Marketing Intelligence For Demand Analysis In University

Background

Marketing plan is just a blueprint or comprehensive document that outlines the marketing and advertising efforts to next coming years. It defines the business activities involved in addressing the particular marketing goals within a fixed time frame (Tripathi 2013). On the other hand, the marketing plan works as a booster to promote the business activities among the potential customers to increase the consumption of the products. In this context, this paper will include a marketing plan for the University.

The University of Queensland is a well-known university in Australia because of its education system that not only attracts local students but also the international students in the getting new learning and career advancement (The University of Queensland 2017). This university has offered different types of course of study along with the different location. Due to this, it has a diversified student profile. As a result, this university is very famous in the South Korea, Japan, United States and Brazil but this has a lower proportion from China in the context of the students.

The major success of this organization happens because of its education system that is offered in English which helps the local and international students to get learning in global language (Zajda, 2005). This university also offers the tour based education courses that explore the students’ learning and ability. In 2016, this university has reached 50th ranked as per the report of Academic Ranking of World Universities. Management courses and life science courses are some demandable courses (The University of Queensland, 2017). In 2016, 51,070 students were enrolled in this University. Among these students, 13.337 students were from 141 nations (The University of Queensland, 2017).

As per the record of 2015, the market of Queensland was faced 103,300 enrolled students whereas 62,300 students commenced to education in Australia (Deliotte 2016). These students were from the other countries that show the demand for its education in foreign countries. On the basis of these data, Queensland has covered 16% of total education market in Australia.  As per the data of the market, the enrolments in the university in regard of onshore have increased by 6.3% annually that is because of its education and training program (Deliotte 2016). This rate of annual growth is so good for the university in the era of current business arena where the flows of international students are moving towards other national rather than Australia. Consequently, the share of state in attracting the global students in Australia has fallen (Deliotte 2016). It means the demand of the University is higher in the comparison of other state’s university. This is because of its industrial oriented education system where their students get the learning as per the needs of the industry and start the career just after finishing the campus or non-campus education (Deliotte 2016). 

The analysis of the market helps the business organization to achieve success in the market. Otherwise, the selection of the wrong market may hurt the organization’s business planning and strategy that may reflect the poor impacts on the performance of the organization in the market.  Demographic segmentation takes place on the basis of the segmentation of the market as per race, religion, age, gender income level and education (Leišyt? & Wilkesmann 2016).

Market Summary and Demand analysis

For the education and training products, the segmentation of target and potential customers should happen on the basis of the need of education and income level of the family only.  This is because the other factors that are used for the categorization of the target market may not be effective for the University’s education plan. Through the help of marketing place the marketing managers and their team should target only such family or the candidate who have enough money to get the education in Australia (Leišyt? & Wilkesmann 2016). This is because education in other countries required visa, living expenses and other expenses that are much bigger than the education in home country. On the other hand, the education based segmentation of the customers will also help the marketing team to attract those people who have not started their career in the research sector, or the management or similar education sector but they have enough money to start their career in the education. These people will also help the university to increase the enrolment for the new courses (Leišyt? & Wilkesmann 2016). With the help of this the university can be increased its market share and increase its position in the market. 

For the university, the young age students, researchers, and global students can be worked as target market. These are able to consume its educational products. Through this, the marketing team can also target those students who are engaged in the working but they have willingness to get higher education to get promotions in their work (Zajda, 2005).

This analysis includes political, economical, social, technological, ethical and legal elements, which are effectively facilitated the business organizations to conduct the analysis of external environment related to the organization from every possible angle that is indirectly or directly related to the business or impacts on the business. For The University of Queensland, following is PESTEL analysis:

Political factor: the political environment of the country is stable that means there is no sudden change in domestic and internal policies (Yang, 2008). Further, the government of Australia is also providing the scholarship to the foreign student that makes the education industry of this country more effective and to attract the global students. For the education of the students, the support of the government may play a significant role because it helps them to get enough budgets to conduct the research process.

Economic Factor: The economic situation of Australia is still good, very conducive and rapidly growing at a respectable rate (Yang, 2008).  The employment rate in Australia is increasing and that increases in the supply-demand factors because the growth in earnings also increases the spending power of the customers. Thus, the current economic growth of Australia attracts global students towards its education system because of the possibility of the good job after completing education.

Social: social factor is most important that should be considered by the marketing team during the formation of the business strategies. On the other hand, cultural factors with social factor give the shape of the product and marketing development strategy which also help in the development of the marketing plans for the international people. The psychographics and demographics of Australia generally prefer for being educated that motivates the educational institutes to provide the effective education to children (Yang, 2008).

Demography of Target Customers

Technology: The education industry of Australia gives the place to adaptation of the new technology to teach the students in an effective manner. Therefore, students feel an attraction towards the advanced versions of the technology to share and collected the study materials (Yang, 2008). The use of technology is also facilitating the universities to open their new campus in different locations and connect students with the centralised education systems.

Legal: in the context of the education industry of Australia, the university registration, regular address of the University’s prescribed syllabus are some factors that should be based on the legal scenario of the country. This is because the education industry of every country cannot provide the same education patter to foreign students. Therefore the designing of the study materials should be based on the Australian standards to prevent the organization from serious litigations.

Environment: in the context of higher education, the concerns related to the environment are not very effective because the education institutes follow the government standards to run their organization (Leišyt? & Wilkesmann 2016). But the norms of the government force the universities and college to use green technology within the campus that generates the goodwill for the organization. Further, the attractive brand image of the university will attract the attentions of the students that will also attract new students also.

In the higher education sector of Australia, there are 40 public universities. There are two international universities as well as more than two private universities.

Deakin University is a main competitor of the Queensland University because it is also on the same path which helped Queensland to achieve the present growth in the market (Deakin University 2016). This is a public university and last year it was attracted more than 53,000 students from different countries. This organization was also established in the 1974 (Deakin University 2016). This university is a fastest university in the Australia. This university is also known for the research activities as like Queensland University. As per a research, 89% of the research of a university is rated world-class research activity. In the last financial year, the university was allocated $47.2 million in AUS for the research work (Deakin University 2016). Hence, it can be stated that this university may create the big problem for the organization in the upcoming time.

This analysis is also helping the market planner to know about the internal and external strength of the organization. As per this, following is SWOT analysis of the Queensland University that is given below:

Strengths: The University of Queensland is known for its research activities. This is because of the regular availability of the adequate budget. This university has brand image and brand recognition in the education market of Australia as well as in the international education industry. Further, Queensland University is also famous for its training and other kinds of activities that help the students to explore their skills and expertise.

Weakness: As per the analysis of the education pattern and course of the organization, it can be stated that the organization is doing well in its target sector. But the current focus of the university on research works restrict the originations by targeting such students who want to get new education related to the recent changes in the industry that can create the job.

Target market

Opportunities: The growth in the demand of the vocational courses for the employees, part time courses to the professionals and other types of the courses that are based on the skills and help the person to learn new competencies may be work as opportunity to the organization to address their social and professional needs and desires.

Threats: The growth in the competitive power of the competitors, entry of new international universities and growth in the private universities are some critical threat to the University of Queensland.

Brand positing strategy is a heart of the marketing strategy.  To create an effective brand image of the organization, the marketing team use the following terms that are justified below:

The main aim of the marketing strategy should have to increase the brand image and brand value of the organization in the competitive market (Kotler 2010). The promotional objectives of for 2018 should be improvement in the awareness of the target potential customers towards the products of the organization.

The products of the University of Queensland come under service products that are intangible in nature. Therefore, the marketing team should have to use the following marketing mix strategies that are given below:

To target the customers, doctorate courses, business management courses, degree and certificate courses, part time and fulltime courses are some products to be offered by the marketing team.

Marketing team can include payment terms, financing, and credit as part of pricing to target the potential customers (Dibb & Simkin, 2012).

To promote the educational products of the company, marketing team should use sales promotions, public relations and sponsorships (Dibb & Simkin, 2012).

Marketing team can use its local, regional and internal offices to promote its products.

To target niche customers, the marketing team should make a team of its employees who can share the information related to the products to customers effectively. It includes attitudes of personnel, and customers both (Dibb & Simkin, 2012). 

This defines the ways to deliver educational services to customers. For this, the marketing team can use people processing and possession processing.           

Physical evidence helps to make quick buying decisions (Dibb & Simkin, 2012). For this, the marketing team should have to establish its small office in every location in each target market.

BCG is a most renowned tool to analyse the product portfolio of the corporation on the basis of growth rate of industry and market share. It has four cells. To make the competitive strategies, BCG matrix allows the decision makers to concentrate on the product portfolio and performance and their effectiveness for the business. Hence, it helps a significant role in the mission statement of the company. Therefore, marketing team of the University can use the BCG Matrix (Boston Consulting Group’s product portfolio matrix) which will help the team in developing the long-term planning to ensure the growth opportunities through the review of the products (Enz 2009). But it has a few limitations also. BCG matrix does not define medium business because it discusses only high or low business.

PESTEL analysis

Question Marks/Problem Child: Online education courses are a problem child for the organization because of low market share but high growth rate and it needs more customer awareness programs to encourage the students towards the university’s education courses. Social media networks and seminars will help the marketing managers to encourage the local and international students to obtain the degree from the University of Queensland through online.

Stars: The use of social media network based promotion and marketing will help the University to encourage the customer’s new students of remote areas to grab the opportunity to make development in the career.

Cash Cows: Research courses are a cash cow for the organization because of slow growing industry due to maturity and large market share. On the other hand, seminars, and social media networks will help the marketing team to explore the demanding research projects and supports of the university to conduct research projects. Through this, the marketing team can encourage the post graduates of Queensland to choose research courses at the university. With the help of this, university can improve its market share also.

Dogs: to target the customers; the marketing team should remove the dog from the existing product portfolio that is the regional courses. This is because the above define promotional techniques cannot help the marketing team to convert it into a profitable business with the university.

For promoting business activities among the target customers groups, media plays significant role. This is because it facilitates the marketing team to share the information related to the organization as well as to convey the real message of the company to them to collect their feedbacks. There are several media that cannot help the organization to collect the customer’s feedback. Therefore, the marketing team of the university has to select the media as per their effectiveness and the importance of the business plan. Followings are some effective media that can be helped the organization in promoting its courses to potential students:

Social media network: to promote the products of the company, the marketing team of the university should have to use social media networks to reach the customers. This is because of growth in the numbers of social media users due to the growth of Internet users (Yip & Dempster, 2005). For this, the marketing team can target Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Google+, YouTube etc (Taskiran & Yilmaz 2015). Through these media tool, the marketing team can reach not only local students in the market in Australia but also target the global students in their countries. These social media platforms will also help the team to target the customers without going anywhere. These are some effective media networks that can help the marketing team to connect with students in an easy manner, get their queries and provide them with the solution at the same time (Taskiran & Yilmaz 2015).

Conferences: With the help of this, the marketing team can reach the global customers as well as the local customers (Taskiran & Yilmaz 2015). These conferences should be arranged by the organization in the local and internal level that should be planned through the help of existing students in that country. It can be costly for the organization but it can clear the view of the target students towards the University of Queensland.

Promotional and advertising activities cannot take place effective if the proper budget is not allocated to marketing team (Smith 2014). Therefore the marketing team should ask about a fund from the management of the university to conduct the marketing activities. Social media based marketing and promotion may not need huge money (Taskiran & Yilmaz 2015). For example, YouTube does not need huge money to promote the videos related to the university courses and other programs. The marketing team of the university can promote the related videos through their personal efforts (Smith 2014). The marketing team should have to use the flexible allocation of a budget that will include (Assumed Budget)

• Budget for promotion of education course from university
• For Social media: $10 million AUS
• For Educational Seminars (Within Country ) = $40 million AUS
• For Educational Seminars (Outside Country ) = $100 million AUS (Per seminar)
• Total = $150 Aus

Marketing team can further ask for increasing the allocation of the budget.             

After the allocation of the budget for the media, the organization will see the drastic growth in the demand of its educational products. This is because of certain reasons. The current position of the University in marketing is good that means the use of the social media, seminars, and global programs will also facilitate the marketing team to spread the more information related to the university. As a result, the students who want to start their career in the sector of business management, or research work related to human life may also contact the team directly that will reduce the possibilities of the illegal registration and will increases the genuine number of the global students as well as local students. With the above defined media, the marketing team of the organization can also target such customers who want to purchase or consume the products (Taskiran & Yilmaz 2015). But they want to collect more information about the university and its courses.

Conclusion

Above defined marketing plan has included each concern related to the University of Queensland that can help the marketing team of the university to the new students towards its educational courses. Further, the above define marketing plan would help the marketing team and marketing manager of the university for emphasis only on the target and potential customers in the market rather targeting the whole societies. Above define budget can be little for the marketing plan that can be adjusted after the implementation of the plan on the ground level. As per the above discussion, it can be explained that the current marketing plan for 2018 will not only allow the organization to attract new local and internal students to consume its products and services. Further, online education courses and research courses will also help the organization to add more value in its business that will also help the organization to attract the new customers and ensure its competitive strength in the market.

References

Deakin University 2016, About US., <https://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin>

Deliotte 2016, The opportunity and imperative for Queensland’s international education and training sector. <https://www.tiq.qld.gov.au/download/industrysector/education/Deloittes-analysis-of-Queensland-International-Education-Training.pdf>

Dibb, S & Simkin, L 2012, Marketing Briefs: A Revision and Study Guide, USA: Routledge.

Enz, C, 2009, Hospitality Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases, John Wiley and Sons.

Leišyt?, L & Wilkesmann, U 2016, Organizing Academic Work in Higher Education: Teaching, Learning and Identities, Routledge.

Smith, K 2014, The Publishing Business: From p-books to e-books, Bloomsbury Publishing.

Taskiran, N O & Yilmaz, R 2015, Handbook of Research on Effective Advertising Strategies in the Social Media Age, IGI Global.

The University of Queensland, 2017, About US <https://www.uq.edu.au/about/university-profile>

Tripathi, P 2013, Marketing Strategies for Higher Education Institutions: Technological Considerations and Practices: Technological Considerations and Practices. IGI Global.

Yang, John Z, 2008, “Key Success Factors of Multinational Firms in Australia”, Thunderbird International Business Review; Vol. 40 Issue 6, p. 633-668.

Yip, G & Dempster, A, 2005, “Using the Internet to Enhance Global Strategy. European Management Journal”, vol. 23, no. 1, p. 1–13.

Zajda, JI 2005 International handbook on globalisation, education and policy research: global pedagogies and policies. Netherlands: Springer.

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