The CE Marketing Committee met on July 27, 2004, to review current CE marketing activities and to discuss our new initiatives. Attending were Betty Craig, Jan Frustaglia, Bob Hettenhausen, Tim Arndt, Bonnie Spanogle, Bob McGoldrick, and Jerry Haba.
I. Latest Labor Force Data
Jerry shared with the Committee the latest information provided by WorkSource which showed that the Capital Area's unemployment rate dropped to 4.5% in May 2004, which is the lowest rate since May 2001. The unemployment rate stood at 5.8% a year ago.
II. Student Scantron Evaluation Data
The group reviewed Scantron data from the Spring 2004 semester, paying particular attention to student employment and how they heard about our programs, and then compared that data with the Scantron results reported in Fall 2003, Summer 2003, and Spring 2003. It was interesting to note that, despite the lower unemployment rate, the percentage of those responding decreased somewhat for those working in large businesses, schools/colleges, and hospitals/clinics while those self employed and looking for employment increased slightly. In addition, the results seem to indicate that slightly fewer students in Spring 2004 heard about our programs through the course schedule than in Spring 2003 but that the use of the Internet as a source of information about our programs increased.
III. Current CE Marketing Activities
The committee discussed our current marketing activities and confirmed that they are absolutely the key to our success. These include participation in business and career fairs, user group and special interest meetings, conferences, using our listervs to disseminate information and communicate with our customers, advertising (as much as we can with limited money), using our websites (both the CE website and the special websites we create for new programs), news releases - and of course our schedule.
IV. New Initiatives
New initiatives that we will be watching include the new Gift of Learning cards, using the I-35 billboard, the open house planned for the Video Game Development program, using short want-ads both in the AAS and online, and our new tagline (You've Got Options). Other ideas put forth included CE speakers at group lunches, segmenting our customers into groups when we can (for example, the insurance industry), and marketing to companies. This last suggestion will take some thought as to which companies and for what programs - a good place to start might be by asking our students where they work.
Lastly, Bonnie shared her updates to our Instructor Marketing Kit with new versions of “"Tips for Promoting Your Own Classes" and the "Marketing Resource List."
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