Strategies for effective communication with Hispanic students: An analysis of student responses to recruitment viewbooks used by colleges and universities

This study examines effective strategies of communication with Hispanic students through the use of printed material, specifically recruitment viewbooks used by colleges and universities. The Hispanic market is significant in south Florida. As colleges and universities begin to seek to communicate the benefits of their institutions to this population, it is important to produce printed communication in a manner that appeals to members of the Hispanic culture. Using a qualitative approach through focus group research, Hispanic freshmen students of a community college and upper division students at a public university were asked a series of open-ended questions about their preferences in the use of language, photographs and several design elements of three publications. One college viewbook represented a majority enrollment of Hispanics. The second viewbook represented a university that is culturally diverse. A third viewbook represented a university that has Hispanic enrollment of less than 4%.