TRUEMU Campaign Effectiveness

Measuring the Effectiveness of TRUEMU
In the Metro Detroit Area
Final Report
Prepared for:
Eastern Michigan University
April 2015
Prepared by:
Jonathan Vredeveld

2
Table of Contents
Executive Summary 1
Introduction 4
Research Methodology 5
Results 6
Section 1 6
Section 2 9
Conclusions and Recommendations 10
Appendices 12
Appendix A: Data Collection Form 12
Appendix B: Data Tables 14
References

3
Executive Summary
With TRUEMU entering its fourth segment we were tasked with determining if the campaign is still
effective in bringing students into the university. We decided to conduct research to answer two
questions: (1) Determine if the TRUEMU campaign is successfulin attracting students to Eastern
Michigan University, and (2) Determine if TRUEMU has an effect on the view of Eastern Michigan in
relation to distance from Ypsilanti. The purpose is to provide the Dean and the Board of Regents a better
understanding on how to market the university to potential students in the Michigan and Northern Ohio
areas.
About the Research. In order to conduct our research we developed a 13 question survey. We emailed
the survey to students in the Metro Detroit area,where Eastern draws most of its students from. We also
conducted severalface to face interviews. In total we received 18 responses.
Key Results.
 The key demographic of 18-23 year olds reported that the TRUEMU campaign does not
impact their likeliness to attend Eastern (70%). With an average rating of 2.8 out of 5 the
campaign has lost its ability to connect with potential students.
 Media type does not have a direct impact on the campaign’s ability to attract students.
Respondents aged between 18 and 23 recalled seeing social media more than any other
group.
 We concluded that distance had no effect on the campaign’s ability to affect people’s
view of Eastern. The average rating of the campaign’s ability to affect people’s view was
3.2 out of 5.
 44.4% of respondents said that TRUEMU has no effect on their view of the school. When
it comes to ages 18-23 60% answered that the ads have no effect on their view.

4
Recommendations. Based on our findings we have a number of recommendations:
1. Focus on a Social Media campaign that targets students that have graduated
high school within the past 2 years.
2. Use current students as the subjects in the social media campaign to relate to
the younger demographic.
3. Focus on positive aspects about the university such as small class size, and
location of the university.
4. Use television ads featuring students expressing what Eastern Michigan means
to them, and how it has impacted their lives.
5. Continue a strong branding effort to help push TRUEMU ahead of other
regional college ads.

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Introduction
The Dean and Board of Regents of Eastern Michigan are interested in boosting enrollment rates
by high school seniors. In an effort to boost the enrollment rates Eastern Michigan University launched
the TRUEMU campaign. The campaign was developed to target recent high school graduates. The
campaign however has evolved since its conception in 2011 and now targets any potential student
including freshman, transfer and exchange students, and any looking to go back to college. TRUEMU is
really focused on the previously mentioned groups in Michigan and Northern Ohio. The aim is to
compete with other schools on the same level as Eastern such as Centraland Western Michigan
Universities, and the University of Toledo.
Enrollment in the years prior to the launch of TRUEMU in 2011 had begun to plateau. The size
of the incoming freshman classes in the years prior had also not shown any signs of real growth. Prior to
TRUEMU Eastern had no real marketing campaign to attract new students. TRUEMU was a huge
investment for the school. It includes TV commercials, radio ads, billboards, and a social media
campaign. The decision facing the leadership here at Eastern Michigan and the guiding force for this
research effort is “Does TRUEMU work?”
Eastern offers low class sizes and has a strong reputation for its education and business programs
but has never had a strong recruitment campaign. Most people outside of Wayne and Washtenaw counties
are very unfamiliar with the university. With this info in mind we are starting the research process with
two research questions to discover key information about the effects of TRUEMU on its target market.
The questions are (1) Determine ifthe TRUEMU campaign is successful in attracting students to
Eastern Michigan University, and (2) Determine ifTRUEMU has an effect on the viewofEastern
Michigan in relation to distance from Ypsilanti.

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Research Methodology
Research Design After our initial consultation with the Board and Dean we began with exploratory
research in order to grasp what enrollment rates for the university were before and after the launch of the
TRUEMU campaign. We initially read a study done by the Michigan State Senate. It was entitled “Study
of Michigan Public University Enrollment Patterns by County and Institution,” and was completed in
2012. This was a strong starting point because it provided enrollment numbers before the launch of
TRUEMU. We also used various news articles published by Eastern Michigan University specifically in
the years following the launch of TRUEMU. Following this we collected more secondary data on the
campaign itself to better understand the message TRUEMU is trying to convene. We learned that in the
year 2011 the new freshman class was 2,130. In 2012, after TRUEMU was launched,the number had
grown to 2,595.
Next we conducted descriptive research by collecting primary data from a survey we designed (see
Appendix A). With the research questions we wanted to answer guiding our efforts we designed a 13
question survey. We conducted personal interviews and sent the survey via email. These methods were
chosen because of the low cost to conduct them and the low amount of time needed to obtain responses.
We used the target market of TRUEMU as a guide to define the sample for our survey. Since TRUEMU
is heavily targeting people in Michigan and Northern Ohio we decided to use geographical limits to
define our sample. Using a map we obtained from the study by the state senate we learned that most of
Eastern’s students come from either Wayne or Washtenaw counties in Michigan. With this in mind we
decided to conduct the survey in the Metro Detroit area. This area provides a large of enough sample size
and is where TRUEMU is most heavily present.
After sending 60 emails and conducting 10 face to face interviews we received a total of 18
responses. We accepted responses for two weeks.

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Results
SECTION ONE: Determine if the TRUEMU campaign is successful in attracting students to
Eastern Michigan University
To gauge the reach of TRUEMU we asked respondents severalquestions to determine their interaction
with the campaign.
The data tables in Appendix C provide complete information to responses.
Because increasing enrollment rates at EMU is important to the Dean and Board, determining the
attractiveness level of the main marketing campaign for the university is crucial to its continuance. To
determine if TRUEMU is attracting students to the university we asked respondents “How strongly has
the TRUEMU campaign impacted your likeliness to attend EMU?” The key 18-23 demographic, on a
scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being very strongly and 1 not at all, gave an average score of 2.8. With this
demographic being the primary target for TRUEMU this score is rather low. We also had asked
respondents if they or their child were in the process of selecting an institution for higher education.
77.8% answered no. This was used to gauge their interaction with other college ads. We also asked
respondents if there were any college ads that had grabbed their attention and only 61% had answered
yes.
 83.3% recalledinteractionwithTRUEMU
 Social Mediaand Billboardshadthe highestlevelsof interaction(73.3%)
 Most respondentsdonottravel toYpsilanti frequently(55.5%)
 TRUEMU has average effectonlikelinesstoattend(3.2outof 5)

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Media Statistics Here we present the types of media that participants had interacted with in the past. We
will also present key demographical trends in relation to the types of media seen. Also presented will be
the number of trips each respondent reported to make per week to Ypsilanti. To simplify the results we
combined the age groups to 18-23 and 24 and older. We also simplified number of visits per week to two
groups as well: 0-2 and 3-7 days. Respondents who had reported no interaction with TRUEMU were
stricken for this part of the research and are not reflected in the percentages that follow.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
1 2 3 4 5
How strongly has the TRUEMU campaign impacted your likeliness to
attend EMU?
Not at All Somewhat Very Strongly
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Street Banners Billboards Radio Social Media Television
Media Interaction

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(1) Street Banners: 60% of respondents had recalled seeing the Street Banners around Ypsilanti.
Seven of the ten respondents who recall the banners had said they travel to Ypsilanti 3 or more
days per week.
(2) Billboards: 73.3% of respondents were able to recall seeing TRUEMU billboards. Billboards
were most popular amongst respondents who live 11 miles or more away from Ypsilanti. 81% of
the male respondents reported they had seen the billboards. This was the number one media type
males had reported seeing. This was also the most popular amongst respondent over the age of
24 with 100% reporting they had seen the billboards.
(3) Radio: 53.3% of respondents were able to recall hearing the TRUEMU radio ads. This was the
lowest rate amongst the various types of media TRUEMU is being broadcasted through.
(4) Social Media: 73.3% of respondents had reported seeing the social media portion of the
TRUEMU campaign. This was the most popular type of media. 100% of females who had
interacted with TRUEMU had said that it was partially through social media. Respondents who
live 11 miles or more also had a high percentage of interaction with 7 of 9 reporting they saw the
social media campaign. The 18-23 demographic also had a high percentage of interaction with the
social media campaign with 80%.
(5) Television: 66.7% of respondents had reported seeing the television ads for TRUEMU. A higher
proportion of 18-23 year olds had reported seeing the TV ads with 70%.
No media types are an indicator of how respondents answered the question mentioned before.
SECTION TWO: Determine if TRUEMU has an effect on the view of Eastern Michigan in
relation to distance from Ypsilanti
With Eastern Michigan University drawing most of its students from Wayne and Washtenaw counties
we wanted to determine if the TRUEMU campaign has as strong of an effect on people who live
farther from Ypsilanti. To answer this we asked two questions: How far does the respondent live and
how do the TRUEMU ads effect your view of Eastern. We had predicted the farther the respondent

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lived the less of an impact TRUEMU had. The question “how do the TRUEMU ads effect your view
of Eastern,” was a scaled response with 1 being “negatively,” and 5 being “positively.” The mean
score for people who live 0-10 miles and 11 or more were 3.571 and 3.778 respectively. After an
Independent Samples T-Test was conducted we were left with a Sig. (two-tailed) value of 0.655.
With this info we can conclude that there is no significant correlation between distance and view of
Eastern.
TRUEMU and Impact on Viewof School
In order to attract prospective students the school must be viewed positively. This must be a crucial
component of TRUEMU. Results show that 44.4% of respondents had said that TRUEMU does not
affect their view of the school. While no respondent said that the campaign affects their view
negatively it is still not changing people’s view of the school. Interestingly however every
respondent who gave a 4 or 5 had also seen the billboards.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1 2 3 4 5
How do the TRUEMU ads effect your view of Eastern

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Conclusions and Recommendations
The discovery oriented nature of this survey was key in providing insight into the effectiveness of the
TRUEMU campaign. The data provides a few key statistics that will help guide our
recommendations. These recommendations can be the start of altering the TRUEMU campaign into a
more effective way to attract new students and to help the Dean and Board answer the question “Does
TRUEMU work?”
Here we will provide the summary of findings broken down into the two research questions we set
out to answer:
(1) Determine ifthe TRUEMU campaign is successful in attracting students to Eastern
Michigan University
 Ages 18-23 answered that the campaign somewhat attracts students to the university. The
average score was 2.8 out of 5 which is slightly above “somewhat.”
 Billboards and Social Media had the highest levels of interaction. While media type does
not seem to affect whether a student will be more attracted to the university.
 Social Media tended to be more popular with the younger demographic
Based on these results we have a few recommendations that can help TRUEMU attract more students to
the university. First we must focus on making TRUEMU more relevant to the younger demographic.
With ages 18-23 providing dismal scores for attractiveness of the campaign we need to figure out a few
strategies that will compel them to apply for the university. The first year the campaign was launched it
focused on student life and featured slice of life ads showing students engaged with one another. During
this year,as mentioned before, the incoming freshman class grew by 400 students. After this however the
different years focused on faculty, alumni, and research development. Students seemed to respond better
when they were featured in the ads. If Eastern can get back to this level of engagement by the student
body TRUEMU can relate better to its target market. We also learned that the social media aspect of

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TRUEMU was very popular with the younger demographic. Featuring a strong TRUEMU campaign on
social sites such as Facebook, and Twitter using students to promote the university will help bring the
incoming freshman numbers up like it did in 2012.
(2) Determine ifTRUEMU has an effect on the viewofEastern Michigan in relation to distance
from Ypsilanti
 We concluded that distance had no effect on the campaign’s ability to affect people’s
view of Eastern. Both groups are unaffected by the campaign.
 44.4% of respondents said that TRUEMU has no effect on their view of the school
With a majority answering that TRUEMU does not affect their view of the school we need to focus on
creating a positive image for people who are unfamiliar with the university. The whole point of the
campaign is to paint Eastern in a positive light that will bring students in. First there should be a focus on
positive aspects about the university. There needs to be a focus on the small class sizes where students
can develop personal relationships with the faculty. The campaign should also spotlight on why students
like the university. This would be most effective with television because current students will be able to
speak about what Eastern means to them.

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Appendix A
Data Collection Form
TRUEMU Campaign Survey
The survey will take 5-10 minutes to complete. Please read each question thoroughly and answer
honestly. Your answers are confidential and will be used solely for academic purposes
What you’re your gender?
o Male
o Female
What is your age?
o 18-23 years old
o 24-35 years old
o 36-50 years old
o 50 and above
Howfar away is your home from Ypsilanti?
o 0-10 miles
o More than 11 miles
Howmany times per week do you travel to Ypsilanti?
o 0 times
o 1-2 times
o 3-6 times
o Everyday
Are you or your child in the process ofselecting a 2 year college?
o Yes
o No
Are you or your child in the process ofselecting a 4 year university?
o Yes
o No
Has Eastern Michigan University been a consideration for enrollment?
If you are currently enrolled at EMU, select yes
o Yes
o No
Are there any college ads that have caught your attention?
(Can you think of any off of the top of your head?)
o Yes
o No
Have you heard ofor seen anything regarding TRUEMU?
o Yes
o No

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What kind of media have you seen/heard pertaining to the TRUEMU campaign?
Select all that Apply
o Street Banners
o Billboards
o Radio
o Social media/website
o Television
Howdo the TRUEMU ads effect your viewofEMU?
1 2 3 4 5
Neg-Pos
Howstrongly has the TRUEMU campaign impacted your likelinessto attend EMU?
1 2 3 4 5
Not at all-Very strongly
Has the TRUEMU campaign impacted your likeliness to recommend Eastern to a friend/family
member?
1 2 3 4 5
Not at all-Very Strongly
Would you recommend Eastern Michigan University to a friend/family member?
Only answer if you are a current student or alum.
o Yes
o No

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Appendix B
Data Tables
What is your gender?
Gender Count % Sample Size (n)
Male 12 66.7 18
Female 6 33.3 18
What is your age?
Position Count % Utilized Sample Size (n)
18-23 11 61.1 18
24-35 6 33.3 18
36-50 1 5.6 18
50 and above 0 0 18
Howfar away is your home from Ypsilanti? (In miles)
Distance Count % Utilized Sample Size (n)
0-10 6 33.3 18
11 or more 12 66.7 18
Howmany times per week do you travel to Ypsilanti?
Answer Choices Count % Utilized Sample Size (n)
0 8 44.4 18
1-2 2 11.1 18
3-6 4 22.2 18
Everyday 4 22.2 18
Are you or your child in the process ofselecting a 2 year college?
No 17 94.4 18
Yes 1 5.6 18
Are you or your child in the process ofselecting a 4 year university?
Frequency Count % Utilized Sample Size (n)
No 14 77.8 18
Yes 4 22.2 18
Has Eastern Michigan University been a consideration for enrollment?
No 7 38.9 18
Yes 11 61.1 18
Have you heard ofor seen anything regarding TRUEMU?
No 3 16.7 18
Yes 15 83.3 18

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What kind of media have you seen/heard pertaining to the TRUEMU campaign?
Answer Choices Count % Sample Size (n)
Street Banners 9 60 15
Billboards 11 73.3 15
Radio 8 53.3 15
Social Media 11 73.3 15
Television 10 66.7 15
Howdo the TRUEMU ads effect your viewofEMU?
1 0 0 15
2 0 0 15
3 8 53.3 15
4 3 20 15
5 4 26.7 15
Howstrongly has the TRUEMUcampaign impacted your likelinessto attend EMU?
1 3 20 15
2 1 7 15
3 4 27 15
4 5 33.3 15
5 2 13.3 15

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References
Eastern Michigan University, http://www.emich.edu/univcomm/releases/release.php?id=1347993484
Michigan State Senate,
http://www.senate.michigan.gov/sfa/publications%5Chiedenrollment%5Cpublicuniversityenrollmentpatte
rns2012.pdf
Link to Survey
https://docs.google.com/a/emich.edu/forms/d/1njPM-
wZoHoZ8yk5iSLWcmSQ7OoDoTTSGjl8WuTfYuII/viewform?c=0&w=1

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