Was a rebranding needed?
Marketing communication plays the most significant role as it allows the company is sharing information regarding its products and services. Further, it is all about sharing service-related information with the target market in order to attract them appropriately. In marketing, the most crucial elements involve branding, promotion, advertising, etc. through which it becomes possible for the business to strengthen the relationship with its target market in every possible manner. The present study carried out is based on ACU brand which is a publicly funded university with seven campuses around Australia. ACU offers education services where students can opt for the different type of courses as per their real expertise (University 2017). The present report focuses on marketing communication strategies of ACU along with the positioning tactics that are employed by the business to target its customers. Apart from this, branding strategies of the business have also been undertaken so as to know whether they are effective or not.
In case of ACU, the new branding has taken place where it has been identified that Australian Catholic University has introduced new brand which has been developed in partnership with brand consultancy push collective. It is the guiding principle of creating “Impact through Empathy.” Further, the new brand identity has been represented with the help of visual and verbal identity (Bidar, Watson & & Barros 2017). It has been highlighted for the first time in a multi-channel open day campaign. The rebranding was needed as a large number of challenges are present in the market that is adversely affecting ACU such as competition where other universities are also offering education services and in order to position education services in a different manner it is necessary for ACU to rebrand itself. Apart from this, another important reason is awareness where a large number of students can know about education services of ACU, and this is the main reason behind rebranding.
The new brand of ACU will change in a large number of ways where it has been identified that it will deliver the unique experience to the stakeholders (Zeng 2017). The new brand will bring change in different areas that involve research, student engagement, service excellence, etc. Apart from this, it has focused on some other areas such as reshaping culture, the student experience, and course offering. ACU believes in building the strong relationship with its stakeholders, and this is the main reason due to which the brand has been reshaped so that it can provide the remarkable experience to the stakeholders who are associated with the business. The main target market of ACU is students, and due to this reason, the brand has been changed in every possible manner (Velásquez & & Meunier 2017). Therefore, with the help of this, it can be stated that brand has been changed in the form of culture, communication pattern and delivering experience to stakeholders.
The changes brought through brand rebuilding are effective in every possible manner. Further, the effectiveness is in the form of the value of ACU degree, shaping the student experience, approach to learning and teaching and the research priorities. All these areas are representing the effectiveness of the changes that have taken place within ACU (Trump & & Newman 2017). Further, it will allow students to gain more information about ACU like its degree program, staff members who are quite passionate about ACU and the partners who support business in carrying out overall operations in an effective manner. In short, the overall changes that have taken place are effective where they allow in satisfying the overall requirement of the stakeholders who are associated with the ACU brand (Steenkamp 2017). Further, students can be delivered right kind of information that is associated with education and additional requirement for their career growth.
In what ways has the brand been changed?
The leading Australian university engages in using different positioning strategies that support them to market their activities and services within the overall market. The higher education sector is becoming increasingly competitive and in this environment ACU must articulate a strong, unique and compelling brand promise (Favaloro 2015). The key strategy that is used by the university for positioning themselves includes engaging in partnership activities with push collective this help them to position the university in the education industry. With this, it also engages in conductive extensive market research as well as consultation with their stakeholders, discussing the role of higher education so that it may directly benefit the overall community and their members (Gottschall & Saltmarsh 2017). Along with this, the university also engages in unique positioning comparative to their competitor universities as it assists in enhancing or increasing the number of enrolments within the universities.
The positioning strategies of Australian Catholic University has been communicated within the education sector in different ways such as-
Brand mark (Logo)
With the help of using brand mark or logo of ACU, they can easily communicate to the customers as well as students. The brand mark or logo of ACU is in dark purple, representing empathy and contrasting to the robust red of the shield (Imms et al. 2017). The letter C has a prominent ball serif, visually tying the lettering to the guard. With the help of brand mark, the university can easily enhance their reach up to the large masses of audiences and students that ultimately increase the number of enrolment.
Using social media sites
Another effective way of communicating the positioning of ACU include using effective social media sites and platform so that large mass of audiences get attracted towards the university and their services that they render. With the help of using social media, they can directly engage in attracting number of individuals or students, the range of courses university offers, campuses, and experiences that university offers, etc.
Impact through empathy is not tagline but it mainly considers as a profile of ACU, it engages in offering the comfy environment to all their staff, students, alumni irrespective of their cultural and religious background (McMullen, Beirne & Carpenter 2015). With this ACU nurture people’s capacity to go beyond their limits and viewpoints to engage with empathy so that it explores the world from different perspectives. Along with this, impact through empathy also ensures ACU commitment towards their students, staff as well as the community (Yakimova et al. 2017). It mainly forms pillars that help the university in performing their activities in efficient manner it mainly include-
- University values each and everyone within the community and encourage them to attain intellectual potential.
- Along with this, the university also endeavours to put their students and staff at the centre of the network of scholars, partnerships, and opportunities(Rossiter 2013).
- University is also deeply engaged with committee and industry so that it may create tangible results with shared values and beliefs.
- The last activity that university engages in considering education on the priority basis so that it benefits both university and community.
At present, the communication within ACU cannot be termed as satisfactory, and it is affecting the overall operations and changes within Australian Catholic University. As per the provided case scenario, the competition among higher education sector has become highly competitive, and this has encouraged ACU to carry out its rebranding (Stuart 2016). Effective working of communication is essential to communicate factors such as what it is and what kind of services it is offering. The Schramm theory of communication emphasizes on the fact that communication is a two-way process and thus, both sender and receiver are required to take active participation in the same (Shah 2017). However, it can be asserted that ACU needs to make use of effective communication channels such as online and offline mediums. Furthermore, effective monitoring of the communication process is also required to identify loopholes and take corrective measures to overcome the same.
How effective are these changes?
The rebranding of Australian Catholic University has worked quite well, and it has helped the brand to attract new students and sustain in the highly competitive environment. Furthermore, the decision of rebranding has affected several areas of ACU in a positive manner. For example, it has enhanced the way in which the university is attracting students from different places of the world (Reddy 2017). On the other side of this, the overall method of teaching, research, and service delivery has been enhanced with the strategy of rebranding. The rebranding is working well as it has also generated a high degree of satisfaction among all individuals who are making use of the services provided by the university. In addition to this, the teachers and staff members have been able to improve their effectiveness and overall efficiency with the help of this rebranding strategy.
The branding will play significant role in influencing the decision-making process of the students. In the modern era, the students and scholars are having various large numbers of alternatives and options available to choose from. The result of this is that the universities are now facing various issues and challenges in terms of attracting adequate and desired number of students. It can be expressed that the branding will allow Australian Catholic University to gain a competitive advantage over other universities operating in the marketplace (Lyons 2017). ACU has been able to change the entire work culture, and the way services have been delivered to the student. This rebranding will act as a motivational factor and will encourage the student to choose ACU University over other universities operating in the marketplace. In the modern era, every student or scholar seeking to enroll in the university which can deliver quality education and can contribute to the professional growth and development of the student (Homburg, Jozi? & & Kuehnl 2017). Australian Catholic University is carrying out its branding with an objective to attract more and more students.
It can be recommended that effective channels of communications should be used and implemented by Australian Catholic University to carry out effective branding and achieve the desired results. The rationale behind this is that communication will support in dealing with issues and challenges linked with branding in more efficient manner. On the other side of this, it is also suggested that Australian Catholic University should emphasize more on develop and promote a service culture within the university. The university is required to focus on enhancing the response rate to the doubts, queries, and concern of the students and teachers. It can be also recommended that Australian Catholic University can introduce its mobile application to make the procedure more convenient for the student (Hisrich & & Ramadani 2017). The key benefit of using mobile application is that it will allow the university to provide a fast, convenient and more accurate solution to the doubts and concern of students. It has been recommended that for indulging in rebranding universities must engage in using Facebook networking site where they can quickly create their webpage. It has been assessed that majority of students access such networking sites to gain information. Therefore, recommending Facebook site is justifiable for ACU in promoting rebranding. Another recommendation includes that they must also involve in competitive analysis of their rival university campuses so that they may easily come to know regarding the branding strategies that are used to attract teachers as well as students.
How is the university positioning itself?
Conclusion
The entire study carried out has supported in knowing about the rebranding strategy of ACU. Further, it has been identified that the new brand will shape culture, research, new offering and student experience in every possible manner. Moreover, the valid reason due to which brand has been reshaped is to deal with the issue of competition and another form of challenges present in the external environment. It will surely support ACU brand to attract a large number of students, and they will be influenced to access services of ACU frequently. Apart from this, the positioning and another form of marketing strategies of ACU brand are effective, and this can surely support ACU in accomplishing its desired goals and objectives.
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