Universities: Who is their target audience?

That’s a trick question! Universities have target audiences. Reading Chapter 14 of “Measure What Matters” by Katie Payne made me stop and think about just how many audiences colleges have to think about.

Payne lists the following as the “typical audiences” (211) of higher education:

Faculty, staff, deans, alumnae, students, parents, prospective students, parents of prospective students, donors, federal government, state government, local elected officials, local community, local media, national media and trade media

That's a pretty hefty list. I can't think of a company that has this many different groups of people to target.

I never stopped and thought of all these audiences, their different “needs, wants, expectations and desires” (210) and how the university must respond to them. Each of these groups are different ages, have different levels of education, varying salaries, etc.

Identifying these groups is the first step in measuring programs at the higher education level. After identifying, the college must prioritize the audiences. All of these audiences mean measuring their responses as well. No wonder college PR departments are so busy!