The report discusses the background of Griffith University and the factors that affect the internal operations and activities. The report also analyzes the political, economic, social, and technological factors influencing the external environment of the university. Such factors include the culture of the society and use of videos streaming to teach at the university. The market of the university is segmented geographically according to the place of origin of students, demographic segmentation which involves issues such as age, gender and income levels, as well as psycho-graphical (Fisk, Grove& John, 2014. The marketing strategies to be used by Griffith for the year 2018 include offering differentiated products and offering special courses that caters for the special needs of international students. The aims and objectives of this plan is to increase the number of local and international students and to boast the brand value of Griffith as a leading international university
Griffith University is a public research university located in South East Queensland on east coast of Australia. The University was started in the year 1971 by a man named Griffith who introduced the first degree in Environmental science and Asian studies. The university is named after Sir Samuel Walker Griffith who was at one time the premier of Queensland and chief justice of the Australian High court. The university currently has five campuses across Australia with Gold Coast campus and Nathan being the main campus. The University currently has about 50,000 students. The university offers over 200 degree programs with additional programs for both undergraduates and postgraduate students (World Marketing Congress, In Campbell, C., & Academy of Marketing Science.2017). The values of the Griffith University are to be the most influential university in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.
The higher education market in Australia has many players in the market. There are more than 20 public and private universities in Australia .According to the IBIS growth report published in January 2017, the sector raised revenue totaling to $116 billion in the year 2016. The report shows the education and training marketing Australia is expected to grow by3.5% between 2012 and 2017(World Marketing Congress, Campbell & Academy of Marketing Science, 2017). The higher education sector in Australia employs more than 100,000 staff. The sector is expected to achieve growth of 3.3% between the year 2017 and 2022(SOLOMON, 2017).
The market is segmented geographically according to the place of origin of a student. The University admits students from different parts of the globe. The university therefore segments its marketing into local student population and foreign or international student. This helps the university to carry out target marketing and to cater for specific needs of consumers.
Majority of students admitted at Griffith are mostly between age 18 and 24. These students are mostly undergraduate students. The students are mostly young adults who have just completed their high school education. The marketing efforts of the university will therefore be aimed at the young people who are aspiring to join the university. The students are either of the male or female gender. The aspect of gender is important in determining consumer behavior for marketers since consumption of some commodities is based on the gender of an individual. At the university, the number of male students is almost equal to female but male students are more than female by a slight margin. Griffith does not market its courses based on gender since a person can choose to train on anything irrespective of their gender. Income levels are another important aspect of market segmentation. The level of income for most of the students joining Griffith is less than $7,000 annually. Most students depend on their parent or guardians to pay fees and cater for the basic needs. Level of income is important since it measures the ability to pay for goods and services.
The university segments the market for its student depending on the attitudes, personality straits, lifestyles, and loyalty. The attitudes and perceptions of prospective customers determine their behavior when they decide to buy a particular product or service. A student faced with the decision to choose from various universities will be influenced by the above stated factors when making the decision. Understanding the psychographic characteristics of a particular market segment helps the marketer to do target marketing and to ensure efficiency in advertising.
Griffith University will mainly target undergraduate local and international students in this plan. There is a lot of potential for growth in undergraduate programs both locally because of the high number of students completing high school and are ready to join university. The demand from international students who want to study in Australia is also high with most of the students being from Asian continent. This report aims at targeting and designing strategies to help increase the number of new admissions into the university by 7% by in 2018.
The political environment around Queensland and Australia is favorable for the operations of Griffith University. However there are a few political issues that affect the university such as opposition of the university expansion by some sections of the political class.
The economic growth rate of the country has slowed down in the previous few years and this means that this factor affects the university due to the spill over effects of the state of the economy. Globalization and free movement of services from country to country also affects international students due to the existing laws.
These are issues concerning culture, traditions, beliefs and practices of the people. The culture and beliefs of the people in different parts of the world determines the education needs of the people in a community. Griffith university has maintained good relations with the community around it by participating in community activities. The university also recognizes the role played by the community in the growth of the university.
Technology is a very important factor in learning today. Griffith university offers online learning programs as well as virtual studies which are aided by technology. Technology in the education sector has helped in making analysis of research information easier and enabled easy transmission of findings and assignments through the internet (El-Gohary, & Eid, 2013).
The main competitors of the Griffith University include, University of Queensland and Central Queensland University. An analysis of Central Queensland University shows that the university has huge resource base that makes it less reliant on the government funding and therefore its able to enjoy a competitive advantage. The university has well established research institutions and highly qualified staff that ensure that it produces highly qualified and skilled graduates. Griffith University uses different strategies to market itself locally and abroad. These strategies include use of internet advertising, social media advertising and use of print and broadcast media. The university has also entered into partnership with other universities especially in Asia to allow students from those countries to study at Griffith at a subsidized tuition fee.
Griffith has a wide product portfolio since it offers more than 200 degree programs and more than 70 postgraduate programs. The university has a strong brand name since it is ranked in top 3% best global universities. Griffith has well equipped research centers across its five campuses which ensures that students are adequately trained in whatever field they specialize in (Enerson, Mason& Corbishley, 2016). Griffith has highly qualified and trained staff hence guaranteeing quality.
There is absence of a fully fledged marketing department in the university hence making it difficult to market the university effectively.
The stringent management rules for public universities restrict the university from being very aggressive in marketing hence limiting the growth potential of Griffith University.
There is great opportunity for the university to focus on international students since the demand is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years (Malhotra, 2016).
Griffith University can expand and open more campuses in other parts of the country so as to reach the consumers easily.
There exist a very big opportunity for the University to differentiate and offer many more courses so as to fulfill the gaps existing in the market.
Griffith University has positioned itself as the regional university of choice in the Asia Pacific region and it aims at ensuring increased partnership and engagement in the region in both research and teaching. The university has achieved a remarkable achievement by being ranked among the top 3% universities globally (Dubas cerra, 2016). The position of the university in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region is recognized with producing highly qualified graduates with employable levels exceeding 80%.
Griffith University aims at increasing its intake in 2018 by 18%. This will be an estimated increase of 1,900 students.
The university aims at increasing its presence and recognition in the Asia-Pacific region by admitting 700 more students from this region compared to 2017.
Griffith also aims at increasing building an additional research center for health science department at the Gold Coast Campus.
Griffith offers more than 200 courses for both undergraduate and post graduate students. The university offers courses in IT, environmental science, design and architecture, medicine and nursing as well as degree programs in natural resource management (Christiansen, Yildiz& Yildiz, 2014). The university develops programs and designs curriculum based on the needs of consumers as well as the trends in the global environment.
The prices for products are set depending on a variety of factors. The major determinant for the university when setting price is the cost of training for the specific course (El-Gohary& Eid, 2013). The tuition fee to be paid by students also depends on whether the student is Australian national or a foreign. The level of government support for the university also influences the price for the university courses.
Griffith University offers its services and products in its five campuses located in different regions in Australia. The university distributes its products directly since the staff employed by the university transmits the knowledge and skills to the students at the university (Adel & Aimin, 2015).
Since Griffith University is a public university it does not carry out a lot of advertising. The university however advertises through its websites where it invites applications from students who have met the minimum conditions for admission. The university also advertises through the various seminars, expos and conferences involving the university and that have wide media coverage (Gbadamosi, 2013). In addition to these, Griffith advertises through its social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Griffith University will focus on l differentiate products in order to compete effectively in the market. The university should focus on differentiating its products from those of competitors by offering products that are unique and different from rivals. The university will introduce IT for all courses offered in the university so as to equip the students with relevant technological knowledge needed in their fields of specialization (Bowen & Ozuem, 2015). The university will differentiate itself by offering unique learning methods that are not being used by other universities. This will attract many students to study at the university hence the objectives will be achieved.
Griffith University should also diversity to offer more courses that are not currently in its product portfolio. This will help to ensure that the university meets the extra demand in the market. This will also ensure that consumers are offered with a wide range of courses to choose from. Offering additional course will also raise the profile of the university regionally since the students will be aspiring to join the university and experience the learning at the university and the unique programs offered at Griffith (Quester, Plewa& Conduit, 2016).
Griffith should invest more in research and development. The role of the university in contributing to research in science, agriculture, and environment is highly recognized not only in Australia but regionally. By investing more in research, the university will equip students and staff to research more in order to solve carious problems in the life of human beings. The brand of the university will improve through this and attract more students to learn at the university.
Griffith University mainly uses its website to advertise itself especially on matters to do with academics. The university post information on various issues such as courses offered, research program by the universities and achievements and rewards won by the university. The university also posts information on the intake of students during various periods of the year.
Griffith also uses internet advertising where it pays for its adverts to appear in online magazines that have huge following and hence attracting wide audience. In addition to this, Griffith pays companies such as Google to feature its adverts in its various internet platforms.
Griffith will advertise in print media. This will help to reach a wider audience who do not assess the internet. The universities adverts will be featured in various national and regional newspapers in order to reach many prospective customers.
The university will also use social media platform to communicate to both its current students and perspective students. The university uses various social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to advertise its programs, achievements and its activities (Lowe, & Laffey, 2011). The university has a strong social media following and this means that the university will be able to reach many consumers at the same time and at a very low cost. Social media is also very popular among young people and students who are the age of the target group of the university marketing hence making it a very suitable method of advertising.
The following is the budget that Griffith University will use to implement the marketing plan;
|
Item |
Estimated budget($) |
|
Hiring of social media administrator |
7,400 |
|
Advertising costs |
37,600 |
|
Website maintenance costs |
9,270 |
|
Online market re-targeting |
3,958 |
|
Cloud hosting and content distribution |
41,320 |
|
Reservation conversion and boasting conversations |
17,668 |
|
Print media advertising |
18,960 |
|
Total |
$136,176 |
After the marketing plan has been implemented, the enrollment into the university is expected to increase by 18% come the year 2018. The number of new admissions will be local, regional, and international.
The brand value of the University is expected to grow rapidly and the status and reputation of the university will improve both regionally and internationally.
Griffith University expects to be ranked among the top three best universities in Australia and the Asia-Pacific.
The university is expected to increase the number of highly successful and commercialized innovation by two in the year 2018.
Griffith expects to improve customer satisfaction levels among students by offering them a better learning environment and equipping them better for the job market.
Conclusion
The objectives of this marketing plan is to help and guide Griffith University in achieving it objective of increasing the value of its brand and increasing the number of students who enroll into the university on a yearly basis. The report contains an in depth analysis of the internal and external environment of the University in order to determine the factors that influence the performance of the university. A SWOT and PEST analysis is done to determine these factors. The report contains an analysis of the main competitors of Griffith with their strengths and weaknesses established so as to shape strategy to make the university more competitive. The core competences of Griffith universities include leadership in terms of research and quality of delivering and transmitting knowledge to students. The marketing and competitive strategies that Griffith will use include differentiating its courses from those of competitors in order to offer more value to consumers. The university will also focus on the Asia-Pacific region and mainly undergraduate students. The report also analyzes and presents the budget estimate of the finances required to implement the marketing plan.
References
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