Newly formed Target Market Consulting, Au Train, MI, hopes to show companies interested in reaching college students clear paths to what can sometimes be a confusing and fragmented market.
The company, which opened this month, is headed by Elaine Burn, former vice president of market development at American Collegiate Marketing Inc., Okemos, MI. Target Market Consulting will offer marketing plans, competitor intelligence, media recommendations and placement and development of new media directed at the college market.
Burn also intends to offer clients access to a database that will combine data on schools gathered from the National Center for Higher Education with data on college stores. To that, she will append college campus media data from a host of companies and outlets that serve the college market, such as campus newspapers, campus radio stations, campus wall board advertising companies and campus postcard rack advertising companies.
“I want to get companies that do not look at their college work as a separate component of their marketing to consider it a separate component because it is difficult to find information on where to go. The information is very fragmented,” said Burn, who spent 9 1/2 years at ACM. “You almost have to build your own database to find out what is available and where, so I'm saying I'll do that.”
Solutions for companies could range from creating and distributing trial CD-ROMs on campuses to creating student shoppers or devising more complex loyalty programs. Burn's first assignment will involve back-end strategic marketing for ACM's magazine subscription and college marketing business.
