Marketing to College Students

By Eric Anders • Dec 8th, 2008 • Category: Containerized Freight, Long Distance, Packing Supplies, Small Shipments, STORAGE SOLUTIONS

The Fall issue of Mobile Self Storage Magazine contained an article about Marketing to College Students that caught my attention because of the references to how some of the alternative self-storage and personal container box companies are positioning themselves in front of the 18 million students enrolled in colleges and universities across the United States.

Most conventional moving companies usually turn their noses up at the small shipment size that the typical 18 – 24 year old college student needs to move a couple times a year. As the article points out, however, this highly mobile, emotionally eclectic group spends $200 billion annually. The piece outlines some of the basic strategies being used by several companies – large and small – to get in front of this young customer base to meet their unique domestic and international shipping needs.

I latched onto the idea because of the simple but effective instructional video that I recently reviewed online that was produced by Collegeboxes, a company mentioned in the article started by, of all things, a couple of college students. It’s set in a real dorm room and features a typical college student engaged in the universal college ritual of packin’ her ‘stuff’.

RELORoundTable will eventually include a video archive of this and similar “how-to” clips that any anything to do with the process of getting something from Point A to Point B. The idea is to provide a convenient, central library of relocation related instructional material while showcasing some of the creative ideas of new entrepreneurs.