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Student Record Officers: The
Marketing Director's Best Friends
Richard Taylor
Director of Marketing & Communications
www.le.ac.uk
Marketing is….
• A management process that seeks to
lead, anticipate and satisfy customer
demand
• Fundamental to marketing is that
different groups have different needs and
desires
• And these groups can be identified
through a process called market
segmentation
Market Segmentation
• A market segment is a sub-set of a
market made up of people sharing one or
more characteristics that cause them to
demand similar products and/or services
Market Segmentation
• Segmentation can be based on:
– Geography, fee status, social class, age,
gender, subject preferences, level of study,
prior qualifications, hair colour, ethnicity etc
etc etc
• As long as it can be reached and responds
similarly to market stimulii
Marketing involves…
• Developing a position for one or more
market segments
• What do we mean by a position?
Services Marketing Mix
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
A concept that market attractiveness for a specific
audience is determined by seven variables
Product
Price
Promotional Strategy
Physical Surroundings/Packaging
Place & Distribution
Process
People
A Market Segment….
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Professional managers in the UK requiring advanced
management training….
Product
Price
Promotional Strategy
Physical Surroundings/Packaging
Place & Distribution
Process
People
• But you can’t be something you’re not
• Higher education “brands” are built over
decades and disseminated by word of
mouth
• HEIs therefore need to understand their
current markets
Education as a Service
• Services:
• Intangible Dominant
• Low on Search Qualities
• High on Experience Qualities
• Inseparable from producer
• Goods:
• Tangible Dominant
• High on Search Qualities
• Lower on Experience
Qualities
• Separable from producer
Education as a Service
• Services differentiate through delivery
and not (just) words
• The brand cannot exist outside of the
reality of the service experience
• The service experience is dependant on
people
• Word of mouth drives reputation
So….
• Understanding the current position of an
institution or programme is critical
• Who are our customers?
• Turn to the data record…
But….
• QUALENTS,
• PAREDs
• MSFUNDS
Come Alive with the Pepsi Generation
Pepsi brings your ancestors back from
the dead
And the worst one…
• TTPCODE
You can’t occupy all the segments.
If we want to succeed and develop our
reputation we must stand for something
that is clear and distinctive….
The 49th Prime Minister
Flight of the
Conchords
"Formerly New
Zealand's fourth
most popular
guitar-based digibongo acapellarap-funk-comedy
folk duo"
Some offenders….
• “Ranked in the top 3 of all modern
universities”
• “Ranked the 17th best politics department
by the Guardian”
• “One of XXXshires leading universities”
Why a clear position?
• If your position isn’t clear it won’t have
impact in a world full of overcommunication
• Strategic Communications communicating a clear position or
message
Old Elite
Non-Elite
Old Elite
Non-Elite
Britain’s Top 20 Universities
Bath
Bristol
Cambridge
Durham
Edinburgh
Exeter
Glasgow
Imperial College
King's College London
Leicester
LSE
Loughborough
Nottingham
Oxford
Sheffield
Southampton
St Andrews
UCL
Warwick
York
Those that meet State School Benchmark
Bath
Bristol
Cambridge
Durham
Edinburgh
Exeter
Glasgow
Imperial College
King's College London
Leicester
LSE
Loughborough
Nottingham
Oxford
Sheffield
Southampton
St Andrews
UCL
Warwick
York
And their Benchmark for Recruitment
from Bath
Lower Socio-economic
Groups
LSE
Bristol
Cambridge
Durham
Edinburgh
Exeter
Glasgow
Imperial College
King's College London
Leicester
Loughborough
Nottingham
Oxford
Sheffield
Southampton
St Andrews
UCL
Warwick
York
In Conclusion…
• The strategic challenge for HEIs is to
develop a clear and distinct position
• This can’t be divorced from reality
• The richness of information in the staff,
financial and especially student record is
critical