Textbook Rental Program Expands to Hundreds of Campuses This Fall

Friday, August 13th, 2010 by Marie Policastro

We’ve expanded our multi-channel textbook rental program to hundreds of colleges and universities. The program has already resulted in thousands of students renting their fall textbooks and, by the end of the back-to-school season, will provide millions of higher education students, and their families, significant savings off the high cost of college textbooks.

Barnes & Noble piloted its groundbreaking textbook rental program in January, becoming the first major retailer to offer a multi-channel textbook rental program providing students the option of renting in the campus bookstore’s physical or online store. The response to the pilot program exceeded all expectations, as thousands of students eagerly embraced the textbook rental service. In fact, more than 90% of the participating students surveyed said they liked the program and would rent from their Barnes & Noble campus bookstore again.

Along with delivering savings of more than 50% over the cost of purchasing a new, printed textbook, our rental program contains the features college students want most, including:

  • The convenience of renting their books either in the campus bookstore or from the bookstore’s web site, eliminating the need to pay shipping costs or wait for their books to arrive in the mail
  • The choice to return their rental textbooks to the campus bookstore or via mail using free return shipping
  • The flexibility to use a wide variety of rental fee payment options, including financial aid and campus debit cards, as well as cash and credit cards
  • The ability to highlight and take notes in their rented books
  • The freedom to keep their books for up to ten days after the last day of finals
  • The comfort of getting automated, reminder emails alerting them that the rental period is ending and to return their books to the bookstore

“We believe the combination of great value, easy access, and convenience has fueled the overwhelmingly positive response to our campus bookstore rental program,” said Jade Roth, Vice President, Books & Digital Strategy of Barnes & Noble College Booksellers. “The addition of rentals means that college students have all the options they want, many at great cost savings, without shopping multiple locations and vendors. Additionally, students can shop with the assurance that they are getting the right book because we work directly with their faculty members. And, of course, they have the added confidence of knowing they are managing their textbook needs through Barnes & Noble, the bookstore they grew up with and trust, located on their campus.”

Following the tremendous success of our pilot program, we moved swiftly to make the rental program available to every school where we manage the on-campus bookstore. Hundreds of schools chose to offer textbook rentals through Barnes & Noble for the fall term—with hundreds more expected to add the service for the winter term.

We’re proud to be the single source for college students seeking more price and format options for their educational materials. All Barnes & Noble college bookstores carry new, used, custom, and unbundled textbooks, each at different price points. Additionally, all of the company’s campus bookstores offer thousands of eTextbooks, many of which are read using NOOKstudy™ by Barnes & Noble, an innovative new study platform and software solution for higher education. Download or learn more about NOOKstudy at www.nookstudy.com/college.

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Barnes & Noble proudly introduces two socially responsible brands in our stores this fall

Friday, August 13th, 2010 by Marie Policastro

Alta Gracia is the socially responsible brand from Knights Apparel.  Alta Gracia is manufactured in a factory in the Dominican Republic that provides every employee with benefits and a living wage, enough to cover costs for a family of four as agreed upon by the Workers Rights Consortium and the Fair Labor Association. This initiative is also fully supported by United Students Against Sweatshops.

Knights Apparel’s fair wage initiative was recently profiled in the New York Times.

School House brand clothing will be introduced in 30 of our stores in the coming weeks. School House, founded in 2007, pays living wages to its workers in SriLanka. This brand is the result of an effort with School House and ALARM, a Sri Lankan coalition of labor rights organizations and trade unions. In-store signage will promote the School House brand of clothing. Read the rest of this entry »

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Our Top 5 Sampling Tips

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010 by Steve Schubert

At Barnes & Noble College Marketing, we have handed out over 50 million product samples to college students in the last five years. Along the way, we’ve learned a number of things that can help marketers get the most out of their sampling programs. Here are our Top 5 Tips for getting the most out of your sampling investment:

  1. Sample at the right time. Deliver your samples to students when they are more likely to be open to purchasing the product if they like it…and when they are physically close to that point of purchase.
  2. Set sampling ROI goals in advance and calculate key metrics before and after the sample to determine effectiveness.
  3. Students are most responsive to peer-to-peer marketing, so leverage partners with significant peer-to-peer reach. At Barnes & Noble College, we have over 10,000 student employees on campuses across the country.
  4. Avoid re-sampling: Leverage partners who have a clear understanding of traffic flow and can create distribution plans targeting that traffic. Also, avoid “Take One” sampling on campus and agencies using mass mailings to student groups where students may take many more than one for themselves.
  5. Choose sampling partners who can effectively surround your sample with an integrated set of media options on campus and online to raise brand/product awareness and understanding and to increase post-sample purchase among students.
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Go Beyond Clean College Campus Tour

Monday, June 14th, 2010 by TJ Nolan

If you build it, they will come. That’s exactly what L’Oreal did by creating an interactive experience on 10 college campuses nationwide.

Barnes & Noble College Marketing and L’Oreal have teamed up to promote a new product launch focusing on L’Oreal’s new Go 360 Clean Face Wash. Christened the L’Oreal “Go Beyond Clean College Campus Tour”, the tour starts March 17th and extends until April 30th. One of the best and unique elements of the tour is the inclusion of an amazing Airstream gutted to look like you’re in L’Oreal land; complete with washing stations, products, and a lounge area (sweet!).

The tour also includes Electric Motorcars driven around campus and inviting students to use the attached mobile washing station for those who want to try the product and wash their face on the go.

Additional activities include free morning yoga classes, evening study break snacks, a local sweepstakes and viral wakeup calls that encourage students to start their days with Go 360° Clean. Full-size product samples, branded spa headbands and $1 retail coupons are also distributed.

Face wash + Free Stuff = Happy college students!

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I’m a Great Believer in Luck & so is Barnes & Noble! <3

Saturday, June 12th, 2010 by Jennifer Gordon

We just kicked off our Keepin’ if Fresh Sweepstakes in over 500 of our college bookstores.  Summer is the season to get lucky.  Our stores have started to promote our Back to School Sweepstakes, and, it is a chance for students to win BIG!  Barnes & Noble College Marketing know how important it is for students to get ahead of the game.

For brands like HP, Dell & mark., this is an opportunity where, both brands and students, can get ahead of the game.  The Grand Prize is a $1,000 Barnes & Noble Gift Card (WOW, talk about free textbooks), our 1st Prize winner will receive a HP Laptop, our 2nd Prize winner will receive a Dell Studio 15 laptop with Windows 7 preinstalled (Did someone say, “YES!”?) and three 3rd Prize winners will receive Best of mark. products, cosmetics and fashion accessories.

Regardless what the prizes are, winning is BIG, and Barnes & Noble College Marketing knows that college students, who are furthering their education, should be rewarded.  In an economy where job prospects after graduations are low, here is an opportunity where brands and students can both succeed.

No purchases are necessary to enter the Keepin’ it Fresh Sweepstakes and the winners will be selected on September 25, 2010.  Just go online to www.keepinitfreshsweeps.com and enter to win big!

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GPR provides college students the tools for financial success

Thursday, June 10th, 2010 by Peter Kullman

GPR—sounds like another useless acronym to enter the English language.

GPR stands for General Purpose Reloadable which is a product that is benefiting from the financial crisis. GPR cards have been around since the early 1990’s but the new Credit Card Act has brought them to the forefront as a safe and reliable payment method for college students that can’t get or don’t want a credit/bank debit card.

A GPR card has all the features of a bank debit card without the overdraft fees and threat of fraud/identity theft. The product itself is quite simple. Money is deposited in various manners (direct deposit, P2P transfers, swipe reloads) into your GPR account and the card is used just like a bank/credit card. The catch is that you can only spend what is on the card—a novel concept in a world where credit rules.

As with everything in our society nothing worth owning is free. The card must be purchased (usually between $3-$5) and there is a monthly maintenance fee (usually between $5-$9). What do you get for your money—well let’s talk a look:

  • Account features that rival banks (text alerts, budget tools, etc.)
  • Elimination of the dreaded $39.95 overdraft fee
  • Security—no one can run up thousands of dollars in charges if the card is lost or stolen (text alerts make card holders aware of every transaction and thus the card can be quickly canceled and replaced).

GPR cards offer college students and their parents a safe and effective way to manage finances and learn fiscal responsibility—something we could all do more of as shown by the recent financial crisis.

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Microsoft Goes to College

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 by Kristin Gallagher

With Office 2010 launching this summer, Microsoft is taking their brands to college campuses like they’ve never done before. When students arrive back on campus this fall, they’ll be greeted with a three-sided Microsoft fixture that will be prominently placed in 400 Barnes & Noble College bookstores this summer and will rotate student messaging around brands like Office, Windows, Zune, and Xbox.

The program is on track to not only be a win for Microsoft and students looking for discounts, but also for our software partner Journey Education who will be supplying the product to students both online and in-stores at participating schools.

Signage, windows banners, textbook order inserts, and dedicated email campaigns will work together to create a true Microsoft student branding project.

For Microsoft this is an opportunity to connect with students more directly than ever, for students this is an opportunity to learn about discounts and offers on their favorite products, and for us, well this is an opportunity to work with the one and only Microsoft Corporation—This program is shaping up to be a win-win-win.

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School’s Out For Summer

Sunday, May 30th, 2010 by TJ Nolan

As the Alice Cooper song goes, “school’s out for summer,” and for recent graduates, “school’s out forever.”  With that knowledge, more and more marketers are taking the last stab at reaching college grads before they begin their journey into the real world of 9- 5, taking the F train, paying bills and becoming an “adult.”

It’s a smart move, as studies show, that reaching consumers in college can create lifelong customers.  With the economy as it is today, and as college students become more savvy with their choices, we’re seeing brands move towards robust offers and asking for more targeted avenues to reach their target audience, college students.

Specific to graduates, we have created a natural platform where marketers can reach their targeted audience with their offers and messages.  Each spring, we create a branded arena, in stores, called the Grad Zone. The Grad Zone offers everything from class rings, to diploma covers or that last school branded beer stein.  Through our school relationships, we are an outlet for college grads to come in, get fitted for and pick up their cap and gowns.  We see over 400,000 students shuffle through the Grad Zone every spring and each student experiences one-to-one contact, which brings another level to college advertising.  Hand-to-hand college sampling of partner offers, campus wide grad sweeps at 500 plus schools, data research and direct email campaigns are just a few of the options we’ve offered in the past, along with customized programs.

The key success for grads, ultimately falls back on the offers that brands provide.   We’ve got both ends of the phone line, but what matters the most is the offer that the partner provides.  The good news is, brands get it!  Huge discounts off new cars by General Motors (that rival the offers they give to employees), up to 10% off the latest and greatest HP products (love those new commercials by the way), and much more.

These partners may not be killing it on their margins, but are smart enough to know that the acquisition of the 18–22 is key.  From the grad and student side, they appreciate that some companies still have their back.

Now that they’ve got their car and PC covered, it’s off to find a job!

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Barnes & Noble’s Textbook Rental Program Expands to 200+ Stores this Fall

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 by Marie Policastro

This past year the economy experienced continued challenges as our industry underwent a significant shift. Our consumers, and students in particular, continued to pursue cost-effective buying behaviors. Beyond that, they pushed for more choices. Buying textbooks was about more than just finding the lowest price—it was about finding another way of obtaining the textbook. What this means is that the products and services being offered to students is now driven more by the students themselves than by the marketplace. As such, this year, the most radical change we witnessed was the explosion of textbook rentals onto the scene. They’ve become an increasingly popular choice for students. In fact, more than 90% of students said they would rent again and preferred renting from the campus bookstore over online competitors. Barnes & Noble was the first national bookseller to offer a multi-channel (in-store and online) textbook rental program. Our pilot program involving twenty-five stores was a tremendous success, and we are excited to offer our rental option to more than 200 stores this fall.

Rentals are just the newest addition to the list of options we are offering students this fall, including digital, loose leaf, custom, new, used, and unbundled textbooks. Textbook rentals are increasingly becoming a popular option for students looking to reduce their educational expenses. Rented textbooks save students more than 50% of the cost of buying a new, printed textbook.

We are delighted to offer our students more choices this fall and will continue to provide the best options for college students.

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