What’s in this article:
- To appeal to the target market of students preparing for college, Bed Bath & Beyond has launched a smart new campaign. Here’s what you can learn from it as a CRM Marketing Exec
As students prepare for dorm life, they have certain concerns, including dealing with a shared bathroom. Attracting these college students as customers is both a short-term and long-term win for lifetime value.
On July 9, I received an email from Bed Bath & Beyond with this subject line:
“Sharing your res hall bathroom? Fear not with these must-haves🚿”
For many college students, this will be their first experience in a dorm. That’s true even for students who are not in their first year of college, as many dorms were closed when classes were online for the 2020 academic year due to the pandemic.
Perhaps that means that this batch of students entering dorms may feel a bit more trepidation than students have felt in the past. So, it’s a smart marketing move to offer products to allay those concerns, and that is exactly what Bed Bath & Beyond does in the email.
The email touched on eight different points via a collection of banner ads. Many did focus on solutions for the shared bathroom problem. Others were more general appeals to those shopping for college.
1. The College Savings Pass, which offers the perks of Bed Bath & Beyond membership (see Members Only: The Amazon Prime Model) exclusively for college students.
2. Bathroom shopping for the college student.
3. Specific categories of products that would be useful for going to and from bathrooms in the dorm like totes, flip-flops, and robes.
4. Items associated with bathrooms in general that are labeled for college like towels, hair products, and dental care.
5. The convenience of shopping from home and picking up from a store near the school.
6. A subtle nod to lingering COVID-19 concerns with laundry and cleaning products appearing under the title “clean and safe.”
7. Another mention of cosmetic and health items, possibly because they feel the need to reinforce the idea that the store does offer what many drug stores carry in addition to its linens, etc.
8. An offer of inspiration shown in an event cosponsored with Her Campus and a general checklist to help students put together everything they’ll need.
While eight different CTAs may seem like a lot, each one is pretty clear, and all are designed to appeal to the target market of students preparing for college. Getting college students on board for the store is a win that will pay off over and over again in loyalty.
Dorm students would be replenishing their supplies between semesters, making them great repeat customers during their college years. Then when they move on to their jobs and leave their parent’s homes, they will have to furnish their apartments and are likely to think first of the brand that they have relied on for dorming needs. That’s why Bed Bath & Beyond gets an A+ on this campaign!