Aug 24th 09 Posted by Brenda Harms in Adult Students, Featured Articles

Being Heard Through the Noise

In my last post I talked about the cluttered landscape of adult student programs and the need to be differentiated from your competition.  While we talk about this it is important to know that for some of you this may be a much more pressing issue than for others – depending on your landscape.  So as you read this blog please take into consideration your environmental circumstance, keeping in mind that everyone competes with online programs, no matter where you are.

Finding the place in the adult student market where you are able to stand out in a way your competitors can’t is a challenge for a number of reasons.  First, most adult student programs are clearly tied to an institution that may already have the benefit of a strong brand.  To sub-brand within the framework of that institutional brand, your adult student program will need to invest in a bit of research to find out what is of key importance to YOUR audience.  If your institution has built their brand around amazing student experience (for example) your adult student may not, quite frankly, care about the student experience in the same way.  So the key is to find out what matters to your audience.

Another way to stand out may be through finding your Blue Ocean.  What can you do or who can you do it for, that no other institution has even considered?  My good friend, Dr. Charlie Bird refers to this as finding the untapped audience and explains the concept by talking about the $2,000 car.  Dr. Bird is eager to point out that the $2,000 car was not made for you or I – we have our cars, and we more than likely wouldn’t feel very safe driving around in a car that is small and perhaps slightly less safe than what we currently have.  The $2,000 car was created for people who, more than likely, don’t have cars – they tapped into a brand new audience.  I would challenge you to look for a way to find a new audience, stand out in a bold way to a population that may not be being served right now.  Become known as the program for a specific type of student.

It is a crazy market right now – that goes without saying.  And the one thing we can feel assured of is the fact that it will not get any less wild.  Gone are the days of adult student programs serving as cash cows with few resources pumped into them.  Now is the time to approach your administration very seriously and talk about what it is going to take to hold your place in the market and grow.

Photo by: prakhar