Stakeholders

For the next assignment in my PR publications class, we will be designing a direct mailer using Photoshop. For the project, we are designing for OU Recruitment Services, who assist prospective and admitted students in their journey to OU, whether that be through help with the application or questions they may have about life at the university.

Within the pool of prospective students, I chose to focus on a small group of people–students from southeastern Oklahoma. This public is very important to me because I grew up in a small town in southeastern Oklahoma. Because of this, I feel like I am able to relate to students from this area, which will be useful in deciding the messages to use in targeting these students. I understand the concerns that most of these students would likely have about coming to a larger university like OU since I had the same ones only a few years ago.

Here’s a little more information about the students from southeastern Oklahoma:

• several of them are first generation college students
• most go to high schools with graduating classes of no more than 100 students
• the average household income in southeastern Oklahoma is much lower than in other regions of Oklahoma

It is also a good idea to point out some of the concerns that students coming from this area of the state are likely to have about going to a larger university:

• not being able to to perform well academically
• not being able to afford tuition and housing
• not fitting in or making friends

In my own time at OU, I have had the chance to be a part of a group called Southeastern Oklahoma Sooners which was established by a former OU recruiter for the southeast region who also grew up in the area. As a student group, we work to give prospective students in the region a current student perspective on how to make the transition from a small rural town to a larger city. Because of our efforts, the recruiting from the region increased by 20% last year. However, there are still several students we talk to who choose to go elsewhere, normally for one of the reasons that I listed above.

These are all things to consider in my design for this particular public. I will want to include encouraging messages that make these students feel welcome and more importantly, wanted at OU.