Use of Student Plants to Pitch Products Rising

theodp wrote to mention a Seattle PI article about software and niche companies using college-age hucksters to get the word about their product out. From the article: "Microsoft is among a growing number of companies seeking to reach the elusive but critical college market by hiring students to be ambassadors -- or, in more traditional terms, door-to-door salesmen. In an age when the college demographic is no longer easily reached by television, radio or newspapers -- as TiVo, satellite radio, iPods and the Internet crowd out the traditional advertising venues -- a microindustry of campus marketing has emerged. Niche firms have sprung up to act as recruiters of students, who then market products on campus for companies such as Microsoft, JetBlue Airways, The Cartoon Network and Victoria's Secret."

Apple Campus Reps

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple's been doing this for years. 3 Large campus' in this Metro area all have CR's that work to promote Apple on campus. It's all about the viral marketing baby.

Reminds me

[Lord_Dweomer]

Reminds me of an excellent book called Everybody In Silico. Basically it takes place in the future where advertising has run even further amok and people are transitioning permanently to a new cyber world.

What reminded me was that in the book, they have people who go up and pitch things directly to other people, and they have watches that listen for audio cues, and when they've successfully pitched someone, money is deposited into an account for them.

And while I should know this since I'm in advertising.....how do these companies make sure these kids are actually pitching? How do they know they're not just paying them to go dick around with their friends and not do anything? There's no real sort of metrics for this sort of thing nor is there much control.

My grandpa used to say...

[zappepcs]

If they have to market it on commercials, its probably not worth what you have to pay for it.

I would think that "word of mouth" advertising would work quite a bit better if your product was worth paying for? Perhaps I'm just cynical, but I am thinking that this is no better than commercials, but you can't switch the channel...this is more "in your face"

Arrggg I'm having memories of people selling household cleaning stuff door to door while "working their way through college" ... and then there is that other venerable vocation where most participants are 'working their way through college' (wink wink)

Seriously, how does this help companies that already have GLOBAL brand name recognition?

Apple! Uck!

[mister_llah]

I have seen Apple use a lot of college plants here at Northern Illinois where I go to school.

Not only that, but I have, myself, been approached by Apple. Last year I ran a film festival for amateur film makers, they approached me about running it again, and changing it to use only Apple products and the iMovie format.

I have heard from a couple of dissatisfied members of the Mac support group here on campus that it has become little more than a sales convention every other week when it meets.

That same group had an event on campus called "Who is your Mac Daddy", which was basically just a tupperware party for Apple products.

It's sick...

Re:I have an idea to appeal to college students

[Mortlath]

That's called piracy ;)

No, it's called MSDNAA [microsoft.com].

I was amazed to learn that as a CS student I could download Windows XP, 2003 server, etc. for free.

Re:If this actually worked, then kids would vote

[QuantumG]

They're clearly smarter than you and recognise that the US political system has been thoroughly gamed such that it is impossible for any radical change to ever happen. You have a choice, Bob the Republician or Bob the Democrat, both of who believe the same things, but for slightly different reasons, except for the few insignificant details that should never decide the outcome of an election but innevitably do because it is impossible to change the system without first defeating it.

Compare this to some European countries where anyone can write up a proposal for a referendum, collect signatures, submit it and their government is required by the constitution to put it to a national vote.

Re:I have an idea to appeal to college students

[shawb]

Depends on the school. Most of the time the school doesn't pay anything for the license. Microsoft just gives a really steep discount because 1)it is a good idea to have just about all fresh graduates to have experience with Windows, because then they are already trained in it's use for the workforce and 2)piracy is so rampant on campuses that very few students would ever pay full price for it; There's always someone in the dorm (probably several on your floor) with a CD and some install keys.

Cutco has been doing this for years...

[haut]

Vector Marketing, which sells Cutco knives, has been recruiting college students for years. They sell knives by having people do in-home demonstrations, but who wants to let a salesperson in their house? What if instead of letting a salesperson in you were helping out your friend/neighbor's college student put themselves through school? Also they claim you "get paid no matter what" so that you can try to convince them when setting up the appointment that you're not a salesperson. Its a pretty evil system and seems to work well. Since nobody would actually want to sell knives in people's houses, they use very tricky wording to get the students in there. Check out this site [workforstudents.com] which is their student recruitment site. From reading the site, what do you think the job is? This use of college students isn't a new trick by any means, but it seems to be an effective one.

Re:Cutco has been doing this for years...

[Maul]

The funny thing is that Cutco knives are actually pretty decent quality from what I've seen of them. They aren't the best, but they are better than the average set of knives you'd by at Wal*Mart. I'm not sure why they have to resort to such weird methods of selling them, since I think the product is decent enough to sell the way anyone else sells knives.