Competitive Analysis Of Australian National University

Background of Australian National University

Discuss about the Cooperation Competitors and Product Innovation.

The competitive environment is effective for the organization for gaining the competitive advantage.  This report aims to analyze the marketing and competitive environment of the Australian National University (ANU). This report focuses on the segmentation and target, marketing mix analysis. PEST analysis, Competitor analysis, SWOT analysis, and brand position.  These factors are ensured to evaluate the competitive analysis of the University in respect of strategic performance. In consequence, it can be effective to take a strong decision.

Australian National University (ANU) is one of the top leading universities in the world.  ANU has also tied up with the government for providing better resources to its students (Australian National University, 2017). ANU focuses on the research asset, education approach and it ensures that graduates have potential to face the global challenges by using his abilities. Company offers the various graduate and postgraduate programs for the national and international students. Further, ANU creates the value for the community and staff through different ideas and research (Australian National University, 2017). ANU strategic plan is to represent its priorities and liability towards the nation. In order to increase the student opportunities, ANU has an alliance with other Australian universities, government, nonprofit organizations, and global universities. For instance, strategic alliance I.e. Association of Pacific Rim University, edX, and a group of eight through ANU has also national alliances such as Charles Darwin University, University of Canberra, and University of Newcastle. Thus, past academic performance of the ANU has been specified, that it effective for the ANU to gain a competitive advantage in the global market.  ANU is also followed the corporate governance laws for best practices in the Australia. Currently, 10052 students are enrolled in the undergraduate program, and 10840 students are enrolled in the postgraduate courses.

ANU marketing plan is to develop the effective strategy to improve the postgraduate student’s skill and ability. Along with this, increasing the students, increasing the University courses awareness, and razing the Ph.D. program students, these are some marketing plan of the University (Australian National University, 2017). Overall marketing summary of the ANU is to keep focusing towards the effective communications with students for raising the student’s capabilities. Demand assessment refers the higher education in the University with highly qualified staff. University demand is to increase the employability of students in entire world through effective education so that they can easily face the contemporary challenges during the work. Though, accommodation facility is one of the demand assessment factors of the ANU.  

Segmentation and Target Market

Market segmentation of the Australian National University indicates that the primary benefits of the University can be a quality buyer instead of the value buyer and economy buyer. Concerning this, University used the quality buyer for segmentation, because it mainly focuses towards the quality education provides to its students regarding good learning environment, innovations, and research (Durango-Cohen and Balasubramanian, 2015). In adverse, ANU has less focused towards the other two segments. In terms of target market, ANU used the differentiation strategy where it targets the domestic and international students on the basis of different unique course programs.     

There are four types of marketing strategies that are used by the Australian National University such as product, price, place, and promotion. Concerning this, product refers to different courses and programs that are offered by the ANU such as graduate, postgraduate, and Ph.D. courses. The pricing strategy of the ANU is varying from domestic and international students. Along with this, University is also decided the fees on the basis of different aptitude exams like GMAT, SAT, and GRE. In spite of this, University has been fixed the pricing strategy for the Australian students through HECS-HELP (Australian National University, 2017).  Further, “Australian National University” is situated in the Melbourne. For this, a primary criterion of the University regarding place strategy is to provide learning in the open environment and online study platform. This strategy is applied by the University in order to enlarge the student ratio.  Besides this, there are different promotional channels are available in the market that can be used by the University such as newspaper, online ads, social networking, digital signage, and flyers/posters. Promotion purpose of the University is to increase the presence of the University through quality education so that they can easily retain more students towards the excellence University courses (Huang and Sarigöllü, 2014).  

Political factor is significant for the ANU to improving the education system in Australia. Political stability exists in the Australia, which is quite effective for the ANU in terms of investing more amounts in research activates. Effective support of government policy helps the University to provide the quality education to the students (Külheim, 2014). While high employment rate exists in the Australia, which may help the ANU regarding more students enrolled in the various learning programs.

High living standard of Australian people depicts the high education level in the country. Consequently, it enables the ANU to attract more students towards the different graduate and post graduate programs. Simultaneously, high education rate helps to retain more students. Beside this, in Australia government spent huge investment in the technology and research programs, this is very effective for the ANU in relation to enhance the level of student education (Ho, 2014). Though, innovations and Entrepreneurship supports the students in new startups. Concerning this, it provides education, consultancies, advice, and funding opportunities.

Marketing Mix Analysis

Education sector is rising over the period, therefore; Australian market is very competitive in the educational sector. Consequently, it attracts more global and international students towards them. As a result, it identified that there are many competitors of the Australian National University such as the University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, University of New South Wales (UNSW), and University of Queensland (UQ). These Universities compete with each other regarding the same course program and fees for the purpose of capturing the large market area (Wu, 2014).  Further, ANU provided the online postgraduate courses, which is effective to enhance the feasibility of the University. Moreover, ANU is more focused towards the research and innovation learning’s, which helps to gain the competitive advantage. As per the research University analysis, different course programs of students are satisfied with University courses such as Arts and science. Though, ANU constant focuses towards the institution excellence, which increases the ANU presence across the Australia (Australian national University, 2017). Some other factors of the ANU strengthen the competitive edge of the ANU such as effective R& D, teaching support, effective learning, and effective corporate governance.

Below table depicts the strength, weakness, opportunity, and weakness of the Australian National University (ANU) as follows:

SWOT Analysis of Australian National University
Strength (S)	Weakness (W)
·       Strong image of the University ·       ‘on-campus’ student experience ·       Residence guarantee in the first year for undergraduate students	·       Residence shortage in on campus ·       Large competition among the same course colleges ·       Ineffective market research and knowledge  ·       Poor image of Canberra has negative impacts on the ANU reputation
Opportunity (O)	Threats (T)
·       New Australian government approaches towards the higher studies ·       Need more finance source for Ph.D. scholar research.	·       Reputation of ANU smash up through catastrophic event ·       Declining the supporters regarding the students (Australian National University, 2017).

Australian National University has already created the brand value in the Australia due to different factors such as quality education, staff, and environment, highly focused on research and innovation, and place. On the other hand, University is also created the value to the students through effective teaching methods (Baburkin, 2016). In the context of values, ANU staff builds the effective excellence in the University campus. Simultaneously, they foster to each student development so as to raise its capabilities and academic performances. Concerning this, staff develops the effective study culture so that it helps to develop large development opportunities. Further, values of the ANU are equity and diversity in order to provide same chance for all staff employees. This can be effectively done by ANU with the help of collaboration with colleges and service divisions. These values are quite helpful for the University to becoming the Australian leading University brand. Though, University is also created the values for the community by using effective innovation ideas and research.  This valued are quite effective to increase the brand value of the ANU (Gengler and Mulvey, 2017).

Conclusion

From the above analysis, it can be stated that the ANU is top ranked University in the Australia. Thereby, it segments the education on the basis of the quality aspect. Thereby, it targeted the domestic as well as international students. It has also identified that the effective marketing mix strategy helps to maximize the growth of University. Similarly, all PEST factors are favorable for the University Effective Research and higher education. The constant focus of University helps to gain the competitive advantage. Moreover, SWOT analysis is quite effective to analyze the issues that are affecting the University. Effective ideas and innovation created the value for the community and staff, which may help to raise the brand value of the University.

References

Australian National University (2017). About ANU [online] Retrieved from: https://www.anu.edu.au/about

Australian National University (2017). Annual Report [online] Retrieved from: https://services.anu.edu.au/human-resources/respect-inclusion

Australian National University (2017). Annual Report [online] Retrieved from: https://services.anu.edu.au/marketing-outreach/marketing-strategy/creating-a-marketing-plan

Australian National University (2017). Annual Report [online] Retrieved from: https://services.anu.edu.au/planning-governance/planning-review/anu-it-strategy-2015-17

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Külheim, C., Jones, C. G., Plummer, J. A., Ghisalberti, E. L., Barbour, L. and Bohlmann, J. (2014). Foliar application of methyl jasmonate does not increase terpenoid accumulation, but weakly elicits terpenoid pathway genes in sandalwood (Santalum album L.) seedlings. Plant Biotechnology, 31(5), 585-591.

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