resource Group and Collegiate Licensing Co.," explains Saeli. "Licensing products is timely and costly depending on the number of schools represented, but it is possible."