If you were a student....

what would be a good deal that would make you go somewhere to try the coffee....(other than a free coffee)

hear say mouse mat?

free biscuits!

A conversation with ahhhh sodit? :)

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i AM a student, so i might be quite usefull here. what they do at one of our collage coffee places is on your first purchase they give you a card with around 7 little pictures of cups of coffee. every time you buy a cup they stamp one, then, once all are stamped, you get a free cup. i quite like that :)

When I was a student, I would have been attracted by any offer involving free or cut-rate food items, or the remotest possibility of a shag.

how about a 1/2 price voucher for students for the whole of october and november?
Or a buy one get one free voucher, would that make 2 people come along?

Oh yeah, i like the idea of a loyalty card as well. Good idea

Definitely the buy one get one free offer. Maybe only if they go for the more expensive coffees.

Buy one get one free on all/any large coffee?

Do Starbucks or Costa have loyalty cards? Maybe you could offer half price coupons to anyone willing to give up on up those cards for yours? Kind of like Mr Stacey's does with Blockbuster. Students love to fight the system, don't they?

bottemless!

or have a 'dunking' day-a competition day where peaple can bring there own biscuits in a round of dunking competitions to sees who holds on the longest, but you have to eat the biscuit, if it falls in yer out like.

I think students tend to go where is deemed trendy in the 1st few weeks (well the freshers do at least) so i like the idea of some quirky promotion.
This offer has to be able to fit onto a voucher/ like the ones in explorer.
I think cafe Nero is the only chain that does a loyalty card

Dunking day! once you get them through the door and they have fun, they'll come back on normal days and drink coffee...

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Yeah i probably will Janeyferr, whats the going rate for a flyer-er her

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i think the "bring a friend and buy one get one free" is a good plan.

I can get info on ad prices for Cambridge Matters (45,000 circulation to every house in the city) - sure I can get a little voucher designed within an ad for you. PM if you interested and I'll pass it on to the appropriate person. You'll need to be quick though as it goes to press this Friday, 7th.

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Cambridge Matters goes to residential halls as well as individual flats - it has a lot of content aimed at students and how to recycle and promote sustainability in the city.

Depends on how good you are with budgets but I can guarantee that it'll cost a lot more than an ad in a magazine to reach students in Cambridge by printing and designing a leaflet and paying someone to distribute it.

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I live in Cambridge. Why don't I get Cambridge Matters? :(

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>plus isn't it every quarter? we only had one a few weeks ago.
Yes. You would've had one in June though not a few weeks ago.

> printing off lots of black and white bits of a5 or 6 and paying someone £6 an hour to shove them through letterboxes in romsey isn't very costly.
Depends on how pretty you want your message. A full colour ad is prettier than a photocopy job. Stuffing through letterboxes might seem cheap but overall might prove less cost effective if the take up is less than 5% depending on the outlay costs. Ultimately the most concrete way of judging what works is to code the leaflet and an advert and see which gets the best response. Various media bodies have produced numerous studies that say that direct mail unless very specifically targeted (by which I mean buying mailing lists as opposed to stuffing in letterboxes) has much less effective take up rate compared to advertising - I can search out the data on this.

Say someone wanted to reach 45,000 for example - a bit extreme. If you designed a leaflet yourself (I'll assume no cost involved and it's a favour from a mate with Indesign or Quark) and managed to get 10 vouchers on a page (this is more cost effective than A5) then you'd need 4,500 copies. Let's say these cost 10p per sheet to photocopy, then that's £45o. You have to factor in the time taken to cut them up/guillotine. Then to cover 45,000 homes has got to be about a month's work at £6 a hour for several distributors...ouch! That is a lot of money! More than a full colour advert in a magazine would cost. Actually, more than four adverts in any magazine regardless of whether it's quarterly or monthly (depending on how good the circulation is).

I tend to look at the environmental aspect as well. Most photocopier pieces aren't on sustainable paper (which magazines are and are recycled either through second or third reading as they're passed on or via the black boxes). Printers for magazines follow ISO environmental guidelines and copiers are much less friendly to the environment.

I am afraid that I've been in this business far too long to be persuaded that any form of direct mail is worthwhile in a commercial business unless you spend a lot of money on reliable mailing lists or by building a gold carrot database which takes years. That said I do think it works for entertainment industry when the decision to spend or be spontaneously motivated is more instant.

Inserts into magazine are reasonable but tend to get missed if the magazine isn't polywrapped but most polywrapping isn't environmentally friendly still - it's still very expensive to produce 'green' equivilant - so depends on how high the advertiser places green matters on their agenda.

Personally I think that offering a discount on the Cambridge card/Local secrets venture is a good way forward and to students with an NUS card and promote via University (please include OU students as we're also poor too!)

Anyway, I've bored myself to sleep now - can't believe I'm talking shop on WAN...

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How about a loyalty in reverse?
Pay up front for your card, for which you get, say, 10 cups for the price of 9.
So you alreadly got their money sitting in you account, hopefully getting some kind of intrest. If they lose the card they lose their money and don't have the coffee they have already paid for.
For those who use the card the right way get a good deal for those you don't.....

Or how about a membership card. The card costs X amount for which you get 10% off each cup.

I haven't had a good coffee in ages... got a Starbucks in my building but I really don't get coffee anymore... too much in my late 20's sent me a bit spacca... all twitchy and with mood swings you wouldn't believe.

Apparently I am weird because I don't like hot drinks - even Lemsip makes me ill.

>>Apparently I am weird because I don't like hot drinks

Same here.

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I assume someone's already said this but if they have I can't see it - student discount on production of NUS/valid student card, about 10% as Starfucks/Costa etc don't offer an actual student discount just the stupid 'buy 10 get one free' things which I always end up losing and they make me less inclined to go there.

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Baileys coffee is the bollocks. Mmmm

G - It is a bit odd :o)

Heh, I actually had a pie crust the other day... was good. Georgie had the giblets.

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you can buy one get one free on hot choc as well ;)

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A free hat! . . . or maybe if I got to touch a badger

. . . not a bad touch

. . . in a private place

- even Lemsip makes me ill.

Isn't the point of Lemsip to be ill before you drink it?

>>Or a buy one get one free voucher, would that make 2 people come along?
That was my first thought Pel, topped up after that with a loyalty card...maybe also move closer to UNI for a week, for awareness of your existence and excellent coffee. Is the latter fisable? :)

http://www.explorermagazine.co.uk/vouchers/

Its on the voucher page for any of you students out there!

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I dunno, i have absolutely no shame when something can be cheaper. 2 for1 at wagamama looks like a good deal but from some of the reviews it might be worth avoiding?

Tesco's cafe do wonderful coffee and it's for a good cause... Tesco!!

You know thats not true!

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I have no idea why but I can just hear Midge Ure singing "If you were a student..." to the tune of the chorus of his song If I Was.

More appropriately for this thread I need a coffee.

* It still hurts that there's no PG Tips. Why God, why? *

I only drink black coffee in a white cup with white saucer. Seriously. It's true. I need that little handle and the clink as cup hits saucer.

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did they roll up in a car with tinted windows and ask you if you wanted to see some kittens as well?

*couriers BRM some PG Tips*

oooh that Wagamama deal is worth a go...

If you're couriererering me tea (and also stopping your playa-hating?) then welcome back fo' shure.

Whoever heard of a playa drinking tea anyway? Surely it should be Cristal, or perhaps the blood of your gangland enemies.

Wagamama... dribbles... chicken Katsui (spelling??) curry... dribbles some more.

In the words of my man Busta Rhymes

My sons that don't smoke and get high
drinkin Cognac, Hennesey, Cristal but wait
What's goin on with dat?
With the deal done sometimes I sip Jamaican white rum
Taste with a little milk, I know y'all want some

And any spilled blood of enemies is hosed down with water and baking soda. Don't want Babylon on my case...

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