For those of you who may not know, I am currently attending Stephens College. In my marketing class we were told to take a business, and come up with a marketing campaign to re-brand it. It needed to be something we used in everyday life, but needed rejuvenation. So, I chose Stephens College. If you're interested, here is my paper on the marketing past, present, and future of Stephens College.
The following is my work, and I do not approve any outside person or company to reference or use any of the following content without my permission.
The business
I chose for my topic is Stephens College. This may or may not backfire on me,
depending on how you view the current marketing plan/strategies that are being
used. But all of the talk about the college image validates a closer
examination of what could or even should be done about Stephens College’s image
and its marketing future.
Stephens
College was founded on August 4, 1833 (“Who We Are”), and is the second oldest
women’s college in the United States. Originally called the Columbia Female
Academy, the named was changed in 1856 when David H. Hickman secured the
college’s charter with the name The Columbia Female Baptist Academy. It was
changed for the last time in the 19th century to Stephens Female
College, after James L. Stephens gave a donation of twenty-thousand dollars
(“Stephens College”).
In 2009,
when current President Dianne Lynch was placed as President of Stephens
College, she decided it was time to give Stephens College a new, fresh face.
She did this by rebranding the entire college, as stated in a fairly recent
Columbia Tribune article; “Stephens President
Dianne Lynch said this new brand shows the ‘creative, dynamic face’ of the
college. ‘Students love it because they recognize themselves in it,’ she said”
(Jost).
The only problem is that it
seems that most students are generally being excluded in the influence of the
brand and seem to be ignored in their own reaction to this new brand. The
general reaction to the brand’s new shine quickly wore off as the currently
enrolled students started to notice the seemingly junior and tween color
choices in the banners, website, and merchandise. Even some of the banner logos
started to come across as entitled, such as the following:
A similar incident occurred
during the unveiling of the new Athletic Department’s logo, the ‘Starkle’
(Nestor). Needless to say, there was a severely negative reaction by the
students, and even by some staff who were upset by the juvenile nature of the
title and lack of creativity shown in the logo. Ironically enough, it seems
that there are no images available online, since no students have posted any
photos, and the marketing team is trying to contain this public embarrassment.
INSERT INTERVIEWS, ONE ON EACH
SIDE
Previous to this unfortunate
campaign, Stephens College had been marketed as a women’s college for women who
are strong, independent, and classic. That image has been removed and replaced
with one of a ditzy, entitled juvenile college girl. The damage it has done to
the student body’s morale is considerable and will need severe repair if
students are expected to take pride in their school and its image.
Stephens College’s general
target market is the following:
Geographic:
From anywhere in the US,
typically excluding Alaska and Hawaii
From any town size, ranging from
200-10,000 people
The climate ranging anywhere
from -0 to 100+ depending on origin of occupation
Demographic:
Female
Age ranging from 17-25
Generally will have no children
Generally unmarried, but is in a
relationship or will be
There is no way to predict the
sexual orientation of the student, but it is more probable to have LGBT
lifestyles at Stephens College since it is an extremely accepting campus
Personal Annual Income ranging
from $10,000 to $15,000
Family Annual Income ranging
from $175,000 to $350,000
The student’s ethnicity is
generally, but not exclusive to, Caucasian or African American
Psychographics:
The general motive, if paying
for school themselves, will to be to further themselves with a quality
education in order to establish a career
The consumer will generally be
reserved and focused
This consumer is driven, is
typically tight with her money, and will be paying off student loans for a
significant amount of time, while trying to afford the items needed for her
education
The potential for expanding upon
these target markets is there, but the general public image currently being
used is working against any self-supporting, independent women who identify
themselves as such, no matter the intentions of the marketing team.
The general motive, if not
paying for school themselves, will be to get any degree possible in order to be
legitimate for their trust fund requirements,
The consumer will generally be
outgoing and energetic
This consumer enjoys partying
and will spend a significant amount of time away from her living space with
friends, spending money on entertainment, alcoholic substances, and
materialistic items
The way that you would expand
upon these would be to re-work the image of the ideal Stephens student into a
classy, independent, modern, American woman. Just because something is modern,
doesn’t mean it should be junior or juvenile. Classic, refined, and intelligent
isn’t boring; it is mature and the essence of what an American woman is. If
Stephens College is changing its image for every new generation of students, it
is contradicting its own moral of being true to you and is instead simply
cheapening itself in the eyes of the students and of the public.
Objective
The objective of the rebranding
(re-rebranding?) of the school would be to instill confidence and authority in
the name Stephens College, essentially restoring brand loyalty among the
students. If students do not feel proud
of their image, they will not represent the school both in the way it deserves and
in the way that they want to. Every college student wants to feel proud of her
school, and Stephens College should not be among the few schools that are not
able to provide that basic asset to their consumer.
Product
The product that we will be
offering will be the college degree. I consider a college degree to be a
Shopping Product, since I know personally that I visited several colleges and
did extensive research before making my decision. But, Stephens individually is
a Specialty Product. College is what I personally consider to be a
Heterogeneous Shopping Product, since the word college could mean anything from
a private school to a community college to a state school; therefore, there are
several factors to be contrasted and compared.
The product line that Stephens offers
is fairly wide, with majors ranging from Marketing to Theater; it offers a wide
diversity that encourages a variety of student types. I think that the current
product lines, aka the majors and minors, are acceptable for the current supply
and demand of teachers and students.
·
Majors and Minors
·
Majors -
Undergraduate Programs
·
Apparel
Studies
·
Biology*
·
Creative
Writing*
·
Dance*
·
Digital
Filmmaking*
·
Education*
(certification in early childhood and
·
elementary)
·
English*
·
Equestrian
Studies*
·
Event and
Convention Management
·
Fashion
Communication
·
Fashion
Design and Product Development
·
Fashion
Marketing and Management
·
Human
Development
·
Psychology*
·
Strategic
Communication: Design
·
Strategic
Communication: Integrated Marketing
·
Theatre Arts*
·
Theatre
Management
·
Theatrical
Costume Design
·
Additional
Minors:
·
Art
·
Chemistry
·
Design Arts
·
Event
Planning
·
Forensic
Studies
·
Graphic
Design
·
Music
·
Small
Business Management & Ownership
·
Women’s
Studies
The product mix that Stephens
offers includes housing, meal plans, tutoring services, transportation,
internship opportunities, teacher quality, Susie’s convenience store with
exclusive merchandise, and food services. In order to achieve the new brand
image, the above mentioned would also need to be updated. As far as Fresh
Ideas, there is little to no satisfaction among the students as to the quality
of the food provided, the housing needs to be updated with current technology
and internet to accommodate the growing student population, and Susie’s sorely
needs a web designer in order to fully represent Stephens merchandising
potential.
Stephens
will also revert back to its root colors, maroon and gold. These are classic,
solid colors that are easily translated into merchandise and are easily worn on
any skin tone. Quite frankly, this is perfect to have for a school where every
body type and every skin tone is possible.
Even though Stephens College is
respected by a certain circle, it isn’t respected or even considered an option
for people locally in Columbia, MO. Most residents aren’t even aware of its
existence. Stephens College’s marketing strategy failed to connect with the
middle and lower class because of the lack of relatable marketing to
counterbalance the staggering prices. Rather than featuring the college degree
as the product, Stephens instead chose to emphasize the other physical
components of the college like facilities and amenities. Only the incredible
grants I got from Stephens College enabled me to attend, and it was only
because I did extensive research that I pursued this college at all.
In order to reach these
applicants, Stephens College must directly emphasize information about the
specific academic programs, which would validate the seemingly high tuition
prices. Granted, lower middle class applicants are not Stephens’ target market,
but they still will be going to college somewhere, so the question Stephens
should be posing to them is, ‘why not Stephens?’. And as callus as it may
sound, dramatic rags to riches stories are golden for colleges. Stephens is in
the perfect position to be taking advantage of those situations, but it refuses
to seek them out.
Promotion
In order to achieve the new
brand image and to imprint mark of the classy, independent, modern American
woman, Stephens should dually feature the more professionally accepted and
recognized majors both in Business, and Fine Arts in its advertising. For
example, Marketing and Theater are both well known in the Business and Fine
Arts world. Another strategy to focus on is featuring the professors, who play
a key role in the overall quality of the school. They are the main conveyors of
the Stephens brand to the students through their teaching styles and attitudes.
In addition to the validity of their authority on their personal field, Stephen
College professors are known to have obtained real world experience and success
using their field of expertise.
In keeping with the modern
consistency, any business in the current culture at the very least has a
Facebook page and the new Stephens College would be expected to have all of the
social media accounts that are currently popular in order to inform the
students as well as the public of events, news, and anything else that will help
positively promote the new brand. This could include Instagram, Snapchat,
Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Vine, YouTube, or any new up and coming
social media and entertainment forums.
One of the
reasons that Stephens College gets as many students as it does is because of
the interpersonal communication it offers through admissions counselors that
are consistently checking on students individually. I know that that was a significant influence
as to why I chose Stephens, and I know for a fact that several other students
feel the same way.
One of my
issues with Stephen’s bus ads is that they are not informative and this is in
my opinion, the most important goal of marketing promotion. This is vital to
the success of the ad, whether it is an awareness campaign, or a new product
line. You have to give the needed information. For example, my family was
driving downtown yesterday and we saw a bus ad for Citizen Jane. It said
‘Citizen Jane Nov 7-9’, or whatever the dates were. It didn’t say where it was,
or feature words like ‘film, festival, experience, women, directors, new’, or
anything intriguing to the reader.
After we drove past, everyone in my family asked
me if I knew what it was, and I had to explain it to them. This lack of
awareness is disappointing, since my family which consists of mom, dad, and
three younger siblings, are in town almost every day and they still hadn’t
heard of Citizen Jane. My parents have lived here over seventeen years, and yet
they had no idea this festival existed. This minimal ad assumed that you would
go and do further research, but in this world of ‘customer first’ service,
there no incentive to research anything when the customer assumes that she
should automatically be given all of the information with little to no effort
on her part.
In order to
promote the new Stephens image, the new keywords in the campaign will be
‘classy, modern, independent, intelligent, woman’. The images used will be of
students that have already graduated, and have gone on to form careers out of
their degrees. Images of past female leaders that have forged the way for women
in social reform, politics, religion, business, or any other lasting influence
on society would be used. These public figures would be chosen in correlation
to charities that were founded by or inspired by the women, which in turn would
receive promotion and donations from Stephens College in order to convey
compassion and generosity in the public eye.
These charities
and women are the images and ideas that convey those key words. Promoting
students that have accomplished nothing on banners is an empty statement and to
the viewer it means no more than a random child in a cancer commercial that
they know isn’t a survivor. There is no potential for emotional connection or
relatable moments, which is what you want your viewer/reader to have with your
marketing in order for them to remember it.
Place
Where
colleges advertise is crucial to the target market that they want to reach. One
of the central reasons that Stephens College isn’t very popular with locals is
because it simply isn’t present in advertising. I have seen the buildings, the
banners, and the bus ads countless times downtown, but that does nothing. If
you are in college town, it is because you have already chosen your college. Stephens
College is marketing in the wrong locations. Stephens College should be
marketing in malls, in select clothing stores where their target market shops,
in restaurants where their target market eats, and on the pop radio stations
that their target market listens to. There is an enormous amount of untapped
potential.
Having
recently been the High School applicant, any free product would’ve grabbed my
attention. I enjoyed seeing booths with information, I was excited about
college. For me, anything free was a bonus. And it didn’t even have to be
something of quality, just something free! That way, it felt like an exchange
as opposed to someone taking up my time to talk about some college that I’m probably
not even going to apply to. The free items could potentially be pizza, bracelets,
pencils, notebooks, and totes, phone cases, anything that would appeal to young
women.
Price
The price of
a new marketing campaign to launch a new brand is around $64,000, but since
Stephens has a decent level of brand awareness to begin with, it would be
reasonable to assume that it would cost around $45,000-$60,000 (“How Much Does A Brand Cost?"). But, depending on the damage done by the previous mistakes
of the branding, it could be more than estimated.
The
expectations of the brand would be to reinforce the idea of a classy, modern,
independent, and intelligent woman, and that Stephens College is the best way
to become that woman. The revised brand would also be expected to support the
students in the quality of their food services and needed tools to complete
their education, namely high-speed internet in order to complete homework
assignments, and is also expected to be used for video streaming services such
as Netflix, Skype, and Amazon Prime.
These are
all tools of both recreation and academic purposes, which are essential to the
students in their everyday life. The revised brand would also be expected to
keep a color scheme related to the school colors, with more presence of the
school seal, ‘Deo Et Veritati’ which means ‘God and Truth’. This would reframe
the presence of the modern Stephens woman who is proud of her school, its
image, and the history behind it.
The next
steps to take in the future would be to start the revision of the brand by
launching a creative team to focus on the new keywords to be associated with
Stephens College, such as ‘modern, classy, independent, intelligent, hardworking,
persistent, professional (ism), and woman’. They would be in charge of finding
images and people associated with the key words in order to effectively
establish an emotional, relatable, and almost a hopeful relationship with the
future student that she too can influence the world and be successful.
These
revamped images would be strategically placed on print ads such as posters,
flyers, and photo displays. Pizza places, Barnes and Noble, and the Columbia
Mall would display posters, flyers, and photo displays. Placing the ads near
the JC Penny wing would reinforce the image of professionalism with the modern
woman, which is also JC Penny’s customer.
In order to
avoid another banner that makes Stephens College sound like it is full of
self-entitled teenagers, the banners should focus positively on the desperately
needed qualities in the modern working woman, such as independence and
professionalism. Typically featuring the attitude of this sadly unknown
Stephens College ad.
There would
be a separate PR office that would focus on exposing Stephens College students’
accomplishments to the local press, in order to both elevate the students and
raise awareness of the college. This promotion would be achieved by forming relationships
with local radio stations and highly trafficked blogs, possibly even local
television stations. This promotion again would bring the student to the public
eye and give them a résumé boosting experience while pushing the presence of
Stephens College.
In addition
to exposing the students, the professors would also be featured in the PR
campaign. Showcasing the professors that will be educating the students will
help reassure the quality, and qualifications of the school and that it lives
up to its rather prestigious public image. This would be done by having
official welcoming ceremonies or public announcements to welcome the new
professors, in order to raise awareness.
The PR
department would also be involved in distributing Stephens Life around the
campus area, in Papa Johns and other frequented stores. Even though it is a
woman’s magazine from a specific college, after the re-branding, hopefully the
general woman will feel enough security in the Stephens College brand to pick
up a Stephens Life, read it, and share it with her friends.
Taking
action to apply these concepts is how Stephens College is going to improve financially
and conceptually in the eyes of the chance consumer and the target market. This
will be achieved by updated conceptions of the modern Stephens woman, being
able to understand more than just the target market, and finally being able to
implement the changes effectively. Students will once again feel pride in
associating themselves with the term ‘Stephens Woman’. This to me is the best
way to improve Stephens both as a school and as a community.
Works
Cited
Jost,
Ashley. "Stephens College Unveils New Branding Campaign." Columbia
Daily Tribune. Columbia Tribune, 24 Apr. 2014. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
"Who We
Are." Dream Up. Stephens College. Stephens College, n.d. Web.
Nestor,
Matt. "Stephens Unveils New Logo." Columbia Daily Tribune.
Columbia Tribune, 19 Sept. 2014. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
"Stephens
College." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
"How Much Does A Brand
Cost?" AllBusiness.
Www.allbusiness.com, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2014.
