BUSINESSES need to stop treating students as if they are characters from The Young Ones if they want them to use their services, a marketing specialist has warned.
Graeme Barratt, who founded the Scotcampus national student newspaper, said that companies such as insurance firm Endsleigh and drinks brand Red Bull were leaders in the student marketplace because they recognised the changes going on among young peo
ple.
But he warned businesses that there was no such thing a as "typical" student and that the so-called student market was divided into many sub-markets. Barratt said companies needed to be careful not to offend different groups of students, which may be passionate about fashion, music or politics.
He said the secret was to communicate with students and, now that students had "almost 100 per cent" access to the internet, e-mail addresses and mobile phone numbers were becoming key tools for marketing products and services to students.
Barratt stressed that students can be a lucrative market and that making connections with people when they are studying could lead to life-long brand loyalty.
The National Union of Students in Scotland said that the latest figures showed that 73 per cent of students in Scotland had a job, with the average student earnings standing at £48.50 a week.
Barratt said: "A lot of businesses are keying into the fact that students aren't the stereotypical group that they used to be."
His comments came after the Scotcampus Freshers' Festival, which ran in Glasgow's George Square on Friday and Saturday.
At the event, businesses sold their wares to students .
Barratt added: "Events like our Freshers' Festival show businesses that there's a lot more to student life than just drinking and missing lectures."
The full article contains 299 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
