Saturday, December 2, 2006

Inefficiency at its Finest

After watching yet another Xavier basketball win today, I have come to the conclusion that the new Xavier commercials are completely worthless. Because I can, here is a point by point break down on why the commercial is ineffective:
  • Students: What students do they show in this commercial? Other than the token black or Asian student, the only students they show are in the drawings for how the campus will look in 10 years. How about showing more than one student in the commercial? Xavier could actually look more diverse if we showed multiple students around the campus Xavier has today.

A 'real' representation of Xavier students

  • Campus: Question, does Xavier have a real campus? The answer is yes but because of this amazing recruiting commercial people would think otherwise. The powers that be at X thought it would be a great idea to show what our beautiful campus will look like in the future. If there is one thing I learned in my marketing and advertising classes it is to sell what you have and not what you don’t have. But I guess these simple rules of the market don’t apply to Xavier or they would actually show the campus we have today.

Now there was more, but out of frustration of a crappy commercial, I said screw it. So instead I've decided to recreate what I believe a conversation would be between a prosprective student and his or her parent after they watched that commercial:

Parent: Wow, Xavier looks like a great school sweetheart, you should really check them out.
Apathetic Teen: You can't be serious.
Parent: Of course I am dear, it looked like Xavier has a lot to offer.
Apathetic Teen: That didn't show us anything. All it was, was drawings and a token Asian.
Parent: But those drawings where nice, plus it shows what Xavier will look like in a few years.
Apathetic Teen: Oh, so I'm not going to be at X when all of that is completed. Well if that's the case then, I'd rather go somewhere else.

See Xavier administration, you are already loosing fake prospective students, think about what is happening to real prospective students. I do have some advice for you administration if you are so set in keeping this commercial. My advice is to show it to kids in grade school, mainly because it would allow them to see what Xavier will look like if they decide to come to our poorly managed school.

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