This week we have been tasked with defining a second stakeholder – an optional challenge was to choose a stakeholder who couples well with our first selections from last week. I decided to go for the challenge and choose alumni whose children are prospective students to the university as my second stakeholder.
Very often, parents play a large role in the decision making process when it comes to higher education. The purpose of choosing alumni with prospective students is to appeal to their sense of emotion towards their children and convince them that sending their child to OU will allow for them to share something even while the student is away. If a parent feels that sending their child to their legacy university will help to fill a void and develop a deeper relationship with the student then they may feel more inclined to vouch for the University of Oklahoma.
I understand that this message may not be received well by those alumni whose experience at OU may not have been the most positive. However, I believe that to better tailor the message we could increase engagement to those parents who interact with the university – either those who have contributed financially, visited the university, subscribe to our updates or are members of the OU Alumni Association.
By interacting with prospective students and their parents, OU Admissions & Recruitment will be able target high quality applicants and retain their interest throughout their college selection process.
