Profile Feature: Dr. Nick Ardinger David Noah Klein ENGL202 Marketing by the Numbers Dr.

Nick Ardinger, seated in front of a wall with four framed degrees, all slightly crooked, explains that the only sure thing in life is the second derivative of an exponential function. Ardinger is sharply dressed, wearing a slate grey suit, albeit the workplace does not have a formal dress code. Ardingers personality, complete with animated hand gestures, matches his 60 stature and fills his modest office. Twisting the band on his ring finger, Ardinger laughs as he attempts to explain exactly how he landed his current job. Nick Ardinger, for the better part of his education, wanted nothing more than to be a math teacher. Ardinger holds four academic degrees, and is over-qualified to teach mathematics at a high school level. Post graduation, Ardinger sent his resume out to approximately 300 high schools in the Chicago-area. It was God telling me he doesnt want me to educate, or maybe there was a typo on my resume, Ardinger explains. When a friend suggested applying to an open position as an entry-level marketing assistant at a university, Ardinger decided a job was a job. As it turns out, high-school math was not his calling. Today, Ardinger runs the marketing side of the University of Illinois at Chicagos Campus Housing Department, and is largely credited with bringing the department back to pre-recession levels of revenue. After sustained growth in enrollment and revenue throughout the early to mid-2000s, the 2007-2008 academic year saw enrollment numbers plunge in Campus Housing. Although not a unique experience for an American business amidst the financial collapse of 2008, this was an

alarming trend for a business that had always seen its enrollment positively correlate with University enrollment. Dr. Nick Ardinger was told to stop purchasing online ad space, and to start his new task: revamping the culture of Campus Housing. Ardinger used his math background to better understand the organizations trouble. Through the extensive use of survey data and focus groups, Ardinger began the process of understanding the mind of the freshman. Armed with pages of statistics and graphs, Ardinger set out to innovate the department. Ardinger has made a career out of convincing university students to live in Campus Housing. His extensive understanding of sequential derivatives has gone unnoticed, but his comprehension of the product he is selling has not. Nick Ardinger will correct you if you refer to the university residencies as dorms. Politely reminding you of the countless studies that prove the word does nothing but elicit images of underage-drinking. Ardinger wants to shed that stereotype of the college dorm littered with red Solo cups and empty Ramen noodle cups. Its a residence hall, Dr. Ardinger insists. While details such as this may not be detected by the freshmen living in the residence halls, Ardinger knows it matters. Ardinger has devoted years to getting inside the mind of the college freshman, and the math is on his side. For instance, Ardinger concluded that the residents who live in Housing and leave with the best experience were the ones who did the work for us. Freshmen who not only participated in events, but actively planned them were leaving with significantly more positive attitudes towards Campus Housing. As of the 2012-2013 academic year, staff members no longer plan and organize events, they only assist residents in planning their own. Approximately 50% of residents now plan a small event during their stay in Ardingers residence halls. The Events Budget is now known as the Resident Resource Budget.

Ardinger also found that while most University housing departments have expanded their Facebook and Twitter presence, viewed as an obvious move, there is no statistical evidence to date to support this strategy benefits housing departments. Ardinger believes that social media as an advertising platform is not yet quantifiable, an unproven theory that may or may not be a waste of time. We are still in the infancy of understanding social media, Ardinger explains. The entire mission of the Department of Campus Housing runs contrary to the idea of social networking. Nicks goal is to move the social interactions of residents away from the bright Mac monitors of the more than 3,000 residents, and into the real world. Social media is still utilized under the guidance of Ardinger, and is not wasted in the eyes of Ardinger if all it does is reassure freshmen they made the right choice. They say car commercials are mostly made to reassure people they made a good decision buying that Honda, Ardinger explains. The central challenge to Ardinger is to provide the residents an experience they will never forget. If successful, alumni become walking spokesmen for the product, essentially erasing the need for Facebook and Twitter marketing campaigns. If unsuccessful, alumni have the potential to do endless harm to the brand, spreading negative publicity to followers and friends online. This explains why getting residents out of their rooms, as Ardinger puts it, is a high priority. To Ardinger, the solution to Campus Housings post-recession woes is not an advertising or branding issue, but an essential misunderstanding of its customer. Ardingers understanding of statistical methods allowed him to explain to the department what its customers were thinking. Shifting focus away from the theories of social media advertising campaigns, and instead ensuring residents leave with a positive view of Campus Housing, Ardinger has created freshmen

classes of walking spokesmen for the product hes selling. Diving head-first into the mind of the consumer of their product, the department has been able to reverse the course of the enrollment drop. The Campus Housing Department is projected to return to revenue levels seen before the recession by the 2014-2015 academic year. The statistical findings of Ardinger and the department have been shared with the National Association of Residence Halls, and its changing the game for housing departments across the nation. This was all just a big math problem, Ardinger explains, and thats all Im good for, really.