If you’ve ever visited the St. John’s Bookstore or even Ed’s Bookstore, you’ve noticed that St. John’s paraphernalia is a hot commodity. These stores host a large collection of St. John’s items. Everything that you can possibly think of can be found at these stores. They feature Red Storm clothing, teddy bears, key chains, pencils and even cups and glasses. The administration, realizing the growing popularity of its sports teams, has well allocated funds to market these official products.
If there’s one thing the university can be commended for, is its effective marketing skills. The university receives $5 million in income from auxiliary enterprises such as athletics and the bookstore. The rest of its income comes from tuition, contributions and gifts and from dividends from securities and investments. Recently, the university has introduced a new, innovative means of marketing.
For the coming holiday season, the university has introduced an online shopping site. The official SJU online shopping site is http://shop.stjohns.edu. Here prospective shoppers are able to purchase more than 50 items that display SJU logos.
They can order right online, through the telephone or even the old-fashioned way, through mail. The items on the web site include carry bags, cups and clothing. As of right now, the site is not up, but it will be functioning in time for the Christmas season.
This marketing promotes great publicity. It allows parents and potential students to get a look into the world that St. John’s has to offer. Even though the prices of the items are not exactly cheap, they are reasonably priced, considering that it bears the official St. John’s logo. A T-shirt with the Red Storm Basketball logo is priced at $14.98. A watch with a gold face and leather band is $109.98. The popular baseball caps are $17.00.
Many argue that the university ineffectively distributes the revenue that it makes off these ventures, but I beg to differ. The university makes many decisions that benefit its student population. The money it makes goes toward, bettering academic programs, building high-tech computer labs and even the new dormitories. Students should be more appreciative of the administration and its efforts to improve our college experiences. Most important, we should bow to the administration and their masterful marketing skills.
