High Point University – Hot Tubs and Ice Cream
I read a post over at Andy Sernovitz’s blog today about how High Point University has hired a Director of?Word of Mouth . Andy says first up:
valet parking, outdoor music, ice cream trucks, hot tubs, and free snacks.
Freshman enrollment has tripled.
What really pains me about these word of mouth guys is that Andy thinks this is good news. Freshman enrollment has tripled alright, for kids that want to hot tub and eat ice cream. And if that’s your target market then kudos, you’ve found them.
What’s High Point’s brand identity? How does this ridiculous word of mouth campaign fit into it? What kinds of potential students will they attract as a result of this? The kind that you as an employer want to hire?
Keep your hot tubs and ice cream. Build your brand identity, whatever the heck that may be. And when you want to do word of mouth marketing make sure that it directly ties into your brand identity or your wasting your money, period!
If they really want to increase enrollment I’d give away Kegs every Saturday night.
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July 8th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Oh for crying out loud….not to bash a university I know nothing about, but with a campaign like that, they might as well change it to Lowest Common Denominator University.
Freshman enrollment has tripled, but what’s the attrition rate? How’s the GPA among that group? I’ll wager it’s not high–for several reasons.
1. The students who really want to study will stay away from colleges that advertise as party schools. It’s a distraction, and highly annoying. The students who pick a school based on hot tubs and ice cream are not there to study. And that’s no way to build a prestigious alumni base, if you want to look ahead to the future.
2. Promoting a college as a social experience can crash and burn during finals week. A student struggling to throw together a term paper is probably going to regret those hot tub hours.
3. The college will have to either maintain academic standards (and with a name like High Point, you’d assume that’s the goal…) and risk losing scads of disillusioned freshman at the end of the semester/year, or lower standards to keep the hot tubbers around. Neither scenario bodes well.
July 8th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I can’t agree more. But to most word of mouth marketing guys this is a good campaign. Never mind the brand repercussions (like you mentioned above). Word of mouth is a great tactic and fabulous when you get it, no doubt. But hiring someone to do this and paying them for this uncreative approach is horrible.
July 8th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Here’s a better way to create word of mouth and increase enrollment. Give the answers away to tests!
July 8th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Good word of mouth stuff, I suppose, would be what happens on a forum I read regularly: one of the posters writes frequently about customers he encounters at Sonic. The threads invariably turn to all the Sonic fans on the site raving about how much they love Sonic’s food…to the extent that several of the posters who have never tried Sonic have become eager to do so. The points we always mention? Great food, unbeatable fountain drinks, and cost that even students can afford. All points are important to Sonic. Dunno if they’ve ever tried to harness that power of their fan base, but it’s definately there.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:33 am
What are the brand repercussions of being completely irrelevant and going out of business? This year the number of students applying to college peaked, and for decades to come the tide will turn in favor of the applicants who will find less and less competition for spots in schools with each that passes.
So High Point University just isn’t going to compete out of the gate with Ivy league schools on quality, the quality schools with a longer history have a huge head start. It isn’t going to happen. And High Point University can’t compete with state schools that can offer in-state residents a competitive tuition. So how are they going to compete?
If you stop and think about it perhaps the intent of this “gimmick” is to get people to look at the school in the first place … an awareness and lead generation effort. Applications are up, they can still be selective about the students they enroll, and the increased enrollment means they have more money to invest in improving the academics.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:38 am
David, if applications are up due to this then I feel sorry for High Point. It’s not a school I would want my child attending. But if they’re looking for candidates where this type of stuff matters then bingo, the’re on to something.
There are many strategies and tactics one can take other than ultimately building a bad brand image. That’s what will happen to High Point if they stay on this path.
January 24th, 2009 at 12:17 am
I’ve toured High Point three times now, trying to help my daughter decide about the college of her choice.. on scholarship in this case! I’ve seen their flashy marketing, super clean campus with the HPU logo on just about everything, beautiful campus, great new facilities with all the amenities you could ask for,and yes, free ice cream, free healthy snacks, coffee and bottled water in the library study room, etc. The Director of Wow has done his or her job here. I’ve also done some homework on my own and found students with internships at major corporations, hands-on learning experiences in the community, study abroad programs to be envied, and more. What I’ve really found impressive, is they are teaching their students about CUSTOMER SERVICE at it’s finest. This is something truly lacking at many of the large public universities, and is something that WILL help its graduates become better employees down the road.
January 24th, 2009 at 6:49 am
Does “Prospective Student’s Marketing Mom” response sound legit or does it sound like someone from the college pretending to be a Prospective Student’s Marketing Mom?