The

Entrepreneurial

Code

Lessons from an

Ivy League Entrepreneur
 

 

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

 

Lessons Learned

 

 HOMEDISCLAIMERFAQAUTHORREVIEWSCONTACT

 

Chapter Twenty-Nine

 

“The truth is always the strongest argument.” -- Sophocles

 

As the logistics of the program came together, Johnny and his partners focused on their marketing strategy. They had accumulated hundreds of marketing samples from schools and private companies that targeted students. Full-colored brochures, envelopes, and letters lay in enormous piles across Johnny’s office.  He was convinced that somewhere amidst all of that information was a formula that worked.

Unfortunately, Joe had been the only one among them that majored in marketing.  Maverock and Johnny studied finance and entrepreneurship, and Abe studied operations management. However, they decided not to hire a Vice President of marketing. Johnny and his partners thought the value they contributed was their unique understanding of the college market. So, the last thing they wanted was for a 40 year-old Madison Avenue executive to tell them how to promote their product to students.

The Bullfrog Card had enjoyed a response rate in excess of 50%. Meanwhile the Business Services at colleges across the country enjoyed response rates from their mailers above 90%. Companies like Citibank and Chase got response rates of 1%. The irony was that solicitations from the colleges were of the lowest quality, but did the best.  Meanwhile, the mailers from private companies were of the highest quality but did the worst.

Johnny, Maverock, and Abe sat in their offices talking about this quirk.  It was obvious that families preferred to purchase school-endorsed products. They reasoned that since students were inundated with information, families preferred to say “yes” to whatever the college recommended.  Relying on the school became a less stressful way to plan for campus life.  Besides, most families assumed everyone would follow the school’s suggestions and there’s safety in numbers.  So, there was a risk that marketing materials from outside companies like College Card would be labeled “junk” and discarded. 

To break this pattern, Johnny and his partners decided they needed to “own” a unique need in the minds of their customers.  After all, Bullfrog Card had become a campus-specific “restaurant meal plan,” in the minds of students.  Likewise, they wanted College Card to be viewed as more than just a debit or discount card.   They wanted it to be a way for students to plan for all their off-campus needs.

If families were valuing the school brand and the bundle of “on-campus” services it provided, then College Card needed to be viewed as the “off-campus” equivalent with its alternative meal plan, bookstore, and discount program.  Also, since College Card was 100% focused on the college market, it wasn’t a generic banks card.  Meeting the needs of students was Johnny and his partner’s only business, which they hoped would be a marketing advantage.

In that regard, they wanted the same branding paradigm for the company as the Princeton Review. The Princeton Review had become an academic brand in most people’s minds, even though it was a private company that offered test preparation services. Johnny and his partners wanted to accomplish the same thing, but for off-campus services. 

Johnny< Maverock, and Abe wanted to define their competition as being the local “on-campus” services of the schools rather than American Express or Citibank.  They wanted their restaurant meal plan compared to the school cafeteria. They wanted their online bookstore compared to the school bookstore and their discount program compared to the school programs that didn’t offer discounts and were only getting more expensive.  

As they continued their research, they came across a service called the “International College ID Card” or the “ICIC.”  As far as they could tell, a travel agency issued the ICIC and it was not affiliated with any colleges or universities. This “identification card” entitled students traveling abroad to receive special discounts and promotions.  In fact the card was used by thousands of students every year and they were amazed at how successful it seemed.  In fact, they knew students from their University who had purchased the card.

The more they thought about it, the more Johnny and his partners liked the concept of issuing their own student ID card.   The idea never would have occurred to them had they not stumbled across the ICIC.  It seemed like an ideal product positioning strategy for them.  Issuing their own off-campus identification card seemed to fit their vision to rival the on-campus services of the schools.

They reasoned a national identification card could best link together the different products they offered and it had more marketing sizzle. Johnny envisioned a company that assembled valuable benefits exclusively for students beyond the physical boundaries of their schools.  The partners decided to change the name of their company again.  This time it became the NCEB, which stood for the National College Enrollment Board, which issued the College Card, the national student ID card.  Unlike the name University Services, they decided they needed a company name that conveyed a multi campus presence similar to the trade organizations like NACAS, NACCU, and NACUBO.  Only for their company, students would be members instead of corporations.

Maverock spoke with their banking partner and determined if a student sent his or her photograph, they could issue the College Card as a photo ID.  In their minds, Johnny and his partners were starting a rivalry with the on-campus services of the schools.  Unfortunately, they ignored an obvious problem.  They modeled their idea from the ICIC card, which was an ID card for students traveling in other countries, not domestically. That might have been how the ICIC avoided conflict with the universities.  Likewise, NACCU, NACAS, and NACUBO each had colleges as members.  So, the schools would hardly object to their “official sounding” name.  That would not be the case with NCEB. 

The situation was ripe for conflict.  With less than a month to go Johnny and his partners embraced their new marketing strategy.  They trusted their intuition.  After all, they viewed themselves as experts on the college market.


  

Next Chapter

 

Copyright  2005 by Chris Cononico
All rights reserved. No part of this manuscript may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.