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Marketing CE: A Sitting Failure

As community members spend hours in tight quarters and are often friendly, I thought about finding a way to put our university’s logo on the chairs in hopes of getting folks to talk about their local educational institution. The chairs literally support the students and would, hopefully, figuratively support the local university.
Besides, word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most cost-effective means of marketing.
After ordering a few boxes of folding chairs (at a cost of roughly $15 per chair) with our logo printed across the back, I quietly provided chairs to positive, vocal students I had noticed in our non-credit classes over the year.
At the next parade, I walked the route and spotted a few of our folding chairs. Over the next year, a few new students told us they had heard of us from friends or family, but not specifically as a result of the chair. (Truth be told, I had not expected people to remember us from a logo on the back of a chair on a sunny December day.)

Once or twice a year I’ll see a chair with our logo at the 4th of July celebration, or at local Little League fields. But, for the most part, this marketing idea failed in the long run.
I haven’t taken this failure sitting down, though. Many more marketing and promotion ideas are still being used and new ideas are under consideration.
Author Perspective: Administrator