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Bethany College
The Objective
Bethany College, a Lutheran college and a member of the Council of Independent Colleges, requested a comprehensive enrollment management strategy to increase student enrollment.
Bethany hired Carnegie to determine how prospective students and their parents perceive Bethany’s image, reputation, strengths, and weaknesses. The assignment included providing the College with actionable recommendations for student recruitment. |  | 
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Our Process
After extensive discussions with the College’s top administrators, Carnegie developed a market research plan to determine Bethany’s image and reputation among key constituents. This included online surveys with current and prospective students and a telephone survey with parents of prospective students in Bethany’s primary marketing area to gauge their perceptions of the College. | |
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Our Findings
In addition to determining that religion, size, and athletics are major themes in the minds of Bethany’s target market, our findings included an understanding of Bethany’s reputation among prospective students, its key strengths and differentiators, the programs for which it is best known, key competitors, factors that most influenced prospective students, current students’ reasons for attending Bethany, and the role the College’s Lutheran affiliation played in students’ decision to attend. | | |
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The Outcomes
We constructed profiles of four distinct groups of prospective students who were likely to respond positively to Bethany’s recruitment efforts. In addition, we identified the types of students who Bethany was not likely to attract and should not try to recruit. Building on these profiles, we recommended a set of specific marketing strategies and messages that would resonate with the College’s strongest target audiences and detailed how they should be customized and conveyed for greatest effectiveness. Development of a logo and brand manual followed the completion of the marketing plan. | |
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