CQ University (Central Queensland) is an Australian University situated in Queensland, Australia. It was founded in February 1967. It has many campuses which are located in Emerald, Gladstine City, Rockhampton City, Mackay City etc. But the main campus is located in North Rockhampton. Also, the deliveries sites are located in Cannonvale, Yeppoon Biloela, Cairns, Perth etc. It is a dual sector University.
CQ University is first dual sector university in Australia. It has the combination of courses for higher education and vocational training. At present the university is running various courses in different subjects. It has various research institutes and it has also a partner with various other universities to upgrade the scale of education. CQ university has good ranks in case of building career of the students. It has provided among 75% of placements to all its students.
The main objective of the university in 2018 is to empower staff, business and increased partnerships that will help in providing the mutual benefits to the university and increase its market share. The clients complained regarding the lack of facilities in the university. But, nowadays the university has gained reputation in Australia and fighting for the number to become a top ranked university. Therefore, the plan successfully targets in achieving “ A reputation for excellence”. Also, increase partnership to improve the excellence in studies and provide the university an award winning faculty. This will help in empowering students and make good reputation of the university (CQS University, 2017).
To make the university among the top universities in the country and make the excellent reputation of the university. This will help in the empowerment of faculty as well as students.
The main marketing objective of each brand or business is to become distinctive in this competitive world. Therefore, being distinctive is to gain competitive advantage. The main objectives of the university by which competitive advantage can be gained are as follows.
CQ University is a reputed university in Australia. It is the first university having a dual sector program in Australia. Although it has a good reputation, but for the improvement the strategic marketing plan should be established in order to analyze the environmental situation of the University. The Environmental situation analysis will help in determining the current position of the University into the market and also it will help in determining the areas which need improvement. The area which needs improvement is determined with the help of environmental analysis.
The market demography and demand analysis is done to address the topic of marketing plan which will help the Central Queensland University to develop a better market summary.
Due to the availability of many universities in Australia, competition has become very large. Therefore, in order to become a distinctive competitive advantage should be gained. CQ University has a dual sector course which provides higher education as well as vocational training to the students in less expense. Therefore, this dual course in less time helps the university to become distinctive. Also new staff and partnership with other universities will help in the empowerment of staff as well as students. Therefore, this will help with recruitment new students and will increase the high quality students in the university.
There are a lot of youngsters in Australia who wanted to join good universities. Due to the globalization more youngsters want to be educated and no one wants to remain illiterate due to the competition. This signifies that they will take education from the university. But, due to the lack of funds they cannot improve their education. The CQ University provides the students with affordable courses with dual sector, which helps them to make a good career in less expense. The CQ University also helps them in providing jobs after the completion of the course which help the students to make better career. Therefore, the demand of dual sector courses is growing as because the students can get two degrees in less time with the help of trained faculty (SDS University, 2013).
In earlier times the University is only focused on the international students. But today the target is the local students as well as international students with good academics and can afford the education as well. The target for the university is the students who want to go for higher education. Also, the management is targeting the students from Asia, which is emerging as the growing market for education (College, 2017). The education system is poor in some Asian countries. So, students can be attracted from the Asian countries as well. Also, accommodation will be an added advantage to the students from the outside state or country.
To establish proper marketing, CQ University has segmented its target market into different divisions. The segments are divided based on various aspects like needs, mindsets and age bracket for the students who seek to enhance their education.
|
Variable |
Specification |
|
Age |
17 to 22 years |
|
Gender |
Male or Female |
|
Education |
Determined to get higher education. |
The SWOT analysis helps in determining the external environmental effects on the university. This tool helps in determining the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats related to the university. The analysis helps in the assessment of the market position regarding the opportunities and threats. The marketing efforts mainly focus on empowering staff, student retention and building partnerships with other universities. Therefore, examination of these objectives in relation to SWOT is done.
The students main focus in this university is towards the dual sector course and less expense.The university will help in providing students will dual course in less time and also in less expense. The focus of the university is towards empowerment of students as well as faculties. The trained faculties will help students in research programs that will help in making the career for a lifetime. Also, the professional and personal development of the student is the main priority for the university. Career opportunities after the courses is bright (Willamette University, 2015). Also, partnership with other universities will help the student to interact with the world and this will develop the overall personality of the student. Also, the partnerships will provide exposure to the students and they will be able to compete globally.
The weakness of the university is its ranking. The university has to improve its ranking by providing quality education to students with the help of award winning staff. Also, the reputation of the university should be maintained in order to get the quality students with good academic record and good faculty. Bas acquisitions impact the university in a negative manner. The partnership and acquisition should be made only when it provides value to the university. Also, core business policies can be distracted by the merger (Vileta, 2017).
The opportunities are analyzed as the employment forecast as it acts as one of the major marketing strategy for attracting students. They see an opportunity in making the career. Also, the reputation of the university should be increased which will result in the attracting good academic career students (Research, 2014).
The threats to the university is from the competitors that are offering the same courses in the university. Even though the CQ university is first to offer dual sector courses, but the level of competition is increasing as more value education is offered by other universities as well. This should be improved by the CQ university in order to gain distinctiveness (Worcester University, 2016).
This analysis helps in determining the factors that are associated with the external environment of a business entity. It provides the scanning of complete external environment. These external elements are related to political, economical, social and technological factors that affects the business entity. These play an important role in determining the progress of the university when concerned with external demands (Morrison, 2016).
Government interference is determined with the help of political factors in the University. The political factors help in the funding related activities in the University. It depends on the government that how much funding can be done by the government to the university to implement research courses. Also, partnership with other universities and following government norms of infrastructure and faculty are also associated with the political factors. Thess factors determine the support of government with the University. Affiliation to various courses are granted by the government. Therefore, political factors are the most influential ones in the business unit. Instability can be observed due to the change of political party or leader which also affects the business.
Higher education institutions like the CQ University may have to review their pricing strategies to match the current economic difficulties that people may experience. As, the government tries to fund the students who cannot afford the higher education and also tries to promote the institutions with less expensive courses. Therefore, the university should maintain the fee structure of the courses in order to promote their institute (Kim-Keung, 2014).
The social factors involve the impact of expenditure that occurs during the course. Some students avoid taking admission into the institute having less expenses due to their thinking that the quality of education will increase with the fees. The CQ University should ensure that the high quality education will be provided during the entire courses even with less expense. Also, enlisted faculties should be good so that the students gets attracted towards the university. Awareness regarding the faculties and education process should be provided so that the impact can be minimized (Abdullah & Shamsher, 2011).
The university invests in technological factors, by including research work in the courses it provides. Also, new technology has been implemented by the university and changes are in progress to meet the innovative technology requirements of the students as well as faculty. Research and funds are required for the technological changes which are not in the surplus amount so it takes time for the changes. Better technology provides good results to the research related work of the students. Also, good work in less time can be achieved by it.
The CQ university is facing competition with various public and private sector universities. There are many competitors of the university that provides same courses as provided by the CQ university. The JQ University (James Cook) is the main competitor of the Central Queensland University. This University provides a tough competition to CQ university by engaging the national as well as international students. The university tries to engage the maximum number of students who opt for higher education. But, due to the branches in various areas and also less expensive courses the CQ university has some advantage over the students. Also, the marketing policy for 2018 will enable the University to provide with the best research staff, which will become an added advantage to the university. Also, career opportunities provided and ensured by the CQ university also laid an advantage to the students to choose the CQ University over JQ university (Hawkins, 2013).
The main aim of the CQ University is to recruit good staff that will ensure the quality education to the students. Also, value will be added to the University by recruiting the renowned staff. Students with good academic career should be taken so that value can be added to the institution. Partnership with various universities will ensure the exposure and training programs to the students. This will make the distinction with the competitor universities as well.
These procedures will help in the recognition of the elements that are required during the promotion. Theses elements can be implemented by the outsourcing the work to any vendor and they will help in making the strategies related to theses elements taking all these points into consideration. A well defined website and the university brochure plays an important role in the marketing (University, 2015).
Central Queensland University is the first University that introduced the dual sector course.
CQ university is improving its position in the market by doing continuous research related to demands in the jobs and trying to introduce new courses in the University. The rank of the university has improved from the earlier ranking. And it will improve its ranking by 2018 by incorporating renowned faculty that will help in the research work activities. Also a distinctive advantage should be gained by the university in 2018, by empowering its staff and by the partnership with other universities (Vogel & Bodnar, 2011). Also, technological improvement will help in catalyzing the research work that will help the university to gain the top ranking in the market.
The marketing strategies for 2018 can be explained with the help of BCG matrix. BCG matrix has four components in it. They are stars, cash cows, Dogs, Question mark. The stars are the highlighting points of the university. It represents the courses which have a higher number of students. The Cash cows represent the slow growing area will yield profit later. In the market strategy the empowerment of staff are cash cows. Dogs represent the weak market position which is given by none of the points (University of Chester, 2013). Question mark represents the low market share that is given by the less local students in the courses.
a. Develop a marketing plan that gives differentiation. Creating an overarching look for the brochure as well as for the website that will brand the University courses individually.
In order to achieve the set desired objective and mission, the university is required to put in effort and required to emphasize on their devised marketing plan. Because, for any business entity, it is very important for the organization to devise strategy for utilizing the funds and human resources correctly in the business and marketing plan. The human efforts are the key assets for every organization and thus, it should also be targeted o work-out best with the finances. Therefore, both the things go hand in hand.
|
List of Activity |
Estimated Budget |
|
Creating a visual image as a branding mark to be used on all brochures, UC publications, website, social media, promotional materials, etc. |
$2000 |
|
Creation of a CQ magazine which should contain the publications that are written by the students, which includes updating website and portal |
$2500 |
|
Developing online CQ Event Website Calendar highlighting CQ upcoming events. |
$200 |
|
Organizing a Student Social Media Campaign which will be a student-focused social media campaign for increasing awareness for the CQ offerings, events and accomplishments. |
$20000 |
|
Purchase of Google Analytics model to maximize search engine recognition for the purpose of tracking website visits and selected link activity |
$2800 |
|
Collaboration & alliances with vendors to bring new vendor on the panel. |
$4500 |
|
Content Marketing |
$6000 |
|
Social Media Investment |
$2000 |
|
Email marketing |
$1000 |
|
SEO- Search Engine Optimization |
$2500 |
|
Online Display Advertising(for acquisition) |
$3000 |
|
Online Display Advertising(for retention) |
$1500 |
|
Affiliate Marketing |
$2000 |
The budget related to media and adverting activities mentioned in the above table is estimated to $50000 approximately.
The other main activities category which is also anticipated as a huge amount$155000, the details are shown below
The key activity associated with marketing plan is redesigning of the website, which will surely cost a huge amount. The estimated budget for this reshaping of the website activity is $ 70,000 approximate. This activity will be carried with the help of research for developing new content, designing new outlook, few addition of the graphics and changes. Also, the cost related to consultation from the vendors is also included in it.
The designing of website is second key activity post designing of website. $ 55000 is the approximate and anticipated budget for the designing of the magazine. This activity will consist of graphic designing, content planning, different vendor consultation and finalization of vendor under strategy planning. This activity will require consultation or man-hours of the experts who are on the board (employed for different work) to develop new content if they have such know-how.
The activity anticipated budget is $30,000 approx. This will also require appropriate vendor consultation, subsequent planning of the website activities and preparing graphic designs accordingly. This is important activity to be carried as it will help in strategizing how to highlight the distinctive feature on the planned and new desired brochure of university.
Thus, the total budget for the year 2018 is $2, 05,000 for media and other activities.
Conclusion
The University is keen to improve its market share by utilizing the new marketing plan. This marketing plan will also help in getting a competitive advantage. The strategy follows the recruitment of local and international students as well which will lead to the diverse environment in the university. Marketing plan suggests that by adding value to the education and improving the faculty, a distinctive advantage can be gained by the university. This will lead to the better future of the students as well as of the University.
References
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