How can you Appeal to University Students using Merchandise?

At Extravaganza we have worked closely with University Student Recruitment Marketing Teams for the past 10 years. Helping them choose promotional merchandise that is suitable for student recruitment and conversion. But the promotional merchandise strategy has evolved. In 2008 it was all about pens and cheap ‘giveaways’. In 2018 it is all about innovation, engagement and sustainability! The student merchandise strategy has to tie in with an exceptional online and social media marketing message.Student recruitment involves encouraging prospective undergraduates to apply to study at the University and conversion is the process of converting applicants to fully registered students.

In 2018 Promotional and Branded Merchandise has seen a revival in the student engagement journey as the university can have a direct tool to talk to their students with.

Merchandise can be useful, educational, fun, cost –effective and engaging.

Student goody bags can have anything in them from sports bottles, biodegradable coffee mugs, socks, lanyard, keyring torch and t-shirts.By ensuring the merchandise is environmentally friendly and promotes good eco habits – merchandise can play a massive part in helping students stay sustainable and help save pennies!

At Extravaganza we work closely with Recruitment and Admissions team to produce goody bags and kits to hand out and capture information at:

• Higher education fairs
• Open days
• UCAS Visit Days
• HE Fairs
• UCAS Fairs
• Mini Open Days
• Teachers’ Conferences
• Recruitment events

We support the marketing team to ensure the branded merchandise fits in with the campaign, brand identity and is consistent with other recruitment material and prospectus. Promotional Student Goody bags and conversion packs can help build strong relationships from the start at undergraduate and postgraduate open days, campus tour day, Discovery Days and UCAS visit days. From experience we know useful promotional merchandise can often be used to remind applicants about an upcoming UCAS visit day, confirm their booking onto an open or visit day or to thank prospective students for attending an open day.

International Recruitment

We work closely with the International Office to supply student recruitment merchandise that is specifically aimed at recruiting international undergraduates and we can deliver direct to your international offices – we know your merchandise needs to be useful, portable and easy to clear customs.

We have found VR headsets as being the hottest technology product in recruiting international students and help them picture what studying at your university will be like, giving them a virtual tour of the campus!

Recruiting in China

Recruiting students from China can be made easier with the use of branded gifts. The key is choosing the right items that are culturally acceptable. Gifts play an important part of Chinese culture as they are the beginning of developing a lasting relationship and they are taken very seriously.

As in most cultures building ‘trust’ is the first step for a lasting relationship and a branded gift is the perfect way to do this in China.

Do you know the colour red represents good luck and is an auspicious colour to integrate into your promotional items when you are recruiting in China? As well as building relationships the wrong item could do the opposite so it’s worth knowing which items to steer away from…

Steer away from:

• Branded umbrellas as they represent break ups
• Black and white items as these are usually used at funerals
• Promotional Clocks as they represent death
• Sharp objects as this represents cutting ties
• Anything with 4, 73, 84 and 250 are best avoided as they have negative connotations
• Branded Green Caps are best avoided too as in Chinese it means that a man’s wife is unfaithful or vice versa.

Promotional Gift Winners in China are:

• Red Packets or anything with a hint of red such as a red notebook and pen is perfect – print it with your University logo and good wishes to represent the beginning of an auspicious time
• Engraved pens are also a useful gift as they can be used over and over again and imply a long term relationship
• A gift that represents your city or is authentically British is always a winner! Tetley tea bags, shortcake biscuits, a soft toy mascot representing your city maybe?
• Branded Garments like printed t-shirts are always a winner as they can have your University Motto on and engage the students straight away

All items that are gifted in China are always well received and the gesture is always the main thing.

Widening Participation for Diverse Marketing

Promotional merchandise can be a useful tool to engage with a diverse group of potential students in schools and colleges. Merchandise can be used as part of activities which are designed to promote higher education and its potential benefits.

Student Wellbeing and Mental Health Merchandise

Emotional and mental health well- being are an important part of the student journey. We can offer a range of merchandise that can support student wellbeing teams reach out to students and help them access their support services. We can offer promotional items which can be used to help students deal with stress and anxitety such as our branded stress balls.

Freshers’ Merchandise

Freshers’ Merchandise in our experience should be fun, exciting and useful on a daily basis. You can give your students a tool to make their snapchat and Instagramming fun and easy such as branded popsockets, shot glasses, party hats, t-shirts and printed vouchers to encourage them to be confident at freshers.

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