CARBONDALE - With the status of a state budget for the upcoming year uncertain at best, the executive director of Southern Illinois University Carbondale's marketing branch fears promotional budgeting may be a "soft target."

Terry Clark, executive director of Barking Dawg Productions and a member of the SIUC Faculty Senate, presented statistics and findings of the student-operated marketing agency's impact on attracting students to other senate members Tuesday.

"Barking Dawg is the voice of SIU to the world," said Clark, also the chairman of the university's marketing department.

In its first two years of existence, Barking Dawg has focused its promotional efforts on the Chicago area, a move that has drawn criticism from many in the university community, Clark said.

Census and enrollment information, however, makes Chicago the most marketable and viable market in the state, he added. High school enrollments across the state are expected to decline everywhere except Chicago and the St. Louis Metro East areas.

Chicago, which claims 68 percent of the state's high school students, has also been the only geographic portion of the state to see an increasing enrollment at SIUC since Barking Dawg formed. Barking Dawg's efforts would surely be more widespread throughout the state if funding allowed, Clark said, adding the group has begun doing more work in the Metro East area.

While addressing the faculty senate, Clark addressed other complaints he typically hears about Barking Dawg's work including that people just don't like the advertisements and promotions the group has prepared.

Demographics of the promotions' target market are the likely explanation for this distaste for the ads, Clark said, playing a sample of a rap music-themed recruitment ad circulating the Chicago airwaves.

"You can spend a lot of time making ads that will please you and me, but you'd be wasting your money," Clark told the senate members. "If the goal is to attract and influence young people, maybe it's good if you don't like it."

adam.testa@thesouthern.com

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