College students as current customers.

As new postal rates kick in, one cataloger/retailer targets college students through school papers - bypassing postage costs altogether.

As every marketer is acutely aware, a 14 percent increase in third-class postage took effect this month. Companies will continue to mail smarter and look

This article describes how one nationally known cataloger/retailer utilized alternative direct response to drive retail store traffic reaching a largely untapped market - college students.

The College Market

Many retailers view college students as future customers. This is a big mistake. Companies like American Express, AT&T and Ford have advertising dollars geared to reaching these active consumers.

Roper CollegeTrack conducted a Lifestyle & Media Study in October 1993 and April 1994. Some of their findings on retail activity were:

* On a past week basis, students were more likely to shop at a department store or a mall than in their college store. (About 50 percent shopped in a mall and 44% a department store.)

* Seventy-five percent ate in a fast-food restaurant at least once; 50 percent ate at a full service restaurant.

* Major high ticket items were often purchased off-campus. For instance, more than half of undergrads having their own computer bought it in an off campus retail store.

This study also identified the most prevalent types of stores college students shopped. These were: clothing, sporting goods, discount and department stores.

Direct mail catalogs should not fear, however. Nearly half of all undergrads bought something from a catalog in the past year. Music, casual clothes and dress clothes were the items most frequently purchased.

In view of these statistics, it is not surprising this company implemented this program. They are attempting to attract customers that have disposable income now and are open to experiment new products and services.

Implementation & Execution

The company initially experimented itself by inserting a catalog into two or three college newspapers near several of their retail stores. It showcased merchandise available in their stores. They analyzed response by conducting telephone follow-up on the college campus within two weeks after the students received the catalog.

After this limited test, a college marketing company, specializing in alternate media, was asked to handle their program. The program expanded to 16 schools and 250,000 inserts. The company provided the following services:

* The company maintains a large information data base on over 1,500 colleges across the country. It contains information pulled from questionnaires sent to each college and publicly available information. This information is updated every school year.

* This database was scored identifying the best schools available for targeting based on the demographic profile of the college student suited for this company and the ZIP Codes of each store location. Each school was then ranked. The top 16 schools were selected.

* After selecting the target schools, a computer generated report was produced identifying the following:

* Name of school paper

* Enrollment - each school

* Insert circulation

* Total cost for insertion at each paper

* Publication date of each paper

* Based on the number of inserts in each box at their printer, shipping labels for each school were prepared and sent to the printer. (The catalogs were shipped directly from the printer eliminating any unnecessary costs.)

* The newspapers' printers received the appropriate numbers of catalogs for insertion into the college newspaper.

In all, approximately 250,000 catalogs were inserted at roughly 9 cents per piece. When you consider third class carrier route walk sequence postage is 12.4 cents plus production (i.e. lettershop labeling, etc.) this distribution vehicle is certainly a highly targeted and less costly alternative. (If mailed, these pieces would have cost far more because they would have been classified as flats.)

I might point out that preliminary results were positive to this expanded campaign.

There are other direct response avenues in the college market available to retailers and catalogers, including on campus postering (with take-ones), event marketing (tables, fashion shows, demonstrations) and selling at spring break destinations. Orders can be taken immediately from a catalog or students can be directed to the nearest retail outlet. Equally important, capture of name and address can be facilitated for future prospecting.

The college market and these methods are available to any retailer or catalog company. Non-traditional media can be utilized to prospect for new customers in a retail environment.

Eric B. Mohr is a National Account Manager/Direct Marketing Services. at American Passage, a 20 year old niche marketing firm specializing in targeted alternate direct response media reaching the high school and college students. He can be reached at 1114 Avenue of the Americas, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10036 - 212/382-0560 or fax 212/382-1692.