cover image Marketing to the Campus Crowd: Everything You Need to Know to Capture the $200 Billion College Market

Marketing to the Campus Crowd: Everything You Need to Know to Capture the $200 Billion College Market

David A. Morrison. Dearborn Trade, $25 (249pp) ISBN 978-0-7931-8600-6

College students are""voracious consumers who use self-gratification to offset the rigors of academics and the stress of an uncertain future,"" supposes Morrison, a young-adult marketing specialist. Despite their rabid consumption--in the form of $200 billion spent annually on entertainment, food, technology, travel and more--and despite the fact that students are a captive audience and their numbers are constantly renewed by incoming freshmen, marketing products and services to this crowd is a surprisingly tricky endeavor. Campuses are already saturated with gimmicky giveaways and promotions and students have fickle tastes. To navigate the campus market's perils and potential profits, Morrison offers enticing facts (college student spending has doubled since 1995) and time-tested observations (academic calendars signal different spending seasons) on how to approach this dynamic group and the peripheral, but equally lucrative, market of high school seniors, alumni, parents, professors and campus staff. Although Morrison occasionally falls into business jargon, his intended audience of marketers won't mind as he offers clear advice and examples to demystify the challenges of breaking into the college crowd.