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WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY AT PARKERSBURG MARKET RESEARCH SURVEY

Prepared for Katie Wootton Director of Marketing & Communications West Virginia University at Parkersburg

October 12, 2015

Darron Cummins Lauren T. Krupica

Tim Kuehne Lisa Sekula

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Executive Summary

In 1961, the Parkersburg Branch of West Virginia University was opened in an abandoned school

building with an enrollment of 104 students. The school grew and expanded, both in enrollment

and infrastructure and, in 1971, became Parkersburg Community College under state law. In 1989,

the legislature changed the schools status to that of a regional campus of West Virginia University

and renamed it West Virginia University at Parkersburg (WVUP).

In 2008, the West Virginia Legislature set out to revitalize West Virginias community and

technical colleges and named WVUP an independently accredited State Institution of Higher

Education. WVUP was one of a number of institutions founded to fulfill the Legislatures purpose

of creating a network of community and technical colleges that focus on technical education,

work force training, and lifelong learning for the Twenty-first Century. (W. Va. Code 18B-3C-

8(a)(2).

By 2010, WVUP continued a streak of record-enrollment and was ranked as the fourth

largest institution of higher education in the State of West Virginia, enrolling more than West

Virginia Universitys divisional campuses combined. WVUPs two-location campus serves over

3,000 students in Parkersburg and Ripley and provides a wide range of educational opportunities

from a robust offering of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) courses to

education and criminal justice to fine arts.

Though WVUP is by all accounts a highly successful educational institution, it continues

to look for ways to succeed in achieving the goals of its 2015-2020 Strategic Plan. In its effort to

become the regional college of choice, WVUP must reach the broadest range of its potential

student population in the most effective manner available.

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In an effort to assist WVUP in achieving its admissions goals, our group administered a

survey to local high school students. The results of the survey indicate that outreach to students

matriculating directly from high schools should be heavily web-focused, with an emphasis on

using social media sites, ensuring that WVUP is placed at the top of Google search results, and

contacting students via e-mail.

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The Client In an effort to assist WVUP in reaching the broadest group of potential students in the most

effective manner, our group approached Katie Wootton, Director of Marketing &

Communications at WVUP and offered our assistance. Ms. Wootton can be contacted at

304.424.8203 or by e-mail at Katie.Wooton@wvup.edu.

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Methods Our group developed a Qualtrics survey, attached as Appendix 1, designed to identify the

types of media most commonly and most frequently consumed by high school students in the Mid-

Ohio Valley in hopes of finding the most effective way of communicating with potential students.

The survey targeted high school students, as these traditional-aged students currently make up 60%

of matriculants at WVUP. The survey focused on six major areas: electronic communications, web

activity, social media engagement, radio and newspaper usage, television viewing, and written

media. Participants were offered a chance to enter into a drawing for a $20 gift card for completing

the survey.

A group representative contacted principals of local high schools to preview the survey and

ask whether we could solicit participation from students. The principals agreed, and during the

month of September, a group representative visited high schools during lunch and requested survey

completion via iPads provided by WVUP. The survey was also shared via link to Qualtrics on

Facebook. In addition, a mass e-mail was sent to high school teachers in the Mid-Ohio Valley

requesting promotion of the survey.

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Results The results indicate that the market for potential matriculants directly out of high school

are a sophisticated, technologically connected group. The respondents access the internet primarily

with their mobile devices, and most frequently spend time on the social media sites Snapchat,

Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. The respondents report spending most of their time on the web

researching colleges, most commonly using Googles search engine. The most effective way to

communicate with these potential students will be to create an advertising campaign that combines

an active social media presence with a reliable, informative website that tracks web analytics and

results in targeted web display advertising.

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Demographics We determined that of the 240 completed responses received, 54% were females, 44%

were males, and 2% preferred not to answer. 53% of respondents were juniors in high school, and

50% of respondents were from Parkersburg South High School.

# Answer

Response % 1 Male

106 44% 2 Female

129 54%

3 Prefer not to answer 5 2%

Total 240 100%

# Answer

Response % 1 Freshman

16 7% 2 Sophomore

29 12% 3 Junior

126 53% 4 Senior

69 29% Total 240 100%

# Answer

Response %

1 Parkersburg High School 50 21%

2 Parkersburg South High School

121 50%

3 Williamstown High School 3 1%

4 St. Marys High School 32 13%

5 Wirt Co. High School 21 9%

6 Other (please specify) 13 5%

Total 240 100%

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Television Consumption The next series of questions focused on television viewing habits. Seventy-eight percent of

respondents report watching television. Forty-one percent of respondents report watching only

between one and five hours a week, while the next largest group of respondents, 28%, report

watching only five to ten hours a week. A whopping 81% of respondents report subscribing to a

television streaming service, with Netflix being by far the most popular with 96% of respondents

subscribing. While streaming subscriptions are extremely popular, 84% of respondents still

subscribe to cable.

The cable channels that are the most popular among the respondents are ESPN, ABC

Family, FX, Comedy Central, TruTV, and MTV. The least popular cable channels are TV Land,

Showtime, and E!

Do you regularly watch television (including streaming services i.e. Netflix)? # Answer

Response % 1 Yes

186 78% 2 No

54 23% Total 240 100%

How many hours per week do you watch television?

# Answer

Response % 1 Less then 1

13 7% 2 1-5

76 41% 3 5-10

52 28% 4 10-20

26 14% 5 over 20

18 10% Total 185 100%

Do you use a television streaming service? # Answer

Response % 1 Yes

150 81% 2 No

35 19% Total 185 100%

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Which services do you use? (Check all that apply) # Answer

Response % 1 Netflix

143 96% 2 Hulu

23 15% 3 Amazon

11 7%

4 Other (Please list) 13 9%

Do you have cable? # Answer

Response % 1 Yes

155 84% 2 No

29 16% Total 184 100%

How often do you watch these channels?

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E-mail Use E-mail use is a typical form of communication. Seventy-two percent of respondents report

that they have an e-mail account that they check regularly, 45% of respondents check their e-mail

at least daily, but only 17% check their e-mail more than one time a day.

Do you have an email account you check regularly? # Answer

Response % 1 Yes

171 72% 2 No

65 28% Total 236 100%

How often do you check your e-mail? # Answer

Response %

1 Multiple times a day 28 17%

2 Daily

73 45% 3 Weekly

48 30% 4 Monthly

13 8% Total 162 100%

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Web Activity Google is the most commonly used search engine, with 94% of respondents reporting that

it is their most often-used search engine. When seeking information about a particular

organization, 57% of respondents would look to the organizations website. An organizations

social media page would be of interest to 23% percent of respondents for organizational

information. The respondents are active online for a variety of reasons. Respondents reported

spending the least amount of their online activity completing homework and the most amount of

time researching colleges. Respondents most frequently access the internet using their mobile

devices and, second most frequently, their tablets.

What search engine do you most often use? # Answer

Response % 1 Google

223 94% 2 Bing

2 1% 3 Yahoo!

7 3%

4 Other (please specify) 4 2%

Total 236 100%

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If you want more information about an organization, which of the following would you be most likely to do? # Answer

Response %

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Visit their social media page (Facebook, Twitter, etc)

52 23%

2 Visit their website 128 57%

3 Visit review websites such as Yelp

6 3%

4 Call and request information 8 4%

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E-mail them with questions or requests for information

7 3%

6 Ask around

25 11% Total 226 100%

In terms of time spent online, please rank the following activities from 1 (least often) to 8 (most often)

# Answer 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Total Responses

1 Doing homework 69 36 31 18 16 21 17 18 226

2 Checking e-mail 9 36 40 34 37 35 22 13 226

3 Chatting with friends 25 43 38 36 28 17 23 16 226

4 Reading websites for fun

14 19 27 36 22 38 37 33 226

5 Watching videos on Youtube

22 22 31 33 48 26 24 20 226

6 Playing games 22 21 19 30 30 46 26 32 226

7 Using social media

47 36 29 16 14 11 43 30 226

8 Researching colleges 18 13 11 23 31 32 34 64 226

Total 226 226 226 226 226 226 226 226 -

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Statistic Doing homework Checking

e-mail

Chatting with

friends

Reading websites for fun

Watching videos on Youtube

Playing games

Using social media

Researching colleges

Min Value 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Max Value 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

Mean 3.43 4.38 3.98 5.04 4.49 4.89 4.19 5.60 Variance 5.61 3.62 4.42 4.54 4.22 4.81 6.72 5.04 Standard Deviation 2.37 1.90 2.10 2.13 2.06 2.19 2.59 2.25

Total Responses 226 226 226 226 226 226 226 226

How often do you use the following items to access the internet:

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Social Media Use Social Media usage is common among the respondents, with four particular social media

sites being most commonly used. In descending order of popularity: Snapchat, Instagram,

Facebook, and Twitter are the sites respondents report accessing daily.

# Question Never

Less than

Once a Month

Once a Month

2-3 Times

a Month

Once a Week

2-3 Times

a Week

Daily Total Responses Mean

1 Twitter 81 8 6 6 14 14 97 226 4.30 2 Facebook 46 7 10 9 12 27 115 226 5.10 3 Instagram 59 2 2 5 7 23 128 226 5.12 4 Snapchat 52 5 3 4 9 17 136 226 5.25 5 Google+ 127 8 6 5 16 19 45 226 3.05 6 Tumblr 181 2 6 6 2 8 21 226 1.91 7 Pinterest 145 16 4 12 14 20 15 226 2.35

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Newspaper and Radio Consumption Respondents report highly infrequent reading of The News and Sentinel, with 35% of

respondents reporting that they never read either publication, and 21% reading it less than once a

month. Listening to the radio is not an activity in which respondents frequently participate; though,

when respondents do listen to the radio, station 102.1 for thirty minutes to one hour a week is most

common.

How often do you read The News and Sentinel:

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Do you listen to any of the following radio stations weekly? If so, how much?

Suggestions for Contacting Potential Students Respondents were provided an opportunity to suggest the best way for a college to contact

them. The most commonly requested manner of contact was e-mail, followed by social media.

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Discussion A. Social Media, E-mail, & Web Activity

The survey results revealed that the market for potential students is highly connected via

mobile devices to four particular social media sites: Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

It is key for WVUP to follow the lead of these students and ensure it has operative, active accounts

on each of the four of these platforms.

Potential students rely heavily on an organizations web site for reliable information about

an organizations products and services. WVUP should continue to keep its website updated with

the latest information and consider auditing its current website for optimum navigability. WVUP

also may want to consider a web analytics package that will measure traffic, clicks, page views,

and perhaps consider the use of cookies for targeted display web advertising. Information that

students want and need to know to entice them to attend WVUP should be front and center. Of

critical importance is that the website must be mobile-device compatible as this is the technology

most often employed for web activity. This is also crucial given that the majority of students

responded that most of their time spent online is for the purpose of researching colleges. A well-

designed, mobile device-compatible website is likely to draw students to frequently view and

explore the WVUP website, which is an important factor when competing with other colleges for

a potential students limited time.

Another important part of reaching students via the web is to ensure WVUP has a strong

presence when searched via internet search engine. Google is by far the most popular search engine

used by respondents. Therefore, it should ensure that its website is defined so that Googles

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webcrawlers can sufficiently read and index the site so that it will pop up at the top of search results

for any number of search terms. The same goes for all of WVUPs social media pages.

While a sophisticated and useful website and active social media accounts are critical to

ensure that potential students can easily learn about and contact WVUP, e-mail is the most

effective way to contact potential students. WVUP should focus its efforts on collecting potential

students e-mail addresses. Some ways in which this might be accomplished is providing an option

on the website for students to input their e-mail addresses if they would like more information;

collecting e-mail addresses directly from interested students during recruitment visits; and

contacting schools and asking for lists of student e-mail addresses, though whether this information

may be released as Directory Information pursuant to the Family Educational Privacy Rights Act

will be based on the unique policies of each school. Ultimately, it is essential that the

communication plan include the use of e-mail.

B. Television While television-streaming services are extremely popular among potential students, a

sizeable portion still subscribes to cable, and there are clear frontrunners for the most popular

channels. Some of WVUPs advertising budget should be directed towards producing commercials

to air on ESPN, ABC Family, FX, Comedy Central, TruTV, and MTV.

C. Radio and Newspaper The least amount of advertising efforts and dollars should go towards newspaper

advertisements or radio spots for attracting the average, directly out of high school student.

Potential students in the high school age range are far more likely to get their information from

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web resources. With that said, if radio spots are desired, station 102.1 is most likely to reach the

respondents to this survey.

It should be noted that potential students in the adult learner category may be more likely

to read the local paper or spend more time listening to the radio if they commute to work. With

this in mind, if WVUPs budget allows, it may be prudent to direct some targeted advertising

efforts towards newspaper readers and radio listeners who fit into the potential adult learner

category.

Recommendations Summary WVUP should focus on creating active Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and

Twitter accounts.

WVUP should ensure that its website is properly indexed on Google for optimum placement in search results.

WVUP should invest in a web analytics package and employ cookies for targeted web advertising.

WVUP should collect potential students e-mail addresses when possible and use those as a means to provide information about WVUP.

Television spots should be placed on the channels that students watch most: ESPN, ABC Family, FX, Comedy Central, TruTV, and MTV.

Targeted advertising of adult learner-specific programs may be effective on the radio or in the newspaper; less emphasis should be placed on employing this type of media to attract students who will be matriculating directly from high school.