<p>I’ve seen a few instances of universities advertising on tv (usually during nationally televised college football games, where each college airs a short commercial about their institution) but I’m wondering why advertising is not more widespread given that universities are spending more and more money on getting students to apply?</p>
<p>I have seen plenty of ads for Bryman College, Western Career College, and other for-profit colleges but have not seen much from other, more respectable, 4 year colleges. Come to think of it, the 4 year insitutions don’t really advertise much as all, other than the flyers and guidebooks they send out.</p>
<p>I understand that schools like Harvard/Stanford/Yale don’t need to advertise at all, but what about the schools on the fringe of say, the top-50 universities but looking to catapult themselves into the elite ranks?</p>
<p>Are the commercials too pricey? Is it that they don’t want to be viewed as cheesy? Any other thoughts?</p>
<p>Just saw a commercial for Lock Haven State last night on cable–in fact, I saw it twice. This is one of the PA state schools, which have the cheapest tuition for in-state PA residents and I would think do not need to advertise.</p>
<p>I admit to being prejudiced against colleges that advertise on television, but then I’m also a self-described intellectual snob (I rarely watch TV at all). Maybe it’s that in my mind, commercials are for cars and fast food, not for higher education… whatever the reason, I do tend to take them less seriously.</p>
<p>The Mason Nation ad is located just two stops from George Washington U foggy bottom confines. Unless its something like U of Phoenix, the sports related stuff including the obligatory kudos to an athletic conference is the norm.</p>
<p>They don’t advertise because they don’t want to be viewed in the same light as schools like Bryman College and Western Career College that do.</p>
<p>Actually, they DO advertise a little. Watch the halftime of a televised college football game and you will see an ad for each of the two schools and sometimes for their respective conferences as well.</p>
<p>We saw the Lock Haven ad last night too, while watching MTV. I remarked that I had never seen a college advertise on TV and my daughter said why not, it’s MTV and they can target their audience. Seems pretty pricey to me but maybe it’s more effective than bulk mailing.</p>
<p>I wonder if part of the reason people are turned off from the Western Career College type ads is their tone - they seem to be targeted toward people generally not qualified to go to a traditional college.</p>
<p>If a relatively prestigious college ran an ad (similar to the ones during football games) highlighting famous alumni, academic achievements, and things of that nature, would that lend them more credibility?</p>
<p>I think the whole advertising thing carries a stigma of being distastefully too commercial, too low class. Used to be that doctors and lawyers never advertised on TV either, but now some do. But you still don’t see the high end of either of those professions on TV. You don’t see big Wall Street corporate law firms advertising on TV – it’s all DUI defense, slip-and-falls, and other bottom-feeder type ads.</p>
<p>It’s the same with colleges. You may see DeVry ads on TV but you won’t see Yale or even UCLA.</p>
<p>I think you’re right. But at the same time, it’s interesting that in certain fields/professions, it’s okay to advertise. Take cars for example.</p>
<p>While Lamborghini (equivalent to Harvard, Yale) doesn’t advertise, BMW and Mercedes (equivalent to Boston University, RPI, etc) do.</p>
<p>I suppose a distinction must be made between goods and services. Upper-end goods such as cars can be advertised to a greater extent than upper-end services such as lawyers and dentists. Placing universities in the services category would make sense.</p>
<p>Here in San Diego, two perfectly respectable universities, Univ. of San Diego and San Diego State both advertise on TV – but ONLY on PBS. “This episode of Nova was sponsored in part by a grant from…” type ads. I’ve never seen their ads on commercial channels. And UCSD, the top academic school in town, doesn’t advertise at all.</p>
<p>I do see ads on TV for schools. Last year, Case Western advertised fairly heavily here. Also our local smaller schools (St. John Fisher and Nazareth College) both run ads.</p>
<p>I don’t really see anything wrong with it. It’s probably just expensive and maybe a little hard to target the audience.</p>
<p>Private colleges and universities are marketing a product for which they seek customers. Their target customer base is very small – in any year fewer than three million people graduate high school. Of these, some large fraction go on to work or technical/trade school. This leaves maybe two million who go on to attend college. Even the largest state universities need fewer than 20,000 freshman each year. The target market for television advertising is much too small to make it worthwhile to waste money on broadcast advertising. </p>
<p>Schools instead focus their marketing money on targeted instruments: email, mail, expensive “view books,” forums, Webcasts, visits with guidance counselors, etc. Colleges have a huge advantage over a lot of other commercial enterprises in that they can collect excellent information on their prospective customer base with little effort on their part. The testing agencies, school districts, scholarship programs, and guidance counselors allow them to create focused market activities for each segment without having to spend millions on broadcast advertising.</p>
<p>To put it another way, consumer goods manufacturers know that there are tens or hundreds of millions of prospective customers for toothbrushes, beer, and MP3 players, but don’t know who they are. Broadcast advertising is perfect for these businesses. Colleges know that essentially all of their freshman class is going to come from that limited population of high school grads and behave accordingly.</p>
<p>I can absolutely guarantee you that it has nothing to do with not wanting to seem “common,” and if Lamborghini thought they could sell even one percent of the number of cars that Mercedes does, they would fire up television advertising tomorrow…</p>
<p>Colleges do run ads during televised football/basketball games. There’s usually at least one commercial break during which both schools run their ads. I know sports aren’t everything, but in this case, they can help admissions.</p>
<p>For example, Wake is probably going to see a good application boost this year from having so many of their football games televised in prime time this year - not only from having a good football team but also from running their ad and perhaps catching the eye of some intelligent kids who hadn’t considered applying but might change their mind. Or, maybe the kids hadn’t heard of the school but were intrigued enough to go research it.</p>
<p>What is a basketball or football game made up of players who either won’t graduate or who represent very little of what the university claims to be about but three-hour tv ads for “respectable” universities? And why do you think colleges like Duke, or Georgetown, or Notre Dame invest so much in their success?</p>
<p>Those aren’t ads in any conventional sense. They are freebies negotiated as part of the NCAA broadcast rights packages. The intent is to create a false illusion of some connection between the semi-pro teams playing the game and educational institutions. It’s NCAA spin.</p>
<p>In a related story…saw a billboard in the Detroit area for U of Toledo which put the emphasis on its financial aid. Kinda weird, a state school from Ohio pushing financial aid to Michigan residents.</p>
but also from running their ad and perhaps catching the eye of some intelligent kids who hadn’t considered applying but might change their mind. Or, maybe the kids hadn’t heard of the school but were intrigued enough to go research it.</p>