Can brands still make the cut for students?

Marketing Week's article on 28th October features The Lounge's director, Sara Gil, talking about how brands need to take the time to understand students if they want to build brand loyalty with them.

The article discusses our recent "Freshers Safari" to the University of Surrey, where we observed freshers and older students in their natural environment to gain insight into their worlds and to learn how brands can connect with them better.

(The article says we're a research agency but we're actually a BTL marketing agency, working from research and insight through to activation.)

Excerpt from the article:

'The Lounge director Sara Gil says marketers should take time to understand today’s students to avoid adopting a “back in my uni days…” approach to this market.

Ultimately, she says, once students have paid the basics (fees, rent and bills) everything else is for enjoyment, and students will continue to prioritise this [in spite of rapidly rising tuition fees].

“They seem to have no issue finding money to buy the things they want. They support themselves with combinations of student overdrafts, loans, recently reinstated grants, the bank of mum and dad and according to The Times, for 67% of today’s students, part-time work,” Gil explains.

“As we saw at Surrey, students today don’t dress like ’students’, they will happily spend an average of £120 to £200 a month on clothes. They have the latest technology, latest fashions and go out three or four nights a week. They are as kitted out as someone in a job, and in some cases even more so.”

Read the full article is on the Marketing Week website.

If you would like the full 'Fresher Safari' insight report or a presentation of the research email hello@theloungegroup.com