BUSM2412 Marketing For Managers and Business Environment

Answers: 

Introduction

Rapid changes in the business environment forces companies to make marketing plan which facilitates to gain knowledge regarding the products and services that can be produced to meet the demands of the customers. It helps customers to understand the features and benefits provided by the products. This results in increasing the sales of the company. It also facilitates in gaining information regarding the strategies adopted by the competitors which results in providing different features to customers in order to gain advantage over them. It is essential for the business to create strategic plans as it results in the formation of strategies which helps in the achievement of the goals of the business. Before making a marketing plan, it is required by the managers to analyze the different factors of business environment that has a significant impact on the operations of the business (Ferrell & Hartline, 2012).

The marketing plan includes information regarding the target market, budget allocated for carrying out different promotional activities, marketing objectives, analysis of the competitors, different strategies adopted related to marketing mix and so on for the purpose of its effective implementation. The marketing plan provides information related to the strategies adopted by the organization in future with a special reference to sales promotion, channel design, profitability, market development and product development. It also facilitates in effective allocation of the available resources to different marketing operations in order to attract large number of customers (Stevens, Loudon & Wrenn, 2006).

Effective planning of marketing operations of the business helps in spreading awareness among the customers regarding the products offered, price and different promotional activities carried out by the organization. This helps in attracting more number of customers which results in an increase in the total sales of the company. Besides this, it also facilitates in increasing the profitability of the company. In addition to this, marketing plan also facilitates in forecasting the sales of the company generated from the marketing effort carried out by the company. This report provides information related to the marketing plan of the University brand named Australian National University (Beamish & Ashford, 2005).

Background of Australian National University

Australian National University is founded in the year 1946 located in Canberra in Australia. It is considered as one of the leading universities in the world. It is regarded as the national research university which has made strong relations with different governmental institutions through tie - ups. This university helps students to face different global challenges in an effective manner by developing required skills in them. The university offers different educational programs such as graduate and post-graduate programs to national and international students. Besides this, the university makes investments in research and development in order to create value for its different stakeholders (The World University Rankings, 2017).

For the purpose of attracting more number of students, the university has made alliances with different organizations like government, other educational institutions, global universities and not for profit organizations. The university has made alliances with different universities such as Charles Darwin University, University of Newcastle and University of Canberra. Along with this, the university also discloses information related to the past academic performances of its students and placement opportunities and actual placements of students in different sectors helps in attracting more number of students to the university. Approximately 10052 students are enrolled in undergraduate programs and 10840 students are enrolled in post graduate programs in the university (Australian National University, 2017).

Marketing Summary and Demand Assessment

The third largest sector of Australia in terms of economic contribution through exports is education sector after coal and iron ore. Besides this, the domestic students make an expenditure of $ 13.7 billion in the education sector and income generated from other education operations in the country is $ 438 million. Students make an expenditure of 46.7 % of total expenditure on education. Along with this, expenditure made by international students in the education industry helps in the generation of several employment opportunities in the education sector. Besides this, a large proportion of the international students prefer to enroll in different education programs offered by Australian universities (Access Economics Pyt Limited, 2009).

The Australian universities have made efforts to increase the awareness of different courses offered to different students at international level. They spread awareness about the programs by communicating different features and benefits of the educational programs to students in order to make effective contribution to the economy of the country. Increase in the number of students helps in increase in the employment opportunities in the country as universities develop required and new skills in the students as per the changes occurred in different economic sectors. This helps students to grab employment 8in different economic sectors in the country and contribute towards the increase in the GDP of the country. The earnings generated from the export in the education industry in Australia is $ 18.8 billion (Deloitte Access Economics, 2015).

At the global level, there is an increase in the demand for skilled workers in different economic sectors due to changes occurred in technology and occurrence of industry transformation. Australia provides on-shore international education to different students in order to increase the employability skills in the students. These help students to grab employment in different sectors of economy as per their skills. There is an increase in the enrollments of international students in Australian universities from 65000 in 2015 to 940000 in 2025. Australia is considered as one of the global leading countries in provision of international education to students. The country has made open trade relations with different global markets especially Asian markets. In addition to this, the main competitors of Australia in education industry are UK and USA in terms of price (Morgan, 2017).

Segmentation and Target Market Analysis

It is useful for the company to divide the potential customers into different segments and focus on those customers that create value for the company. In context to this, Australian National University has segmented its customers on the basis of preference and geography. The students are classified into value buyer, quality buyer and economy buyer on the basis of preferences. The quality buyer emphasizes on provision of high quality education to be provided to the students in order to develop employability skills (Weinstein, 2013). Besides this, economy buyer focuses on the fees charged by the institutions. Economy buyer is attracted towards those universities that provide education at low price. Such buyers are price sensitive. In addition to this, value buyer take into consideration the value addition is done in the students. Such buyers are attracted to those educational universities that provide quality education at low fees (Iman, 2002).

In context to Australian National University, the target market is quality buyer as it helps in developing employability skills in the students by providing training related to the use of latest technology adopted by businesses in the present period so that they can earn their livelihood in a proper manner at a global level. Besides this, on the basis of geographic segmentation, the university has segmented customers on the basis of geographic regions. The university has targeted to attract students from Asian countries such as China and India by the way of organizing student exchange program by making tie-ups with different universities in these countries (Cant, et al., 2009).

PEST Analysis

The analysis of different business environment factors that affects the overall performance and productivity of the university is done by the use of PEST analysis.

Political Factors:

There is an existence of political stability in Australia due to which, the university does not have to make changes in its policies, procedures and strategies in a frequent manner. Besides this, government has also made efforts to increase the contribution of the education industry towards the economy. The Federal government has introduced a demand driven funding model for the universities in order to increase the student enrollments in the universities. Besides this, there is an increase in the public expenditure for the universities that results in the creation of a budgetary pressure on the Federal government. Along with this, there is also an occurrence of the changes in the requirements of student visa which helps in an increase in the enrollments of international students (Analoui & Karami, 2003).

Economic Factors:

The education industry in Australia provides employment to approximately 127638 skilled labors in the country. Besides this, the industry generates revenue of approximately $ 31 billion in the year 2017. Besides this, there is a annual growth of 4.5% from the year 2012 to 2017. The education industry is considered as the third largest industry in Australia which indicates that the Australian National University will generate high profits (Fullen & Podmoroff, 2006).

Social Factors:

Emergence of globalization has resulted in the occurrence of the changes in the tastes and preferences of the customers. It is required by the University to adopt new and innovative ways to fulfill the demands of the students as well as of different economic sectors of the country by the way of developing and upgrading the employability skills in the students (Analoui & Karami, 2003).

Technological Factors:

It is essential for the University to make investment in research and development in order to adopt new technologies that are prevalent in the industry to develop required skills in the students. This is important because rapid changes have been occurred in the technologies adopted by the universities as per the needs of different economic sectors (Fullen & Podmoroff, 2006).

Competitors’ Analysis

The main competitor of Australian National University is University of Melbourne. It is founded in the year 1853 in Melbourne. It is considered as the second largest university in Australia. The main aim of the university is to become one of the leading universities in the world. For this purpose, the university is engaged in three programs namely learning and teaching program and research and engagement programs. The university believes in the achievement of its aim and objectives by practicing participative leadership style which entails engagement of employees and staff in decision making process. The university has promoted its products and services by making strategic alliances with international universities for the purpose of capturing large number of students (The University of Melbourne, 2017).

The university has adopted different promotional activities such as advertisements in newspapers, magazines, social networking sites and so on. The University organizes different student exchange programs by making tie-ups with other universities at national and international level. This facilitates students to gain knowledge about the culture, norms and values practiced by different countries. Besides this, it also provides scholarships to meritorious students in order to attract more number of students. Besides this, there is also an occurrence of positive word of mouth publicity which also results in attracting more number of students. The university provides students the facility of doing research in an effective manner which leads to increase in the number of students (The University of Melbourne, 2017).

SWOT Analysis

Brand and Value Position

The Australian National University has strong positive brand image among its potential customers in the country due to the presence of different factors. The university provides quality education to its students at competitive prices. Along with this, it also put efforts and make investments in research and development for the purpose of bringing innovative practices in the university. The university provides quality education by the adoption of advanced teaching methods. University create value for the students by developing required capabilities and academic performances which helps them to avail different employment opportunities available at the national and international level (Valenzuela, 2013).

Besides this, the university focuses on employing skilled and experienced teachers that helps in developing the skills and maintain effective study culture in the university. The university has adopted and implemented equity and diversity at all levels of the organization in order to retain the employees of the organization. In order to create strong brand image, the university has make strong ties with other educational institutions for the purpose of creating value for the communities. This helps in increasing the brand value of the university (Strydom, 2005).

Proposed Marketing Aim and Promotional Objectives for the year 2018

The marketing aim of the Australian National University is to increase the market share of the University to 20% in 2018. In order to achieve this aim, there is a need to achieve the following promotional objectives.

• It is expected to increase the profit of the university by 15% in the year 2018.
• Another objective is to increase the number of customer base by 10% by adoption of different promotional strategies.
• There is an expectation to increase the sales of the university by 17% in the year 2018.
• The other objective is to provide high quality of education to students by providing them the required latest technology in order to achieve high level of customer satisfaction.

These objectives can be easily achieved by the University as there is an existence of qualified and experienced staff who directs the activities of the students to carry out different researches in order to gain knowledge of the research topic. The university is one of the leading universities in Australia which results in attracting more number of students and thereby helps in the achievement of expected increase in sales and profits of the university by the year 2018. This can also be achieved by the adoption of different promotional activities such as advertisements, collaboration with other universities, organizing different campaigns in order to spread awareness about the university. This helps in creating positive brand image of the university among the public. This results in increasing the satisfaction level of the students and helps in increasing the number of students in the university. This leads to increase in the sales and profits of the university (Malaval, 2012).

Marketing – Mix Strategy

The marketing mix strategy relates to 4 P’s of marketing namely product, price, place and promotion. The products offered by the university include different educational programs offered to national as well as international students. these programs are divided into different categories such as post – graduate and graduate programs. Students are enrolled in these programs on the basis of their previous qualification and academic performance. The price of the educational programs is decided on the basis of the different aptitude exams and varies from the perspective of national and international students (Richter, 2012).

Various aptitude tests are conducted in order to select the students to be enrolled in different educational programs such as SAT, GRE and GMAT. The fees for national students are being fixed as per the guidelines of HECS-HELP. The place strategy is that the university is situated in Canberra in Australia due to which the university has provided a facility of online tutoring to its students which helps in grabbing large number of students. Besides this, the university promotes its products and services by adoption of different promotional activities such as advertisements in newspapers, online advertisements, social networking, posters and digital signage. This facilitates in retaining the existing students in an effective manner Lamb, et al., 2011).

Competitive Strategies

There are broadly three types of competitive strategies such as focus, cost leadership and differentiation strategy also termed as Porter’s generic strategies. The differentiation strategy reflects that the company should offer products with different and new features to customers as per their need and demand to attain high level of customer satisfaction. It helps companies to gain a competitive edge over other players in the market (Wit & Meyer, 2010). In context to Australian National University, it is essential to offer different and new educational programs to students in order to attract different students and potential students which results in achieving increased market share in the industry. Besides this, in combination with differentiation strategy, the university can also adopt cost leadership strategy in which, the university can offer different educational programs at low prices with high quality for the purpose of achieving increased student satisfaction (Moon, n.d.).

Media and budget Allocation

 It is expected that the budget allocated for carrying out marketing and promotional activities for the university is $7634 for the year 2018. More number of students are attracted by promoting the products of the university by the way of advertisements on social media and establishment of student exchange programs through collaborations with other universities at national and international level (Boone & Kurtz, 2012).

Conclusion

It can be concluded that the main competitor of Australian National University is University of Melbourne. In addition to this, for the purpose of achieving competitive advantage over other players in the market, it is necessary for Australian National University to adopt cost leadership and differentiation strategy. Along with this, it is also necessary for the university to offer different educational programs at competitive prices. The marketing aim of the university is to increase its market share./

References

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