Direct Mailer and Market Research

Photo from Pexels.

This week in public relations publications, we picked up where we left off last week. We learned some good tricks on Photoshop and got some great insight into the process of designing direct mailers. We took that a step further with market research. 

During Tuesday's class, we heard from a fellow of OU's future residential colleges. He talked to us about President David Boren's vision and how OU plans to achieve that vision with the construction of these colleges, which are meant to be an on-campus, interactive living community for sophomores and upperclassmen. Our guest speaker answered any questions we had about who they wanted to see in Dunham and Headington Colleges. 

The next assignment was actual boots-on-the-ground market research. Each person in the class chose an off-campus apartment complex designed for OU students to investigate. Our mission was to see how each place was marketed, how they structured their messaging and how we can use similar strategies to communicate with our target audiences. I chose University Greens, not only because for this assignment but also because I am searching for a new place to live for next school year. I have heard and seen good things about University Greens, so I wanted to check them out. 

U Greens Booklet. Photo by Wyatt Stanford.

I arrived at U Greens Tuesday afternoon for a tour and hopefully some marketing materials. A person working the front desk greeted me. I introduced myself and asked for a tour, to which he happily agreed. He handed me a small booklet which emphasized U Greens' modernity, proximity to campus, amenities and their three-bed-three-bath floorplan, which sets them apart from many apartment complexes in Norman that have four-bed-four-bath arrangements. 

On the tour, I saw the offerings in the clubhouse, such as the coffee bar, the computer lab and study rooms. I next got to see the pool. Finally, the U Greens representative took me to the model. The model was the standard 3x3 setup. 

The messaging I saw and heard focused intensely on modernity and great amenities at an affordable price. The representative giving me the tour moved from the complex at which I live currently. He told me that U Greens may be a little more expensive, but the experience, for him at least, has been better. On an interesting note, the representative attended a junior college and transferred to OU, just like me. I was talking to a member of the target audience to which I belong. 

We returned to the clubhouse. I tried to get my hands on other branding materials, but the only other thing I could get was a refrigerator magnet. 

I started to get an idea of how I wanted to communicate and to whom I want to communicate. It was an arduous process for me because I have very strong feelings about the residential colleges. I'm always about the university's mission, but the residential colleges are not my cup of tea. This experience has taught me a lot about the kind of work environment I will prefer in my future career. Agency life is definitely not for me. I want to communicate for something in which I believe, whether it be through the organization's products or services. But this is a different soap opera. 

Personas. Table by Wyatt Stanford.

On Thursday, I got to work thinking about my target audiences for the two direct mailers. I thought good and hard about who would be most likely to want to reserve a spot in the residential colleges. I came up with freshmen who want involvement and don't want to leave the towers and the parents of those freshmen who want the university experience for their children. I constructed personas based on my findings and inferences. The student persona is "Boomer Billy." His parents are the "Sooner Smiths." 

From my personas, I will begin constructing my direct mailers. I will be brainstorming on how to represent these messages and how my target audience will perceive them.