Better in the olden days?

Another sterling effort by the Marketing team

Things were always better in the old days, right? Those of us of a certain vintage love to go on an on and on about when music was music, sweets were sweets and Luton Town were a footballing force in the land.

Then again, as the team have shown again, it's always exciting to receive shiny new things. For example, our new undergraduate prospectus, which is an absolute belter.

But surely, the old folk say, ye olde prospectus was better, when things weren't so darned commercial and paper was made out of witches' hair, mud and Tippex. Right?

Wrong.

After the War, Luton's Technical College for boys developed into Luton Technical College and then the Luton and South Bedfordshire College. The institution changed, but the prospectus didn't. Marketing, as we all know, wasn't invented until people's first names were put on soft drink cans. Between 1937 and 1953, proto-Marketeers really 'hadn't got it', and quite evidently sat around, talking about cricket, scartching their heads and having a brief chat about which colour to use on the front before a decision was made, the whole thing called a good job and the committee quite possible donned gowns, mortarboards and plus fours before 'perumbulating about' the streets of South Bedfordshire.

Signs of progress, or spot the difference??

As the reproductions above show, no effort was made in design - centre justified font and lots of capital letters. Presumably, some dangerous 'young buck' went distinctly 'logocrazy' in 1945 (middle) to try and keep spirits up as the Second World War ended, but this reckless addition was swiftly removed.


Copies of prospectuses were also carefully guarded. Rationing and the make and mend culture, both of which have recently led to all that tacky "Keep Calm and Carry On" merch were actual things. The 40s and 50s may or may not have been full of village bobbies juggling babies and unexploded bombs; no one really knows. It was a time, however, when Technical Colleges were keen on 'paper economy', with the 1945 and 1952 prospectuses instructing readers that "when you have noted the particulars you require please hand this prospectus in to the College or the Public Library". Quite what the College would make of the piles of abandoned glossy publications after the average UCAS fair is anyone's guess.

A dictat to think about reintroducing in these environment conscious days? It could help the University of Bedfordshire to even greater recognition of our excellent green credentials, but might be a hard sell to the Recruitment team.

Once rationing eased and the baby boomers came into higher education, revolution was well under way. Photographs were being splashed over prospectuses with some abandon. Or at least, they were near the front and the back.

In the mid 80s, the Luton College of Higher Education made up for a lack of decent exterior shots, by showing facilities and students working, resting and playing. The 1985 pictures on this page show a bored lady watching telly (above left) and some chap with a moustache, showing revolutionary zeal in the old Park Square canteen, by smoking a fag in full view of a 'No smoking' sign (above right).

It was the 80s. That sort of thing happened. The Hatters won cup competitions at Wembley. We had shoulder pads, coal mines and Luton's very own Paul Young. And Thrilled Skinny. You had to be there........ et cetera, et cetera.


For more about the Uni's history, check our website

Welcome to the Marketing team...

By Sarah Hampton, Marketing Manager

Welcome aboard!

A very big welcome to the Marketing team, and yes, I'm talking to you! Everyone is a marketeer, or a part-time one at the very least. Aside from the day job, if you give talks in schools or colleges, man a stand at a UCAS fair, meet and greet students at an open day, or speak in any way to our enquirers and applicants, you're part of the team!

Why do I say that? Well, not only have I been covering this topic in some depth in the latest round of my CIM Diploma studies, but it's actually very true. Each and every single one of us will engage and interact with a potential student at some point along the recruitment journey, and each and every single interaction counts and goes someway to making an impact on a student's decision as to whether to study at Bedfordshire. Therefore, whether we like it or not, we are all marketeers, selling the university experience; selling a brand. So, welcome aboard!

So, what have we all been up to recently I hear you ask. Our conversion activities are in full swing, as we approach the next set of UCAS deadlines, and our Open Day season has now come to a close, so it's number crunch time for the team as we plough through the reams of stats and data to evaluate our activity and determine just how successful and effective our work has been. We'll be sure to share some highlights with you once this important work is complete. And whilst our heads are still firmly placed in 2015 recruitment (with the infamous Clearing campaign already well underway), we've taken some exciting steps to strategically pull all of our 2016 enquirer activity forward by a whopping six months, so we can start the enquirer conversion process much earlier in the cycle. We're well on our way, and have already sent out a number of exciting communications; it's been really positive to see 2016 enquirers already taking the time to visit us on campus, as early as April.

Pit stop by the beach in
sunny Bournemouth

We've also been out en-masse, supporting the recruitment team during one of their busy periods, as we travel the country to attend a series of UCAS events. Kylie has recently attended the London and Leicester events, whilst I made my way back to my former university in Bournemouth to man the Dorset UCAS event (and managed to make a quick pit stop for fish and chips by the beach while I was there - yay!), and Krystle will soon he heading up north to Livepool for three days. So, it's a busy time for the team as we juggle two intakes of students, but it's definitely a great experience to get away from the desk for a while and to speak to real students about real queries they have about Higher Education. Not to mention it's very rewarding when they tell you how helpful you've been after regurgitating our best marketing USPs to provide excitement surrounding our courses.  It's always great to make the most of the UCAS events, and spy on competitors as well, as we pose as students (just about!) to observe their exhibition stands, and marketing materials that they're handing out. I think our stand and materials looked amazing, but then I may be slightly biased. ;-)

That's all from me this time. I'll share some more thoughts, insight, and learnings from my course in my next post, as I will have had plenty of time to digest all of the notes and slides by then I'm sure. Until then!