Lots of Fun, Not Much Work, and No Hassles: Marketing Images of Higher Education

ABSTRACT

The college viewbook has come to play an increasingly important role in the marketing of American colleges and universities. Offering appealing images of student life and campus activities, college viewbooks are potentially powerful segmenting tools when the visual symbolism used connects with the demands of the market niche. This segmentation is seen in the present study which content analyzed the visual material of college viewbooks from top- and lower-ranked American college and universities, as determined by the 1998 U.S. News and World Report. Drawing on advertising message strategy, the results of the analysis are interpreted in four parts: the “face” of the organization, the package, the promise, and the “Big Idea.”

KEYWORDS:

• Viewbook
• niche marketing
• organization
• “face,”
• package
• promise
• “Big Idea”