Some large blue chip recruiters spend thousands of pounds on campus marketing rights, sponsorships, access to students’ email addresses and personal information, as well as nationwide on-campus promotional tours. An assortment of businesses are aggressively seeking to take advantage of students’ yet-to-be-formed employer brand loyalties. They are seeking to build brand preference among this valuable market in order to capture talented individuals at an early stage.
While these recruiters have been successful at creating innovative methods of student outreach, directly onto university campuses and getting their message out, they are unable to grasp the unique culture of students – what students value, their attitudes, needs and behaviours.
Understanding the unique culture of students at university offers graduate recruiters the necessary insights which will help them make their employer brands relevant to the student and graduate market. They can then effectively communicate to students the compelling reasons why they should apply to their organisation over others.
Although businesses entering foreign markets understand that connecting with consumers is dependent on communicating brand benefits which reflect local culture, most of those who target university students, neglect this strategy. Instead, they simply focus on trying to reach the greatest number of students by outspending their competitors.
Brand Strategies Which Reflect the Unique Culture of Students
It’s clear that businesses are allocating a significant amount of time, effort and money on the student market. However, it’s time for them to develop enduring relationships with students by examining their unique culture and tailoring recruitment marketing efforts accordingly. Those that succeed will capture a golden opportunity: students’ application preference and potential loyalty both before and after graduation. In an increasing war for talent in such a saturated graduate recruitment marketplace, that’s priceless.
