Population decline: What went wrong?

Marketing and advertising has been one of the best tool in order to pull in customers in businesses, and with regards to school marketing, every college and university would often provide a bigger chunk of the institutional budget for it. When it comes to marketing collaterals, colleges and universities would buy a mountain load of streamers, posters, pamphlets and others such as fans and pens and would be given out to prospect customers like fish baits waiting to be devoured by tunas. Another way of being noticed is joining school expositions wherein students will be “shopping” around for a school while each school brag out their edge among the others.

With the implementation of the K to 12 system, this educational transition post a threat to all. For the next 3 years, colleges and universities would not be greeting freshmen students (of course aside from cross-enrollees and transferees) and would focus on strengthening their marketing tactics for their senior high school department to keep the operations afloat. Thus again, instead of bragging their offered degrees and courses modeled by their college students, they replaced those with smiling high school students and labeled their collaterals with a catchy phrases like “Senior High School Ready!” in bright red or in the biggest and boldest font they could find.

Here in San Sebastian College- Recoletos Canlubang, it seems that the transition is not a threat at all if we will base this on a few observations: first, only 3 streamers could be visibly seen. These 3 streamers, whom we could compare to “the three musketeers” that boldy stand with all their might, are located at the most remote and not-so-attention-getting places: at the Silangan exit, the arc of Canlubang and the one that was almost covered by the tall grasses at the edge of the Kapayapaan Village Public Market. Just think about what would these 3 streamers feel about how unnoticeable they were? Next were the fliers and cardboard fans. Last summer, the high school faculty gave away those collaterals under the scorching heat of the sun and who knows how far those will go, and last but not the least, the school marketing caravan. Was there even a marketing caravan aside from the annually Stagisan activity (Interschool quiz bee)? If you try to ask the lay administrators regarding their marketing strategy, they would always blame the institutional budget. The main campus in Manila would always give a wee budget simply because, as the college dean would often emphasize during faculty meetings, SSC-R Canlubang is still dependent with Manila to keep the school alive and since the main campus also needed to keep their side up-and-running.

With regards to funds, we do believe no institution could move without it. But in order to stretch the said budget, we need to adjust Baste’s belt when it comes to spending. Next move should be a new marketing strategy but, the school seemed a bit nervous to take risk. This also post a good question to the lay administrators who, most of them were, MARKETING MAJORS. Why not use your so-called “advertising techniques” to boost the population? If you truly have a concern for this school, why not squeeze out those juicy ideas and come up with a good advertising strategy?

If we could still recall one lesson in economics, risk taking is one way of creating a new solution to problems. It may cost a lot of money but rewarding if it was carefully planned out. Aside from risk taking, asking for expert advices, once converged with traditional ideas in marketing, would create a unique concept to help Baste stand up. Apart from converging concepts and ideas, one cheap way of marketing the school for free is by word of mouth. One school here in Laguna utilizes their student’s public speaking skills by allowing the child to share his/her personal experiences about the school, in that way, since they were speaking as equals, they would be encouraged to choose San Sebastian.

My friends, there will always be many ways to kill a cow as they say but, it’s up to the lay people to think which weapon would make a full death blow to this population problem.

Personal Note:

This editorial will be used as an instructional tool for my journalism students.