Advertising campaign competitive review on University of London
Competitor review
Knowledge and its application has become an imperative aspect in many societies hence the formation of institutes of learning to offer this vital service or services to many enthusiastic learners. On the other hand, many business entrepreneurs have used this aspect to ensure there is mutual interest in regard all stakeholders involved i.e. to make substantial profits and offer quality education to the stakeholders. In fact, Universities in the United Kingdom, for instance have been undergoing several changes improve how they market themselves as a service provider and business within their target market (Hyde, 2013).
Some of the universities that this paper will review in regard to their competitive marketing/ promotional strategies are University of London against, University of Cambridge, Oxford, Portsmouth, University of Ulster, London School of Economic and Durham. All of these universities have high entry standards, student satisfaction, research assessments and overall graduate prospects (The Complete University Guide, 2013).
In order to increase the customer or clientele base i.e. the students the University of London has resort to compete for target market by using digital marketing in order to deliver customer engagement. In fact the development of web based know-how have enable UoL to easily engage with the customer through the use of website, which is a similar marketing strategy employed by the other Universities in order to woo more customers to become their affiliates.
Partnership strategies have been used by UoL to promote itself as an institute that aptly keeps it customer loyalty through use of digital advertisement (UOL.2013). This is evident from the student exchange program, it offers for foreign students hence attracting the possibility of retaining affiliation to it service providence. The University of Durham, has also resorted to developing its student exchange program by advertising it on its website (University of Durham, 2013)
Many of the Universities such as the University of Portsmouth have developed a promotional and marketing strategy that involves strengthening their recruitment procedure, evaluation of its media coverage in regard to the University’s reputation, and assessing it overall performance through qualitative research (University of Portsmouth, 2013). While aim to increase its market awareness through targeting the market by using Ulster’s portfolio programs and engaging the internal stakeholders such as students in developing better, future portfolio of the students services (University of Ulster, 2013). These approaches tend to close the gap of intellectual development and marketing of the universities to UoL.
During my research all these Universities lacked a proper counseling and supporting services tailor made for International student (UOL.2013). This is a unique selling point for UoL . But is must also focus on developing highest standards in education which it lags behind as compared to its competitors.
Building clientele relationship by the service providers has been an important strategy of UoL, and as a result many other universities are opting to build up: open day for visitors (potential clients), improve, and examining government policy amendments in regard to the various target markets such as the Immigrants who access UK institutes for edification purposes.
On the other hand, personalizing education on a mass media level for University of London has affected the buyer or the clientele in regard to closing the gap between the poor and the rich who are able to afford education in these institutes. In order, to improve on this aspect and compete with UoL the University of Ulster has opted to use digital marketing plan to offer its advice and guidance in regard how to their faculties spend and also offer its annual budget expenditures (LSE, 2013). The University Of Oxford offers students funding – a strategy that seems to ease the seclusion of the poor students (University of Oxford,2013). Therefore this creates a competitive and promotional strategic platform for universities to cater for the three types of buyers: the quality buyer, value buyer and economic buyer. The quality buyer looks for the highest quality service and is willing and able to pay for it while the value buyer expects value for his/her money. The economic buyer looks at the cost of the service and is willing to compromise the quality of the service as long as it meets their budget (Lewison and Hawes (2007).
The decision to make the purchase is influenced by several parties. These include personal relationships characterized by family members and peers; faculty relationships characterized by connections with faculty members within and outside of the student’s major and extra-curricular experiences such as internships (Walmsley, et al., 2010). All these work together to help the student make the final decision of the university they want to go to and the course to follow. The student is the final decision-maker.
For instance, in the international marketing campaign the University of Cambridge has regarded to use digital marketing to increase it clientele base by employing global campaigns of change such as the use of environment approach to promotes eco-balance, by using solar panels to generates it energy among others (University of Cambridge, 2013).
All the University of Cambridge, Oxford, Portsmouth, University of Ulster, London School of Economic and Durbam have unique marketing mixes, which comprise of competitive prices for courses, use the digital marketing to attract customer and assess their performance, and offer platforms for employment which are easy and faster application.
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