Principles of Marketing Management

Introduction to Principles of Marketing Management

A marketing plan is very important for the success of the business. This assessment aims to compare the marketing strategies of the two universities in detail by conducting customer segmentation, target marketing, finding universities market offering, pricing, promotional mix and so on.

Overview of Two Universities

The University of Melbourne is one of the leading universities in Australia that help students become well rounded and skilled professionals. Students who have gained education from this university can create a positive impact on society. It has its own Melbourne model which helps the students to gain a wider understanding of the world. It trains the graduates in such a way that they become flexible, adaptable and are ready for the future. Its vision is to be one of the finest universities in the world and contribute to the wellbeing of society (The University of Melbourne n.d.) Since the day its foundation has been laid, the university has a fascinating past and a point for the future in different fields. It has 52,475 students and 4631 staff members. It is the Australia second oldest public research university. It operates in different fields and allows the student to explore subjects that are outside commerce.

Wollongong is another research university which has become a benchmark for other Australian universities in less than 50 years. It is dynamic, innovative and provides quality teaching and research to its students. It is a young and vibrant university with big ambitions. It has an enrollment of 32,000 students and has 2,400 staff members. It has 12,800 international students who have come to Australia for pursuing higher education in different areas. Wollongong university achieved 10th Rank in Australia by Australian research council (University of Wollongong n.d). It is also linked with national agenda thus focus on providing quality research cited by highly esteemed researches. Most of the researches undertaken in the university are on disruptive technology which can help deliver positive economic impacts. The vision of the university is to find solutions to complex social, economic and environmental challenges. Its strategic development plan is to adapt, respond and accept change. 

Customer Segmentation and Targeting

It has been found out from investigation that the university of Melbourne segments its customers based on behavioural segmentation. According to the university, this is an effective strategy to market the product based on the student's needs (Kryńska 2017). The university tries to understand the needs of the customer and then offer them the services provided by it so that they can pursue their higher studies while managing their work by taking a part-time course. It helps the customer to decide as per their preference. They counsel the students according to their expertise and help them in getting admission in the particular subject in which the person can specialize. It is the best way to attract the maximum number of people towards the university to pursue higher studies.

On the other hand, Wollongong uses geographic segmentation. It divides the buyers that are students on the bases of the geographic location. The university tries to understand the needs and wants of the people based on the geographic location (Govind, Chatterjee and Mittal 2018). It is beneficial because with the help of geographic position the universities can target national, international, regional and local people. Local students are the main target of the university as they accept the proposal because of proximity. However, it has also been observed that all of these people be it local or international, all of them differ from one another in culture and activities. According to the university, focusing one will not help thus it tries and develop different plans according to the geographic region of the customer.

Targeting Market

The University of Melbourne is targeting broadly and does not have a niche segment. It is because the segmentation selected by the university is broad and cannot be categorized into small segments (Kryńska 2017). This targeting strategy aligns with the vision of the university to contribute to the wellbeing of the people. Besides, it has been identified that behavioural segmentation is sustainable and is give long term benefit to the organization. It is the best strategy as it covers maximum customers of the university.

Whereas, the University of Wollongong targets a niche market. It focuses on each geographical location separately and develops strategies based on the needs of the customer. It targets the people of the geographical region by narrowing. The targeting strategy of Wollongong aligns with the core objectives and aim of the university (Govind, Chatterjee and Mittal 2018). This practice is not sustainable because micromanaging each geographical location is very difficult. Thus the organization must try to structure the market by using demographic segmentation. It is more effective as it will help the university to target consumer based on gender, age and total income of the person. This strategy will help the university to save money, time and efforts of the business. 

Both the universities use different targeting strategy. It is because they have different target segments. The University of Melbourne does behavioural segmentation while the university of Wollongong segments its consumer on a geographical basis. There are no similarities between both the universities except that both are public research universities.

Differentiation and Positioning

Melbourne university services and products are different. It is these that help the university to gain a competitive advantage over the others. The university values its target customers perfectly. It is due to this reason the number of students in this university is more in comparison to the University of Wollongong. There is image differentiation also apart from product and service which helps the university to gain more traction. The University of Melbourne was established in 1853 since then the university has created its reputation as being one of the finest universities in the world and it is due to this reason many of the students enrol their name in the courses without seeing much detail (Guzovski and Smoljic 2017).

On the contrary, Wollongong university is less profitable in comparison to Melbourne university. The number of students is less moreover the courses provided by the organization is also less. What keeps the university apart from the other is its augmented products and services like the university offers students to enrol for two courses at the same time to have a more competitive advantage in the market (Iyer et al. 2019). The company has come up with this product keeping the prospects of job seekers in mind which is very essential these days to sustain in the market. Its services and products help the university to attain 10th position in Australia.

The services offered by both universities are different. These services attract many students towards them based on their relevance. Only a few of the courses are similar rest all of them are different. Image is another factor that plays an important role in differentiation and positioning. Image of the Melbourne industry is strong as it is the oldest one (Brennan et al. 2018). While Wollongong university was started 60 years back and thus it will take time to gain a similar number of students as it has. Both of them offer services to the community by investing in innovation. 

Market Offerings

The University of Melbourne offers customers more than 100 courses in which they can enrol based on their interest level. Customer can specialize in whichever field they want to be its architecture design, business economics, arts, humanities, health, environment, information technology, law, music, science and food and agriculture (Parker et al. 2017). The university gives the same products as augmented with additional benefits such as it provides special entry access and so on.

On the other hand, University of Wollongong has different courses for high school students in the different domain be it arts humanities, media, creative performing arts, engineering, geography, social studies, law, psychology, health and so on. The augmented product of the university is a double degree. The students can avail for double degrees (Gerloff and Reinhard 2019). It is beneficial for those who want to become more competitive in the market for getting the best job from the other ones.

The market offerings of the Melbourne university will attract graduates and non-graduates to have a look into courses provided by them (Parker et al. 2017). They will get attracted to the augmented product. It may be possible that they enrol for the course without seeing much option as it is one of the leading universities. The chances of enrolment are high in Melbourne university as it not only offers more than 100 courses but also redefines student. 

Contrarily, the market offering of the University of Wollongong attracts students to the university as it gives the opportunity of enrolling for double degrees at the same time (Gerloff and Reinhard 2019). The market offering of the university is competitive but in comparison to the University of Melbourne, it is not that strong.

From the analysis of market offerings, it can be found out that both the university has different ways of offering its services although most of the service of both the university is the same. Only augmented products are different rest maximum things are common that include subjects and courses. Although the courses with Melbourne university is more than the University of Wollongong.

Pricing Strategy

Pricing strategy of Melbourne university is high. It is same for all the students but the university has put some discount allowance pricing for the students so that they can get the benefit of the pricing. The university adjusts prices of the international market. The university has brought the concept of a scholarship program for those students who find it hard to give fees for the studies. The university gives them the scholarship to pursue their dream career. It has dynamic pricing for different products that are each course fee is different from the other (Hu, Chen and Hu 2016). The university also keeps in mind the competitor’s strategies while deciding the cost of the courses. These are the pricing strategy of Melbourne university.

Wollongong University is trying to penetrate the market because it is not an old university and thus it does not have much consumer base in comparison to Melbourne university. The price structure of the university is thus low so that it can attract maximum customers. The price of individual courses is different at the university. It gains maximum benefit from foreign students thus it keeps the price of the international market adjustable (Hanna and Dodge 2017). It also gives some amount of discount to some of its students depending upon their scholarship program. It has set the price for all the courses taught at the university. It also adjusts the price based on the geographical location of the student like the price of a person living in Sydney will be high then the person living in the remote area.

The major difference between both the university is that the price of Melbourne is higher than Wollongong (Hanna and Dodge 2017). The later adjust the price of the university by geographical locations of the student but this is not in the case with Melbourne except the students from the international market. Both the university has different prices for different courses.

Promotion Strategy

Melbourne University advertises about the products and services offered by it to the students so that the large mass of people can become aware of the finest university in Australia. The university does this by paying the advertising company to show the ideas, goods and services with the help of a sponsor. This form of advertisement has a low cost of exposure than the other tools of promotion. The advertising agencies make the ads of the university creatively. It is the best form of advertising by which university can not only create awareness but also create an image for a long time (Guitart, Hervet and Gelper 2019). It gives quick sale in comparison to other tools of promotion. However, it has certain disadvantages as well as it is a one-way communication method, does not have strong influencer and the cost of media is very high. The university also uses direct marketing as it allows for personalized communications. It also helps the seller to understand the buying habit of the customer and thus try to influence the person in such a way that it gets completely attracted to them. This form of advertisement is inexpensive and helps build strong relationships. 

Wollongong advertises about the university in media to make people aware of the university. Wollongong uses this method to increase the reputation of the university among students so that they enrol in some courses of the university. There are some disadvantages of this form of promotion thus along with it also use sales promotion strategy. With the help of this method, the university tries to attract the attention of the people by giving them POS material, coupons and so on. This technique helps gives the consumer some rewards (Chaudhuri et al. 2018). The offers are for a limited period and thus if a student's grabs it, it gets the benefit of the offer and if not then the student has to pay the exact fee of the course in which he or she wants to enrol. It also has some limitations like sale promotion is done only for a short period. This form of promotion is not much effective as advertising and other forms. The university also uses integrated communication method for marketing. In this method, various touchpoints are referred to any brand to get to know maximum about that brand. Some of the touchpoints include email, phone calls and so on.

There are some similarities in both the universities that are both of them use the advertisement to promote their university among students so that maximum students can become aware of the university. Apart from these two different promotion strategies are used by the universities. Melbourne university uses direct marketing methods whereas the university of Wollongong uses sales promotion. It is because advertisement has some disadvantages and any university cannot solely rely on only a single form of promotion. Thus they use different methods as well to promote their services and offers to people.

Place or Distribution

This university is located in Melbourne. It is the most populous state of Victoria and is the second populous city in Australia and Oceania. The place of the university is very important because if the university is at some remote location where it is difficult to find transportation than in that case the chances of getting students attracted to that particular place is low. The university is situated in Parkville in Victoria. Distribution channel of the courses taught in the university is communicated to the students in Australia through promotional tools. The channel members add value by discussing the offer to the people (Dent and White 2018).

Wollongong University is situated 80 kilometres from Sydney in South Wales in Australia. The university is established in the coastal city. This indicates that the location of the university is beautiful and this is one of the factors which attracts the student but the city is 80 kilometres from Sydney which is a drawback for it (Vuignier 2017). The students in Sydney if want to study at this university will have to travel 80 kilometres which cannot be done on an everyday basis. Distribution channel of the university is done through promotional tools.

It is clear from the place a distribution strategy that the only similarity between the two universities in the distribution channel that is universities communicate about the university courses by promoting them with the help of channel member. Rest all the things are different from one another. One of the university is in the coastal city of Wollongong whereas the other is situated in the most populous city named Melbourne (Vuignier 2017).

Conclusion on Principles of Marketing Management

It can be concluded that both the university has different plan although the courses and services offered by them are similar.

References for Principles of Marketing Management

Brennan, J., Cochrane, A., Lebeau, Y. and Williams, R. 2018. Universities Making a Difference: Balancing the Global and the Local. In The University in its Place (pp. 141-149). Springer, Dordrecht. 

Chaudhuri, M., Calantone, R.J., Voorhees, C.M. and Cockrell, S., 2018. Disentangling the effects of promotion mix on new product sales: An examination of disaggregated drivers and the moderating effect of product class. Journal of Business Research, 90, pp.286-294.

Dent, J. and White, M. 2018. Sales and marketing channels: How to build and manage distribution strategy. Kogan Page Publishers.

Gerloff, A. and Reinhard, K. 2019. University Offering Work-Integrated Learning Dual Study Programs. International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning, 20(2), pp.161-169.

Govind, R., Chatterjee, R. and Mittal, V. 2018. Segmentation of spatially dependent geographical units: Model and application. Management Science, 64(4), pp.1941-1956.

Guitart, I.A., Hervet, G. and Gelper, S. 2019. Competitive advertising strategies for programmatic television. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, pp.1-23.

Guzovski, M. and Smoljic, M. 2017. Marketing orientation as the key to differentiation and positioning of educational institutions in the service market. Economic and Social Development: Book of Proceedings, pp.507-513.

Hanna, N. and Dodge, H.R. 2017. Pricing: policies and procedures. Macmillan International Higher Education. 

Hu, Z., Chen, X. and Hu, P. 2016. Dynamic pricing with gain-seeking reference price effects. Operations Research, 64(1), pp.150-157.

Iyer, P., Davari, A., Zolfagharian, M. and Paswan, A. 2019. Market orientation, positioning strategy and brand performance. Industrial Marketing Management, 81, pp.16-29.

Kryńska, E. 2017. The Faces of Contemporary Labour Market Segmentation. Olsztyn Economic Journal, 12(2), pp.137-149.

Parker, K.R., Srinivasan, S.S., Houghton, R.F., Kordzadeh, N., Bozan, K., Ottaway, T. and Davey, B. 2017. Health informatics program design and outcomes: Learning from an early offering at a mid-level university. Education and Information Technologies, 22(4), pp.1497-1513.

The University of Melbourne n.d.. About us. [Retrieved from https://about.unimelb.edu.au/] [Retrieved on 25th August 2020]. 

University of Wollongong n.d.. Home. [Retrieved from https://www.uow.edu.au/] [Retrieved on 25th August 2020]. 

Vuignier, R., 2017. Place branding & place marketing 1976–2016: A multidisciplinary literature review. International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, 14(4), pp.447-473.

Remember, at the center of any academic work, lies clarity and evidence. Should you need further assistance, do look up to our Management Assignment Help

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