While the vast majority of today’s students certainly affirm the belief that brands today will have to work harder to earn their loyalty and purchase, new insights demonstrate that just under one-third feel that they are brand loyal to brands that their parents, older students, or inspiring people promote.
The Footnotes, Australia’s career and study publication, have released insights demonstrating that while only 15 per cent of female year 12 students know what they want to do in terms of career or study after school, 29 per cent already know which institution they would like to attend.
This disconnection between specific course intention, and tertiary supplier intention demonstrates that a number of students will be picking where they study, before they pick what they’ll study; a decision that surveyed students say is reflective of advice from their parents, older students, professionals or even, from television or movies.
The duo behind the publication, Samantha Devlin and Sarah Warmoll, say that the results are a direct response to the misconception in market that ATAR scores are reflective of a course’s prestige.
Devlin said, “Students are told by their parents or friends not to ‘waste their ATAR’ but simply, there could not be worse advice.
The national attrition rate for bachelor students is the highest it has been since 2005, with just over one in five students dropping out within their first year of study”.
Devlin attributes this largely, “to the lack of understanding between university courses and career industries, rather students decide based on aspirations that are driven via marketing campaigns and perceptions of prestige that flood the market”.
The Footnotes, a career and study platform that is already used by close to 50,000 Australian female students a month, masters the synergy between branded content, social media and the tertiary brands themselves to create meaningful student engagements.
The Footnotes business model is about digging deeper into the behaviours of Australian students and marrying the cohesion between brand loyalty, storytelling and their high-involvement purchase decisions.
Warmoll says that they are looking to transform how career and study advice is delivered because “nobody in the market is making the strong connection between career content and tangible study recommendations,” nor in a format that the target market connects to; explaining their ‘online magazine’ branding strategy.
It is not enough for universities to publish stories about their alumni, their courses, or industry trends; prospective students are acutely attune to the bias of owned media, and want to be part of an engaged, authorative community when seeking information.
