Marketing Management Assignment: Australian National University Vs. University of Melbourne
Question
Task: For this marketing management assignment, you need to provide a report that compares the marketing of two Australian universities.
Your report must contain the following sections:
Section 1: Overview of the two universities
Provide profiles of the two universities, including the scope of their operations and your assessment of their overall approach to marketing.
Section 2: Customer segmentation and market targeting (~ 300 words) Identify the targeting strategy used by each university.
Describe the market segment(s) targeted by the universities.
Evaluate the sustainability of the market segment(s) targeted.
Section 3: Differentiation and positioning
Identify the point(s) of differentiation the two universities have that contribute to competitive advantage and relate that/them to value for the target customers.
Develop a clear positioning statement for each university.
Comment on the similarities and differences between the two universities.
Section 4: Market offerings
Describe the core customer value, actual product and augment products of each university’s market offering.
Discuss how the market offerings create value for the market segment(s) targeted by each university and fulfils its value proposition. Comment on the similarities and differences between the two universities.
Section 5: Pricing
Describe the factors that contribute to the price floor and price ceiling for each university, and how those all influence the price charged.
Identify the pricing strategies that each university appears to use.
Comment on the similarities and differences between the two universities.
Section 6: Promotional mix
Discuss the promotional mix for each company and show how each university uses the promotional mix to communicate value to their target market(s).
Discuss how each university uses its strategic marketing choices and their marketing tactics to engage their (potential and actual) customers and manage their customer relationships.
Comment on the similarities and differences between the two universities.
Section 7: Place or distribution
Discuss the importance of this element to each university.
Discuss how each university uses this element to create value for their target markets.
Comment on the similarities and differences between the two universities.
Answer
Introduction
The concept of marketing management considered in the marketing management assignment is one of the key areas of the current marketplace and it is not only restricted to the product of goods marketing rather it has also been seen in the educational sector. Australian National University (ANU) and the University of Melbourne are one of the biggest educational platforms in Australia as well as to the global market. The study will highlight the difference in their marketing approach in front of the students.
Overview of the Universities
Australian National University (ANU) is one of the top universities across the world and also considered the top university in Australia. It works on the national level and it is located at the core of the capital city of Australia that is Canberra. It is a public university, empowered by the government of Australia, and established 74 years ago that is in the year of 1946. The university is composed of seven teaching and research colleges in the Acton main campus whereas there are additional seven national academics and institutes across the country. According to the report of Join Australia’s #1 university(2021), the university is currently taking the place of 31st among all universities across the world. The university is famous for its operations regarding distinctive research works at the international level along with the teaching program of the university which is considered as the best at the national level.
On the other hand, the University of Melbourne is another university that has a great reach in the global market. It is also a public research university located at Melbourne City of Australia and founded at 1853 which make the university one of the oldest and successfully running university across the world. It has many campuses scattered across the country but the main campus is located at Parkville. The university is ranked 41st in the world-leading university ranking and captured third place among the universities of Australia(The University of Melbourne, Australia - Australia's best university and one of the world's finest, 2021). The university is mainly known for the cohort of research students and its prestigious global study. As the university is connected to more than 100 research centres, it became one of the leading hubs for research students across the world. Both the universities have created a useful marketing strategy by developing the audiences before making the courses.
Customer Segmentation and Market Targeting
Targeting strategies are the process by which a university has been attracting students according to their courses and facilities. It has been seen most of the universities targeted generation z candidates along with Millennials. ANU generally focuses on the students as they are considered as the life of the university. It is one of the successful targeting strategies where the university put their focus solely on the students. However, Melbourne University generally segmented the market as they generally concentrated on the research students (Ibrahim et al., 2017).
As it is known that the universities generally segmented the market according to the demographic segmentation process. ANU generally uses these processes as they have targeted students who are in their early age of higher study along with the research facility. The demographic process is a highly used process for the ANU. On the other hand, Melbourne University used the needs-based and behavioral segmentation type as the university is the oldest one and it focuses on the people who are really dedicated to their research work and also put a firm focus on career growth(Ghodousi et al., 2021). Both the strategies are sustainable for their approaches towards the teaching process.
Both the universities are top positioning candidates in the educational industry of Australia. However, it has been seen that both the university is focusing on the development of the students through the providence of the higher educations. Although, ANU has ranked upper level according to the score of QS's global academic reputation survey, both the universities are equally respected by the students. The main difference between the universities lies in the number of student engagement in the universities. It has been seen that Melbourne University is doubled in figure rather than ANU. Moreover, the engagement of the international students is also high for Melbourne University.
Differentiation and Positioning
Both the university is well-established and popular among the country students along with international students. However, it has been seen that both the universities have created a significant mark on their different teaching approaches. ANU is a high ranking university (31st) whereas the University of Melbourne is 41st in the global university ranking. It has been seen that ANU has captured the 417th rank in the faculty-student ratio whereas the other one placed 587th place. One of the major significant areas that separate the universities among the students is academic reputation. Generally, ANU is famous for its arts, humanities and natural science section where they have captured the 16th and 33rd place across the world. On the other hand, the University of Melbourne has created reputations in the science section as their life science, medicine, engineering and technology as well as social science has created more values on the target market. It has been seen that in most cases, the ranking is higher for ANU though the University of Melbourne has more student engagement. The differentiation between the student and teacher engagement has created more values for ANU as they are concentrated on the restricted amount of quality students.
ANU is a university where the main focus lies on the quality study and gen z and millennials student category. The university is famous for its high achievements in the arts and humanitarian section and it has been seen that those candidates who are intended to build their career in higher education generally prefer the university. Apart from that, the university is also known for its philosophical section and study techniques as students of philosophy from the different section of the world came to the University for Further Study (Woodgate et al., 2017).
On the contrary, the University of Melbourne is generally known for its old age success and practical study process. The university has gained a reputation in the science and technology section as their engineering section is well-cherished by the world. The university is mainly accepted by those students who want their career growth through jobs and generally the university engaged in the gen z candidates. It has been seen that both the universities are sharing equal reputation in the economics section however; they highly differed in the business and management subjects (Canty et al., 2019).
Market Offering
To measure the values of the universities among the students it has been seen that ANU has taken one place ahead of the University of Melbourne. Both the university is engaging in different subject however, the universities are famous for their different subject expertise. The ANU generally offers a quality education as they are engaged in higher education and sustainability. It has been seen that the university is famous for its arts and humanitarian section and it is also noted that the students of arts generally aim for higher education’s including master and doctorates. ANU also offers a firm course on a philosophy where the students are generally spending more time with the subject. For these aspects, the university has targeted gen z as well as millennials as per their demographic segmentation type and it has been seen that these offerings are well gone with these students as they are spending more time on education(Kent, 2017).
On the other hand, the University of Melbourne is concentrated on practical education with rapid growth and success. The university generally acquires the reputation through the providence of the courses of science and technology. It has been seen that these study areas are capable of providing career growth along with rapid success in the job section (Batterbury and Toscano, 2018). Moreover, the university is popular for its business and management section and it has created popularity among entrepreneurs. The university generally segmented the market according to the behavioral and needs-based segment and these subjects are gone well for these kinds of students. For that reason, the engagement of the students is high in this university as most of the students in the recent age wants to be settled at an early age.
Pricing
Price ceiling and price floor define as the maximum and minimum of the price that the university can impose for their courses towards the students. There is not static for every university however, these approaches are made for protecting the buyer-supplier relation during difficult economic times. It has been seen that when the price ceiling remains below the price equilibrium, the demand will be high but the supply decreases. The opposite phenomena have happened in the case of the price floor approach. It has been seen that ANU has taken a price range equal for both national and international students where the price floor represent 24,620 US dollars and the price ceiling is 32,718 US dollars. This particular step has been taken for bringing equilibrium in the providence of the quality study. This annual pricing is varied according to the course and economic status (Krasheninnikova et al., 2019).
However, The University of Melbourne has different pricing genera for national and international along with undergraduate and graduate students. The undergraduate students are charged with the price range of 4,537 to 7,573 US dollars where the international undergraduate ranges from 20,443 to 64,935. This huge difference of prices has been implemented due to the course work as most of the section that the university covers are science and it is costlier than the arts section (Xiong et al., 2021).
ANU generally follows the economy pricing where they follow the government price floor and price ceiling figure for entire courses but in the case of the University of Melbourne, the university follows the market-based tuition pricing strategy where the pricing dimension changes according to the requirements of the courses. This pricing strategy is well structured for the various students and also supports the university to deliver strategic decision-making.
Promotional Mix
The promotional mix is a process by which a university has captured the student's attention towards their courses. Generally, there are five elements of the promotional mix process which are advertising, PR, promotions, direct marketing, and personal selling. It has been seen that all the elements are being used by both the universities. As the marketing approach is different from the universities, it has been seen that the promotional mix is also divergent for the universities. As ANU is concentrated on the fewer students with quality approaches, the university is mainly following the web advertisement and promotions through the campaign. Here the main approach of the university is to engage the students in their promotional events and those students who are registered with the university have been provided with an email where the details of the courses have been discussed (Atmadi, 2021). In this approach, the university can build more public relationship with a personal approach and increased personal selling which not only builds the reputation of the university but also creates more quality in the student engagement. On the contrary, the University of Melbourne has concentrated on the newest approach of advertisement where they are engaged in social media marketing for generating more reach to the international market along with the national candidates. Apart from that, the sales promotion technique has been used by the university where the details of the courses have been given to their university websites so that different aspirants can get the knowledge of the course with ease. It is further helpful for the needs-based candidates as it is an easily reachable process.
ANU generally focused on the relationship marketing tactics where the university is engaged in the personal selling approach and relationship-building approach. As the university is targeted a diverse range of age group students and higher education in the arts section, it is important for the university to build a sound relationship with the student. The main reason for taking such an approach is to develop a sustainable learning environment along with the satisfaction level of the students. This approach has been practiced through the implication of the static pricing structure for the different courses for all kinds of students (Manafe, 2018). It has helped in building a firm relationship with the existing student and also helps the university to engage a more dynamic segmentation process so that the entire engagement of the student can be grown. On the contrary, the University of Melbourne has accepted the diversity marketing paradigm where the main aim of the marketing strategy is to connect with the different individuals with the building of communication level. As this university is engaging with international students also with undergraduate and graduate programs, this kind of market is well established with the university. It has helped the students to engage in the different format of the study resulting growth of the cultural practices. It also helps the university to become more popular not only the needs-based students but also attracts more aged students to do higher studies.
Place or Distribution
Australian National University (ANU) is situated in Canberra which is the governmental capital of Australia. It is geographically smaller in size and calmer in nature which is considered as one of the ideal areas to practice quality learning. The location is highly versatile in nature where nature itself created some beauty on its own. It has been seen that the geographical land is inland in nature where it is surrounded by mountains, bushes and hills. This kind of geographical beauty along with calmness attracts most of the dedicated student of different ages as the gen z students enjoys the study with scenic beauty and millennials have found the area more attractive for the study purposes. The university has used this scenic beauty as an additional approach of advertisement to attract more students. As most of the students of the target market engaged in the higher study this kind of areas are taken as a most primitive consideration for them (Bignell et al., 2020).
On the other hand, the University of Melbourne is situated as the core of Melbourne city which is considered the cultural capital of Australia. This place itself promotes the diverse market approach for the university as this city is the residency of different cultural people. The city is larger than the previous one and has created a busy atmosphere due to the construction of the different organization. As the targeted students of the university are generally needs-based students, they can easily correlate with the atmosphere as after getting a degree, this place also created more career opportunities for them. The students who want a job after graduation generally choose this university due to the additional offers that the city provides (Owen et al., 2017).
Conclusion
From the above comparison, it can be stated that though Melbourne University has created more impact among the national and international students, the ANU has created more popularity due to their affordable pricing strategy along with the established location. It has been seen that ANU generally famous for its art department whereas the University of Melbourne is created a reputation for its science and technology section.
Reference List
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