The Retailing of Campus Life: The New Merchant University

On campus, there are opportunities to buy things everywhere, especially, but not limited to food. And many areas of campus are naturally more conducive to becoming retail in nature - like a typical Student Union - because of how these spaces function for the students.

Now, even places like the library have become micro-merchants, with snack bars and coffee shops. Convenience stores are found inside of academic buildings and residence halls. Along with providing needed services and products for students, these outlets allow the university and its partners to capture disposable dollars - a win-win for everyone.

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Universities as Brand Developers, or Brand Managers (Their Own):

While strides have been made, and student life has been enhanced by the transformation of dining halls into branded retailer showcases, there's room to continue to enhance that model by looking at the key trends in retailing and how they apply to college and university place-making.

We need to rethink it, not just in terms of food, but of places and place-making. Can we create places for students to congregate that adds to their university experience? Can these places appeal to this new generations' values, wants and needs - perhaps facilitate their social thinking and inclinations?

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Dining on Campus Took a Radical Turn: A Simple Solution was Born

In the beginning, it started with what's now become the "easy route." In dining, a solution was to put a constellation of national brands in the university dining areas in place of the traditional cafeteria line. Overall, it was a welcome upgrade.

This offered:

• Instant cache among the student body/customer
• Profit centers for the university
• Direct competition with off-campus venues that often are identical (The conventional wisdom has been "if we don't give it to them, they'll still go off-campus for it, so let's give it to them.")

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Over Time, What's Happened?

Larger foodservice providers have created and promoted a product that benefits them, but also benefits the colleges or universities; it's a business model that will bring in more revenue by taking marketshare from local restaurants, and it's become a profit center for the university.

These retail packages are designed and sold to help the institution by letting them sign on for long-term service contracts with the foodservice provider, providing income models that are somewhat predictable for the university. The university also receives an attractive selling point for students, faculty - the familiar brands of the QSR conveniently located on campus.

Could we create a group of outlets that have overall well-balanced food offerings, but in places that people want to be? No tradeoffs? In this scenario, student life comes first. We are coupling dining service with overt healthy living as well as the wants and needs of a new generation of university students.

Do we provide a needs compensation for healthier food such as creation of a place where you want to be seen, a place where healthiness and wholesomeness is seen as positive, like seating at a Whole Foods?

Can universities and foodservice providers create their own sexy brands that are chic - a place to see and be seen. Would the new generation buy into such a model? We think so. In fact, they're driving us in that direction.

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