Marketing Plan Evaluation For RMIT University In 2018

Market Summary and Demand Assessment

 It is a well-known fact that in order to become successful, every organization is required to compete effectively with its rivalries, particularly located in the domestic country. It has been observed that RMIT is capable of entering the competitive market because it is well-stable, and the conditions of the internal as well as external environment are quite favourable for its working. Also, the university has created its great reputation among students across the country through branding, and reaching the wide market. The marketing style of the university is capable of appealing numerous clients to operate effectively not only in the home country but also in other countries.

Moreover, the strategies adopted by RMIT University attempt to enhance the quality and features of service delivery to its pupil in order to make the future generation well-educated and cultivated. Initially, it was set up as a private night school providing training in art, discipline and technical-knowhow in response to the industrial revolution in Australia. Later, the university was established as a open institution (Brooks et al., 2014). The Act of Parliament of Victoria made it public in 1992, when it got amalgamated with the Philip Institute of Technology. The university is now graded as a five-star university by the Quacquarelli Symonds with yearly income of $1.163 billion in 2015. There are around 45000 students in RMIT University, who study across leading fields of interests. This university has gained a great success not only in the area of delivering excellent education, but also in providing easy access to accommodation for the international students. Moreover, the university seeks to offer advanced sports, student clubs, and recreational facilities in order to improve the overall culture of the campus and create opportunities for students’ development in different careers.

 The RMIT University is an International Player in the field of education, which is probable `for limited performers and minor Performers to confront with major rivalry unless they are able to discover a clear role and provide specialised platforms to properly distinguished divisions.The mainstream of Australia’s global scholars take admission from nations in the South East Asian region, mostly China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia, where geographic closeness and unfulfilled demand at the limited level improved the trade. However, it is uncertain whether Australia’s educational organizations employs in the same countries or whether they have selected to emphasis on a subsection of latent home nations.

In the city of Melbourne, RMIT University has the biggest market share due to different positive factors. These include accessibility to sufficient housing for the students as well as the teaching staff. Also, the University provides academics of better quality and generates standardized degree credentials (Brown, & Osborne, 2012). For the purpose of marketing and promoting its educational packages worldwide, the University makes efficient use of various sources such as face book, instagram, websites, billiboards, and history.

The broadcasting both programs and the print help the institution in discovering the wide marketplace (Cravens, 2012). The institution of the University is opening from the upper administration to students’, advanced transportation networks and the nearby areas that are reassuring of learning, contribute hugely towards the development of the institution. The organization due to these satisfying environment formed makes reputed amongst various Organizations in Australia resulting in victory. In this modern culture, the importance of education cannot be overlooked as it has become crucial for young generation to develop and grow. Considering this thought in mind, RMIT emphasize not only on Australian students but also foreign students to take admission in this institution. Further, since the University is located in Melbourne, it has enabled a large number of students from nearby to study here as it is located at the walking distance from their place.

Segmentation and Target Market

RMIT institutions usually offer an equally boarder series of specialist options that are directed at positioning in the commercial marketplaces from which scholars can be voluntarily enrolled. The Asian markets are largely targeted by this university, which has “low hanging fruit” for Australia’s international education segment. The institution serves as a feeder in the geographical area. It also offers language training or pre-university theoretical preparation and has strategic groupings with other leading universities within Australia. It is enriched in great resources to target more than a few overseas.

The University has a broad target market since it gets students not only from Australia but also from different corners of the world. Therefore, it is a global university. The University target market is students who are preparing to commence diploma, professional courses, and scholar degree programs or even post graduate options either in masters or philosophy of Ph.D. The direction attracting packages for these students who create the principal basis of the University’s market certify that it is functioning successfully.

In the division of students who are adopting studies in the RMT University, the charge for the package improves about the level of the package that is being accepted by such students. An instance is that the postgraduate studies are required to pay comparatively high fees than that the undergraduates and professional students (Hanvanich et al., 2013). Apart from students as the key market of the University, professors, promoters and the government from the other subdivisions of the market that is also instrumental in the success of the University.

There are various factors which affect the decision of the management of RMIT. These factors mainly include political, economic, social, and technological aspects.

The political conditions of Australia in the field of education are although positive for advancing the country, but are not much stable and therefore influence the working of RMIT University. The finance of the institute heavily depends on the state of Australia. The insecure conditions in politics sometimes result in interruptions in the availably of resources and subsidy for the university. Moreover, the regulations and policies made by the Australian government are not likely to support the aims and objectives set by the organization.

The 2009-2010 Commonwealth Budget declared that the scope, superiority and enactment of this Australia’s higher education system are fundamental in its economic and communal development. The elimination of official quotas on student places, the facility of finance for students from low socio-economic sections have supported the educational economy of the country and boosted to research support funding for facilitating University’s capacity to carry on its growth path while offering a quality involvement for its students.

Since the economic conditions of Australia are fluctuating, thus they are quite volatile. At times the costs of supplies are high which are necessary for the functioning of the University (McKoll-Kennedy, & Kiel, 2000). The University having a fixed fee payment framework in such times is influenced harmfully since purchasing of such products results in fiscal constrictions affecting the College. A stable economy results in stability in better financial position of the University since goods and services are acquired according to the budgets.

PEST Analysis

Variations in social trends of Australia have a great impact on the demand for a RMIT’s products and the accessibility and enthusiasm of students to join the University. Increasingly, higher education is seen as part of the social inclusion policy armoury. Moreover, there is an enlarged awareness of the importance of quality of learning, instruction and study by both students and academic staff which results in a higher education sector that is gradually becoming more competitive, open, learner-centred and empire-building.

The degree of Australian students in showing alacrity to work with the RMIT University supports its growth in several ways (Hanrahan, & Cole, 2002). For example, in delivery of labour services such as cleaning the University, working for the University as either member of staff and other responsibilities that aid in administering the University are some of the vital social sustenance accessible to make an empowering educational surroundings in Australia.

In Australia, higher education is considered generates the best employment opportunities for youngsters. Accordingly, tertiary education has become extensively open and is adopted by a growingly bigger section of the population. It is offered in two forms: universities and institutions of technical and advanced education (Ho, 2014) Since RMIT is a technology-oriented organization, a huge investment is made by the management in the latest and progressive technologies that target the betterment of service delivery to the pupils belonging from diverse cultures, by the University. In this regard, the University adopts contemporary technological methods such as E-Learning programs, access to library materials via the internet and even entrée to university results using webs.

In Australia, the competition policy has applied to universities not only in non-educational activities but also in educational activities. Australian Governments are gradually shifting towards market-based models for imparting more effective education services, for a many reasons such as increased competition and contestability between public and private universities which possess the potential to deliver perfections in efficiency, revolution and high-quality. The 2014-15 Commonwealth Budget was the significant vehicle through which such reforms are being recommended for the higher education segment. There are various universities in the Australia, among which The Australian National University and The University of New South are the close competitors of RMIT University (Freytag,  & Clarke, 2014). Thus, in order to maintain its position in the marketplace, RMIT needed to design more effective and various types of educational courses according to the interests of different students. Also, it should hire best teachers for delivering excellent services at the affordable cost so as to gain competitive edge over its rivalries.   

The SWOT analysis of RMIT is conducted to identify the weaknesses, opportunities, strength and threats of the University, which are affected by both internal and external environment in which the institute functions.

• Good brand reputation in the country as well as across the globe
• Active Conglomerates with other universities, community colleges, agencies and corporations
• Learning communities developing to enrich knowledge and student-faculty interface
• Committed and Proficient faculty
• Welcoming and safe campus environment

• Operational structure/bureaucracyand costly courses
• Fluctuating perceptions of appropriate proportions of major employee categories (faculty, staff, and managers)
• Press necessities absorb a huge percentage of resources
• Absence of strong, and pervasive presence in the external community

• Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology is well located in the city of Melbourne
• Improved value of higher education achievement
• Huge population due to high reputation in the City
• Good external Community and University relationships
• Technological advances

• Tough rivalry from other universities in Australia, such as CQ University
• State budget disaster
• Negative public insights for the packages offered hence deceptive large markets
• Lack of trained and experienced faculty
• Shift in focus on numerical success against qualitative success
• The delayed release of funds by the government and donors affecting the calendar of the University.

The value and Brand position of RMIT University is very good in the market as compared with that of other big universities. A great number of students from different parts of the world are attracted to this institute as it provides student friendly education services along with different curricular activities at reasonable prices (Chen, 2014). Moreover, the campus placements from this university are also very high with good packages. This shows that its students are skilled, and talented. The lecturers are proficient and qualified. The promotion of the institute is carried out by the management in the better way through various sources of media in order to reach more customers.

The aim of RMIT University is to encourage the national policy agenda in which the university functions in ways that affirm Australia’s position as a highly innovative and educated nation in the world.  Also, the emphasis of the organization in the Strategic Plan is on positioning itself in Australia to deliver its agreed advocacy agenda whilst ensuring that the organisation is well ready to deal with emergent issues (predictable and unpredictable) and overall prospects for effective advocacy.

Further, the vision of RMIT is to build a smarter Australia on the achievements of the university sector to enlarge the contribution that it makes to the nation. The Strategic Plan also looks forward to the post 2018 era by putting in place planning processes that will drive Universities Australia’s developing policy sponsorship program after 2018.

RMIT adopts the following marketing mix as one of the major concepts (or constants) in marketing, in context of product, price, place (sales and distribution) and promotion. 

RMIT University is engaged in providing high vocational courses from graduation to post graduation and advanced diploma degrees in terms of technology, design, and enterprise. The packages are offered in the field of engineering, environmental and sustainability, health and biomedical sciences, international and community services justice and legal options, as per the needs of students.

Since RMIT is a global organization, the courses are presented at relatively higher prices. The fee differs depending on the package that the student chooses (Cravens, 2012). The Organization offers programs that are cheap by many which as a contributing factor as to why the University has attracted large market internationally. The price also differs from one course to another depending on the value of the specific course.

Since Australia has many universities that offer the same courses, therefore to compete favourably, it uses different platforms to reach the wide customers. University applies its history to promote itself, for instance, basing on the alumni of the University, showing how flourishing they are after leaving the gates of the University. Many students on seeing this, get attracted more to the University and even the capacity of getting prospective clients advances. Other strategies such as the employment of the media, billboards, and websites add enormously to the revenues of the University.

The University has the upper hand compared to others when it comes to where they are located. Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology is located in the City of Melbourne in Australia. The city has attracted large populations which in turn offer market to the Organization, such as, expert lectures, students from the city and many other clients like the tourists and benefactors whose support makes the University subsist in this competitive period.

The following table highlights the budget allocation for students who choose to study with a private higher education supplier.

Existence of universities in the competitive environment completely depends on how well they strategically locus themselves in the market through effective strategic planning.  The management of RMIT should adopt highly efficient strategies and policies to survive in the current unrest of globalization and competition in Australia’s educational field. The extensive lines of the principal plan of the management should form the basis for the subunit strategic plans. Moreover, the central plan should be powerful enough to let subunits to develop their own competitive strategies (Duncan, & Tom, 2012). These strategies of subunits can be extremely diverse from each other depending on the public control, subsidy guidelines and other limitations. If the central plan and environmental changes are taken into account, the plans shaped by the management usually need only slight changes. RMIT University also requires efficiency and effectiveness in the academic managers in higher education areas. Moreover, the administrators should be aware of the full cost of the activities taking place in the University.

The BCG model evaluates market growth rate and related market share to measure the feasibility of a study program line or structural unit. Newbould was one of the first to talk over the customization of the BCG’s product portfolio model for universities (Menegaki, 2012). He explained market growth rate into the growth in FTE (full-time equivalent) students in the academic field over the past five years and relative market share into the ratio of FTE students in the field at the university in question to the FTE students at the largest competing university.

Conclusion:

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that RMIT is operating well in Australia in spite of intense rivalry from other universities. The reputation of the institution is quite good in the eyes of clients and students. However, the management should try to study the market more deeply in order to understand the needs of students.

References:

Brooks, G., Heffner, A., & Henderson, D. (2014). A SWOT analysis of competitive knowledge from social media for a small start-up business. The Review of Business Information Systems, 18(1), 1-56.

Brown, & Osborne. (2012). Managing change and innovation in public service organizations. Routledge. (Tol. la 2nd). New York: Routledge.

Chen, K. Y. (2014). Improving importance-performance analysis: The role of the zone of tolerance and competitor performance. The case of Taiwan’s hot spring hotels. Tourism Management, 40, 260-272.

Cravens, D. (2012). Strategic Marketing, . (Tol. la 6rd International edn). McGraw Hill.: US: Irwin.

Czinkota, M. R., & Ronkainen, I. A. (2013). International marketing. Cengage Learning.

Duncan, & Tom. (2012). IMC: using advertising and promotion to build brands. (Tol. la 2nd ed). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Freytag, P., & Clarke, A. (2014). Business to Business Market Segmentation. Industrial. Marketing Management Journal, 2(30), 473-486.

Hanrahan, & Cole. (2002). “The Ps are no good without direction” Managing. Informational journal, 9(1), 33-34.

Hanvanich, Droge, & “, C. (2013). Reconceptualizing the meaning and domain of marketing knowledge”. Journal of knowledge management, 7(4), 124-135.

Ho, J. K. K. (2014). Formulation of a systemic PEST analysis for strategic analysis. European academic research, 2(5), 6478-6492.

McKoll-Kennedy, J., & Kiel, G. (2000). Marketing: a strategic approach (Tol. la 6th Ed). South Melbourne: Nelson Thomas.

Menegaki, A. N. (2012). A social marketing mix for renewable energy in Europe based onconsumer stated preference surveys. Renewable Energy, 39(1), 30-39.

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