What is the justification...

[hidetheelephants]

... for having a marketing director for a company which has a monopoly on its market by statute? What the chuntering fk is the point of paying this suit a wage for doing something which patently does not justify a full time post, let alone at director level.

[jammiedodger26]

Surely just the same as any company needs an external communications direction...no matter how big or small?

[ninja-lewis]

To educate potential students how the SLC can help them? To remind existing students to reapply each year and inform graduates what the process will be when it comes to repaying the loan? To deal with media and organisations such as universities, schools and local authorities who need to know what is happening?

Just because you have a monopoly does not mean you automatically get customers.

[hidetheelephants]

ninja-lewis said:

To educate potential students how the SLC can help them? To remind existing students to reapply each year and inform graduates what the process will be when it comes to repaying the loan? To deal with media and organisations such as universities, schools and local authorities who need to know what is happening?

I cannot comprehend how these activities require dedicated staff; the work you've outlined is part-time at best. A couple of man-months spent updating information leaflets/website pages once a year is not a good reason for having a marketing director. Nothing that shouldn't be well within the capabilities of any manager/director level staff, although given the clusterfk they've made of it this academic year, perhaps they aren't up to it...

ninja-lewis said:

Just because you have a monopoly does not mean you automatically get customers.

Please tell me you missed out the smiley... This is a company which gives students free(okay, cheap) money; little marketing is required.

[ninja-lewis]

hidetheelephants said:

ninja-lewis said:

To educate potential students how the SLC can help them? To remind existing students to reapply each year and inform graduates what the process will be when it comes to repaying the loan? To deal with media and organisations such as universities, schools and local authorities who need to know what is happening?

I cannot comprehend how these activities require dedicated staff; the work you've outlined is part-time at best. A couple of man-months spent updating information leaflets/website pages once a year is not a good reason for having a marketing director. Nothing that shouldn't be well within the capabilities of any manager/director level staff, although given the clusterfk they've made of it this academic year, perhaps they aren't up to it...

ninja-lewis said:

Just because you have a monopoly does not mean you automatically get customers.

Please tell me you missed out the smiley... This is a company which gives students free(okay, cheap) money; little marketing is required.

Tell that to the thousands of idiots who don't pay attention to their loans and forget to reapply every year.

Or perhaps you should've just paid more attention to the part where they state he was the Marketing and Customer Services director. In fact, the profile on the SLC website doesn't even mention marketing. So it looks like they don't have a dedicated marketing director at all - at best it's overseen by somebody who spends most of their time dealing with idiots (both within SLC and outwith!)

But you asked what the justification for a monopolist having a marketing director was. We just pointed out that a monopolist is no different to any other organisation that needs to inform its customers of its offerings.

[Engineer1]

No the Student Loan Company shister bds that they are still need to inform people they exist how they work and keep the press happy when they inevitably fail to get the loans into students' accounts by the time they have to pay out. A lot of parents who went to uni will have been during the era of free university places paid for by Grants, and the current system may be a disincentive to applying to uni.