“Cengage Unlimited is an unqualified success. Let me repeat: Cengage Unlimited is an unqualified success.”
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@11DEd6dj-3zfy I was at Florida State University this past spring to see what the turnout would be like for the CU hype that was promoted via marketing posters, fliers, handouts, social media. Cengage brought these food trucks out all decked out in Unlimited. There was swag, free food, student ambassadors, and the Cengage support team. I walked by periodically and saw the most maybe 2 students talking to the Cengage folks–might I add FSU has almost 30K students. There was tons of the swag and CU fliers mainly in trash bins and or littered on campus grounds. Complete disaster of a marketing campaign and failure of a business model on all levels–I understand they did these ridiculous wasteful events throughout the country and probably saw very little return on investments.
Way back when CU had launched and sales reps and everyone else was spreading the big word on campus, I visited a mid-sized, mid-west university. Cengage had just done a campus invasion type of event the day before, with people from HQ and all area sales folk conducing CU-related events, promos and demos all over campus. My visit as a competing rep came the day after, and two meetings pretty much summed up the disaster that has been Cengage Unlimited.
The first meeting was with the campus Bookstore Manager. Local and HQ Cengage folks had met with him and his assistant manager, explaining the CU program to them in depth and gaining their buy-in. They then asked if they could hang some shelf-talkers under specific adoption bookstacks, to which the Bookstore Manager said yes. The meeting concluded, the Manager and his Asst went to lunch and when they returned, their store had been transformed into what he described as THE CENGAGE UNLIMITED STORE! In addition to the aforementioned shelf-talkers, there were human-sized posters on the walls, mobile-type adverts hanging from the ceiling, marketing material of all description covering every conceivable area of the store! Checkout points now featured CU-branded bags and post-purchase advertising inserts. The manager stood there, aghast, and then he and the assistant hit campus to collar Cengage people - those they could find were made to return to the store and take everything down.
Later that day, I visited with the Psych Chair. Cengage had done a group presentation for his staff, complete with a giant meal spread and dessert, and spent an hour extolling the virtues of CU and encouraging everyone to talk to fellow departments about the benefits of CU. I asked the Chair, what was the general reaction to the program, after the meeting was over. The Chair kind of shrugged and said "meh . . ." he explained that a number of faculty sat around after the event discussing what they had just witnessed, and their feeling was that the CU program was very well set up for Cengage and it's needs, but they could not see how it would benefit their students.
Can’t wait until my coworker gets canned and I absorb their work responsibilities without extra pay and then spend not 12 hours a day in Magellan, but 20. Thank you exalted leader... mute rainbo kool aid please.
Mmmmm tasty rainbo flavored koool aid... nother cup please