Brand + ACQUISITION research
Building a brand positioning and student acquisition strategy through research
James Cook University
The Challenge
James Cook University (JCU) approached us to gain clarity on whether their messaging and advertising efforts are resonating with their intended target audience. They needed to understand product and brand positioning among current and prospective students across multiple geographic markets. The core questions they were asking were:
1. Is our creative working?; and
2. How does our advertising (both messaging, assets, and creative) align with what our audience wants? Is our investment in advertising on par with our audience needs?
JCU’s team had a strong marketing strategy tied to strategic goals but needed to better understand how this strategy aligns with the needs and wants of future students.
The Journey
We held 9 co-creation sessions with 46 participants across 4 geographic locations, distilling 120,000+ words of research into actionable strategies for growth. Participants included current and prospective students including both school leavers and mature students.
The Result
The research revealed the types of changes to messaging, assets, and creative campaigns are required to attract new students to JCU.
The insights gave JCU a clear understanding of how to position their brand and product mix across all four geographic locations to both school leavers and mature students.
The findings have had far-reaching implications across both short-term marketing initiatives and longer-term strategic planning.
Client Interview
Adam Humphrey, Manager, Insights, JCU
How have the insights impacted JCU overall?
The brand research we’ve done has had such a broad impact! It’s a great body of work and one that we keep front of mind for both our short-term campaign implementation and longer-term strategies.
It had been some time since we had engaged a third party to conduct qualitative market research, with assumption-based decision-making informing much of the marketing strategies. We are now utilising the data to make informed decisions, delivering key messages and creative to the right audience whilst maximising marketing spend.
The takeaways gave us immediate, actionable steps to adjust our current campaigns, but also the bigger picture strategy around how our brand and products are presenting to the market.
The research is truly something we talk about on a regular basis in our team meetings. If we feel we are going too far off course, we go back to the research again just to straighten up and get things back on track.
How are the insights shaping what you do?
Firstly, the insights have helped us gain a deeper understanding of our target audiences. The insights helped us to break down our key student segments and better understand both our school leavers and mature students, and to understand the differences according to geographic location. The insights have allowed us to become more tailored in our campaigns towards each of those segments.
We’ve also been able to better identify which approaches are working, and which ones are not. The other win for us was that the research has allowed us to look at what we’ve done in the past, are currently doing, and are planning, and match those against the gaps identified in the market research. This has allowed us to deliver key messages to the right audience segments.
We’ve been able to narrow our focus and shape a more impactful long-term approach to how we engage with future students. A big thing for us was looking at things from 40,000 feet rather than constantly trying to attack the thing that is right in front of us. The findings from the research have challenged us to find new creative ways to engage with our audience and has helped to inform our 2024 Brand Strategy.
What are some quick wins you’ve already had, a couple of months after receiving the findings?
We’ve definitely tightened up our taglines. Prior to the research, we had 5-6 taglines that we were using across multiple markets, but we weren’t sure how they were received by prospective students. The research helped us to consolidate our taglines that transcend across all markets and will take us into the future.
We’ve also been able to prioritise a focus on user-generated content and have a better understanding of the type of imagery that resonates with students. We learned what does and doesn’t resonate with prospective students, which has helped with creative development whilst maximising campaign spend and results.
What is the biggest challenge for you going forward?
The first key challenge is ensuring these insights translate into our long-term strategies. It’s doing the hard work to translate everything we’ve learned across our entire teams, processes, and systems.
The other challenge is getting cut-through in such media-saturated times. How do we get cut through on social media when one ad seems to just blend in with another? We’ve got some ideas on approaches that have come out of the research and are looking now to assemble the right project and content teams to make those things happen.
Transcript captures a conversation between Adam Humphrey and Eliane Miles, September 2023.
Testimonial
“The brand research we’ve done has had such a broad impact! It’s a great body of work and one that we keep front of mind for both our short-term campaign implementation and longer-term strategies.
A big thing for us was looking at things from 40,000 feet rather than constantly trying to attack the thing that is right in front of us.”