Three CUES is a GDA Integrated Services' free electronic newsletter. In each edition, we focus on only three items taken from our College & University Environmental Scanning (CUES) and our GDAIS research. Unlike most higher education newsletters, Three CUES often looks beyond news about colleges and universities to review greater social and marketing trends. Three CUES not only provides information, but also offers observations and recommendations concerning each topic.

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Inside This Edition:


Paul F. Nunes, a senior research fellow at Accenture's Institute for Strategic Change in Cambridge, is fascinated by the tier just below the luxury class and the products and services that cater to the demographic group he calls the "almost rich."

According to Nunes, the "almost rich" are not truly wealthy but manage to rank in the top 20% of US earners, with incomes that hover around $100,000.

While this group's income has risen, their spending is lagging as a percentage of their income. One possible reason for this upscale parsimony: this group tends to be frugal, focused on savings and investments (The Millionaire Next Door by Stanley and Danko confirmed this propensity). Nunes describes some of the products and services that he feels have successfully targeted the "almost wealthy."

Mercedes, BMW, and Jaguar all now have models in the $30,000 range. That's the luxury market attempting to reach down and pull some customers from the "almost rich" crowd. Home Depot's Expo Design Center stores are clearly focused on a group that can afford to spend more on barbecue grills and floor lamps.

"The top quintile of earners is worth pursuing because they actually have money to spend," Nunes said. "Much of the spending in the other segments of the population is driven by credit card debt. That could go away." (D.C. Denison, "Marketers May Be Missing the 'Almost Rich'," The Boston Globe, 9/15/2002)

GDAIS Observations and Recommendations
There are two lessons here. First, the "almost rich" tend to be frugal, which on one hand could mean they have more disposal resources for their children's college education, or it might mean a reluctance to spend the money for a high-cost college or university.

The key to reaching them may be their interest in "value" and "perceived luxury." A college or university that has a strong regional reputation may be able to find the children of these people in their institution's sphere of influence. Presenting your institution as "prestigious and providing a good value" should be effective. If yours is a small residential college, one way to present value is to describe your institution as a "a total learning community" that values learning in all its iterations both in and out of class. Obviously, intentional 24/7 learning experience implies greater value for the dollar. Of course, to make this claim your institution has to recognize in some way (not necessarily by academic credit) the learning that takes place in extracurricular and co-curricular activities.


There are forty Arthur Anderson accounting professorships, a half-dozen Kenneth Lay chairs, and a number of Enron centers of education. We all need to think about when the next executive or company may be exposed for criminal activities. As scrutiny of corporate executives tightens, many universities and colleges are confronted with the question of what to do about money from "tainted" sources.

McGoldrick development consultants offers the following advice:

Investigate the gift. If there is no proven direct relationship between the source of the funds in question and illegal activities and if the funds were donated and receipted in compliance with institutional policy, it is reasonable to believe that the funds appropriately belong to the university. The university should also cooperate fully with investigations by law enforcement agencies.

In addition to dealing with gifts that may come from moneys of questionable source, there is the issue of the continuing involvement of a trustee who has been indicted. Though media and others may pressure an institution to remove a trustee charged with criminal offences, a person accused of these crimes seldom has time for continued service on boards of trustees and he or she often resigns. This, in turn, allows the board to appoint a replacement, thus protecting the institution from further or potential embarrassment.

GDAIS Observations and Recommendations
What then is the public relations strategy for addressing these issues?

  • Know the facts. Often policies at a private university allow it to decide whether to release the amount and conditions of gifts. The policy at a public institution varies with the structure of the university's fund-raising operation. Release only those facts that are accurate and appropriately a part of the public record.
  • Know the process. How an institution responds to an issue is more a measure of its ethical stance than the fact that it was confronted by the issue in the first place. If the institution is undertaking a review, create a time-line and report the findings. Leave discussions of the legal process to law enforcement agencies.
  • Be humane. Endeavors by men and women are plagued by frailty.
  • Take the long view. Persons pilloried in the press often have done great good. Few institutions have bulldozed Carnegie libraries or rejected Rhodes scholarships.


In research studies by GDA Integrated Services, we know that only about 15% of the college-bound population describes "gaining a liberal arts education" as essential in their choice of a college with another 20% saying it is very important. We also gave college-bound students a list of benefits and asked them how accurately they described the liberal arts. The results of our research are included in the table below.

GDAIS Observations and Recommendations
While liberal arts colleges are fond of saying that a liberal arts education "teaches students how to think," fewer than half of college-bound students say that is a "very accurate" benefit of the liberal arts. Your institution has to remind prospective students of the benefits your liberal arts curriculum provides.

Additionally, too often colleges and universities write about the liberal arts in their admission publications as if the prospective student knows why they are important. The key to the effective positioning of your institution is to define complex concepts such as the liberal arts in your own language. Doing this not only removes the confusion about what your institution means but also forces the competition to "live up" to your definition. If you do not define your meaning of the liberal arts, you leave the definition up to a generally ill-informed public.

Finally, it appears that institutions with a liberal arts curriculum have to go an extra mile to convince college-bound students that they provide excellent preparation for graduate school, offer strong sciences, and can meet the needs of undecided students. Since in our research more than six of ten college-bound students now expect to attend graduate school sometime in their lives, linking a liberal arts education to graduate school preparation is quite important. Of equal importance is demonstrating that the liberal arts are a good way to find a major field because they expose students to a variety of fields. Our studies show that prospective students who have not decided on a major tend to choose large public universities where there are many options for a low cost.


GDA Integrated Services is a market research, consulting and services firm that specializes in customized, integrated marketing solutions that help colleges and universities compete successfully for students, funding, and visibility in the twenty-first century.