Make Sure Your Franchise Brand Local Advertising Campaigns Are Ready for the College Rush

With the average university student devoting nearly 20% of their monthly budget to food and entertainment expenses, it is essential for franchise brands located in college towns to effectively target students as new consumers. However, using the same blueprint to market to all college consumers is risky and can result in a significant loss of potential income.

The student body of every university possesses its own, unique personality and shopping preferences. In order to target this diverse demographic base, an intimate understanding of each specific college culture is a necessity for building a successful business.

When it comes to food consumption, 84% of university students reported consuming quick-service food on a regular basis. The hectic schedule of studying and socializing can limit food prep and inspire busy students to get meals from local restaurants close to campus.  

Local Marketing 101

Whether a brand with thirty or thousands of locations, franchise brands need to leverage local knowledge in order to create effective, highly-targeted marketing and advertising campaigns to reach students and families around university locations. Rather than rely on national data and statistics for marketing, franchise brands must cater their campaigns to each individual location. This is especially relevant when considering the seasonal start times for different universities - knowing when to start concentrated marketing and when to stop is essential.

In order to tap into this in-demand local customer base, brands must focus on local collaboration with individual operators in each community to gain expertise on their area’s wants and needs - and offer custom budgets, targeting, and reporting - to maximize marketing potential.

Brands of any size can benefit from localized campaigns. Regional differences between food consumption and shopping preferences can be difficult to pinpoint without having the inside scoop on wants and needs, as well as the local data to target and retarget the right audience.

Local digital advertising can also help you with recruiting campaigns to find college students looking for jobs close to campus!

The back-to-campus season is now, making effective marketing to university students and family, and visitors critical.  Following the gap in consumption left by summer break, now is the time to develop a marketing strategy that truly impacts each location. 

Hyperlocology offers brands the opportunity to create custom budgets, develop unique messaging per location, and utilize the advice from local experts easily through our multi-location marketing platform. 

Don’t miss the back-to-campus rush!