The Ad Man Answers #11

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

  Q:  I wrote a novel that I think has special appeal to college students.  How would I go about marketing to them?

A:   Good luck.  I hope your novel is named “Principles of Managerial Finance” or “A Photographic Atlas for Physical Anthropology.”

Body soap, light beer, compact cars, energy drinks, mp3 players, cell phones, video games, hooded sweatshirts… these are all good fits for marketing to the college crowd.

But popular fiction?  The typical college student is short on cash, tight on time, suspicious of advertising, and so burdened with assigned textbooks that rushing out to purchase “free reading” is probably low on their priority list.

But if you insist on trying – or happen to be selling one of those other products I listed above – the heavyweight of college marketing is Alloy Marketing (and no, I don’t work for them).  They are a one-stop shop that can do everything from putting ads on college newspaper racks to event sponsorships to campus movie screenings.

Other vendors can sell you campus washrooms, door hangers, postcards, newspapers, plasma TVs in high traffic areas, or even volunteers for charitable causes.

Advertisers who spend money to reach the college crowd, like Mountain Dew, do so because people in this life stage are still forming their ‘brand preferences’ – which may carry through to adulthood. 

But if you’ve written a murder mystery that takes place in a college setting, why not wait until these folks graduate, start earning paychecks, and get nostalgic about pulling ‘all nighters’? 

That way, if you do advertise your book, they might actually have the time and inclination to read it.

 

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for the past decade, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, and the San Diego Padres. He recently finished his first mystery, KATZ CRADLE. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

Comments

[Diana]

Amen, Gregory.

College students rarely have time to read popular fiction that isn't assigned for their classes. I'm not saying they aren't reading, but they probably aren't your best marketing group. Perhaps your work would be of interest to the high school set who are looking forward to go to college? I have found that my college-set series is very popular with high-schoolers for this reason.

[Mike Maranhas]

College students may be hard up for recreational reading time, but they find it when they discover the right book. An example is Alex Garland's "The Beach" which developed a cult-like following within the college age bracket--mostly via word of mouth--and particularly among thrifty, summer vacation, world trotting backpackers.

I don't think paid advertising will work when targeting college age fiction readers; word-of-mouth marketing will.

I'm surprised there was no mention of working the social network, Facebook, which was designed for students and on which they enthusiastically plug books they enjoy to their peers. Working this network along with MySpace could generate a viral buzz for the book, targeting the college crowd, written by the inquiring novelist.(question #11)

[gregory huffstutter]

Good points about MySpace and Facebook... why don't I cover that, along with Word-of-mouth in my next column. Stay tuned!