Back to school: how college campuses became a springboard for consumer goods brands
College campuses are as iconic of the United States as is apple pie. They feature heavily in films, adverts, music, and even fashion. Not only has entire ecosystem been built around college campuses in the US, but for a vast number of Americans it seems to be a rite of passage through which they must go, never mind the exorbitant cost of tuition and housing. It comes as no surprise then that brands have zeroed-in in this market to raise brand awareness and maximize product sales. In fact, some brands owe their success to college students. One of such brands is Kendra Scott.
Kendra Scott iconic packaging
20 years ago, Kendra Scott launched her jewelry brand in what is often referred to as "Middle America", an unusual strategy considering most fashion brands tend to target American coastal areas before branching out inwards. In 2022, the brand had over 130 stores across the US, generated approximately USD 360 million in annual sales, and its estimated value sits above USD 1 billion. That same year, the brand collaborated with other brands and IPs to launch exclusive collections, and has branched out into men's timepieces and jewelry under the brand Scott Bros.
Kendra Scott started selling her jewelry selling to friends and family, as well as through word of mouth, eventually setting for a wholesale business model. After the 2008 financial crisis, the branded switched to direct online sales, and opened its first physical store in 2010. However, it was Kendra Scott's Color Bar at Henri Bendel that would make of the jewelry brand the darling of college students. At Bendel's, customers would personalize their jewelry on the spot by choosing both the cut and color of the stones, and in Texas, where coeds love wearing their alma mater's colors with pride, several sorority members became loyal customers of the brand, inadvertently aligning Kendra Scott jewelry with college culture, especially in Southern US.
Kendra Scott Austin Flagship Store
In 2008, the Danielle earrings were a top-seller, before the Elisa necklace took over. They are now both a staple in the college crowd.
In 2018, the brand introduced Kendra Scott Gems, the brands college ambassadors who get gifted jewelry in exchange for marketing on campus, and in 2022, they launched their direct selling program, so-called "community stylists", who earned a small commission for every sale.
The brand also has a strong social media presence, particularly amongst sorority members. Aubrey Gray, a member of Alpha Gamma Delta, and a freshman at the University of Alabama, is particularly fond of her Kendra Scott jewelry, which was featured heavily in her TikTok videos under the #bamarush hashtag, which in 2021 garnered over 3.3 billion views on the app, and inspired the very popular "Bama Rush" documentary on HBO.
The LA Times
Gray's videos have racked hundreds of thousands of views to date, and she's not the only one. The brand has organically gone viral on TikTok several times, especially during sorority rush season in Southern US. Customers posting native content on the brand, is an example of the loyal relationship college students have with the brand. In response, Kendra Scott featured rush content of their own, interacted with students rushing, and offered giveaways.
Just this summer, the brand announced its "Hey, Elisa! An Icon Goes on Tour" campaign which aims to further engage with students on campus. The campaign consists on a multicampus mobile pop-up tour in which one of their most popular pieces, the Elisa necklace, will be showcased for the first few weeks of the semester. As mentioned before, the necklace is very popular amongst both current and aspiring sorority members, and the timing of the tour will coincide with rushing season, therefore amplifying product visibility. So far six stops have been announced for the tour: The University of Texas in Austin; Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge; the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa; and the University of Georgia in Athens.
Hally, a Gen-Z oriented at-home hair-color brand, is also betting big on college students. Recently, the brand hired over 100 student brand ambassadors from Baylor University. Their followings range from 1,000 to 200,000 followers on social media, and aligns with Hally's multi-pronged marketing plan centered around college students.
The newly recruited brand ambassadors will be posting on Hally's USD 10 shade sticks in yellow and green, Baylor University's colors. The launch of this campaign is particularly notable, since this is the first time a University partners with a consumer goods brand in an official capacity since the Name, Image, License (NIL) rule from the National College Athletic Association (NCAA) was revised to allow athletes to work and earn as creators.
Credit: Glossy
Hally is expected to finalize 26 different college sports partnerships within the next 12-18 months. This, however, is not the brand's first foray into college marketing. In 2022, the brand had a college bus tour in which it visited 19 school campuses alongside hair accessories brand Scunci. By June 2023, the bus had visited another 20 schools to coincide with sororities bid days, and football games. For instance, they did the hair of newly recruited Kappa members in pink to celebrate their admission into the sorority, and dyed the hair of fans and students in orange and purple for game day at Clemson University. Moreover, Hally just released their "Shop Your School" collection, which will allow students and fans to purchase Shade Stix with their school's very own licensed insignia on the package. The collection is estimated to be available for over 30 schools on the Fanatics website, as well as on college campuses, bookstores, local boutiques, and tens of Alumni Hall locations across the US.
The Hally branded bus has further maximized the marketing campaign's outreach, by reaching out to Taylor Swift fans going to the pop star's Nashville concert in May. Whilst on one of their college tour stops, Hally decided to park their bus at a bar near the venue where the concert was going to take place, and shared their location to their 37,000 followers on Instagram. Many Taylor Swift fans stopped by the Hally bus asking for the brand's Shade Stix in pink and purple to match the singer's Lover and Speak Now album covers, in addition to requesting baby braids, hair gems, and butterfly clips. Even fans who did not have tickets to the concert stopped by. It was a fun and exciting time to connect and engage with their core customers, as well as to ride the get into the electric excitement and dynamism that the Eras tour has been generating at each and single one of the cities it stops by.
Whilst not the most expensive of marketing strategies, it is quite effort-intensive. So much so, that early in 2023, Hally hired its first senior manager to solely focus on its college marketing efforts. Much of these have now shifted from social media and digital spend, to more experiential and grassroot marketing for college students. KPIs for such kind of events are now based on the quality of engagements, the number of organic social media posts and share, and regional sales lifts.
Another brand who is also targeting the college market is Bubble, a skincare brand that can already been found on the shelves of retailers such as CVS, Ulta, and Walmart, quite a fit for a brand that was just launched in 2020.
Nevertheless, the brand is now amping up its marketing efforts in college campuses. Earlier this year, 13 schools, including Baylor University, Clemson University, Ohio State, and the University of Indiana, partnered up with Bubble to invite students to become either representatives or ambassadors for the beauty brand and to promote the brand to fellow students and friends either via word-of-mouth or social media. The campaign, named "Bubble on Campus", has already signed up 1,800 college representatives and 30 brand ambassadors, and aims to drive sales, increase brand awareness and loyalty, and educate potential customers on the brand and its product range.
What sets Bubble apart from other beauty brands, is their young and loyal community, most of whom are 18-25 years old and whose input is highly sought after. Their feedback is often reflected on product formulations and branding, just to name a couple.
The Bubble community is of utmost importance to the beauty brand, so much so that the universities participating in the "Bubble on Campus" campaign were chosen not just based on their proximity to Bubble retail locations, but also on where the brands existing community and loyal customers go to school. To put things in perspective, some brand ambassadors, for instance, have been involved with the brand since before it launched, in part through the Geneva chatrooms, a major platform for the brand. Currently, the brand has over 4,600 ambassadors across its community chatrooms.
Their marketing strategy and community involvement seems to be working so far, as Bubble's sales grew 900% from 2022 to 2023, and industry sources estimate their 2023 sales to reach USD 85 million.
There are quite a few brands who have invested vast resources in the college market, be it Bumble, Rent the Runway, or Red Bull, but there's a healthcare brand whose college marketing inroads perfectly address college students behavior and concerns: Julie.
Launched in 2022, Julie has one single product in its range: emergency contraceptive, also known as the morning-after pill. The brand aims to educate college students on the brand, its product, and where to find it. Some of their out-of-home advertising include IRL campus events and so-called car swarms where Lyft cars are wrapped in Julie branding. The campaign kicked off last August on social media providing education on sexual health, birth control, consent, and alcohol, a staple in college campuses. On-campus events began in September and will run through mid-November, and its college ambassador program is set to launch in 2024.
Moreover, Julie has partnered with Advocates for Youth, and Know Your IX to donate 250 units of Julie to 200 campuses.
For the time being, Julie has decided to only activate their marketing campaign at large and diverse universities that have shown an interest in providing EC on campus, and who were closely located to stores where Julie's product was available for purchase. The brand will be hosting events at the University of Alabama Birmingham, Columbia Law School, the University of Illinois, Howard University, and Jackson State. Moreover, Julie will run OOH advertising at UCLA, the University of Michigan, and the University of Houston, and has scheduled car swarms on game days at the University of Texas, Austin, the University of Florida, and USC.
Julie understands that it's important to be where its customers are when they need their product the most, and so it has partnered with media brand Friday Beers, to bring the campaign into popular college bars by having a Julie mascot distribute brand merchandise and engaging with students. Activation will initially take place at four college campuses across the USA, and will be run on football game days.
