Abstract

The purpose of this report was to critically discuss the importance and application of STP

strategies and marketing tactics based on the traditional STP strategies to advice the

University of Derby (UoD) on how to position itself. The proposals for the marketing

strategy to be followed by UoD were based on the customer profiles previously prepared

for the infographic/collage. This report also includes brief personal reflection explaining

the personal and professional journey performed during this task.

Table of Contents

Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... 1

Introduction.................................................................................................................................... 3

Market Selection Tactics ............................................................................................................. 3

Mass Marketing......................................................................................................................... 3

Targeting Strategy .................................................................................................................... 4

Selection of Strategy.................................................................................................................... 5

Educational Consumer Market and Mass Marketing .......................................................... 6

Targeting the Educational Consumer Market ...................................................................... 6

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 9

Reflective Report ........................................................................................................................ 11

References .................................................................................................................................. 13

Introduction

Marketing professionals often manipulates the consumers with respect to their culture,

and individual identity is seen as something given by the group, rather than being created

by the individual for himself. This approach is consistent with the philosophy that

dominated the marketing of the twentieth century where marketers tried to understand

how the consumption patterns of people imitate and reproduce social and collective

structures.

Today, the consumers are involved in the creation of a variety of lifestyles, as well as

numerous power discourse activities. There are many factors, such as national culture,

demography, class or education, that affect people much less than before. Instead,

people are much more free to decided for their personality and lifestyle to follow, and also

express it in the choice of consumption. For this reason, most marketing specialists are

often not sure if a traditional marketing strategy and positioning based on segmentation,

targeting and positioning (STP) are valid in the current market scenario.

Market Selection Tactics

Different marketing plans are being followed by universities to attract the potential

students. The first step in this process is defining the target market (Miller et al. 1990;

Pappas & Shaink, 1994). It depends on how any university select or ignores the different

profiles of the potential students. If the differences are ignored, then it is following mass

marketing approach. Understanding and identifying the differences helps many

institutions develop their marketing strategies.

Mass Marketing

In the past, the usual practice of an institution was to admit anyone who comes forward

for admission. They lacked the understanding about different student segments and

believed there were not enough differences in the consumer profiles (Lewison & Hewes,

2007).

Mass market approach aims to attract everyone out there with single marketing strategy.

This strategy sees market as one single unit with similar needs instead of identifying

different subsets. In this approach, mass communication is done only to provide

information and works on the notion of “one-size-hopefully-kind-of-fits-all” strategy e.g

coca cola.

Whereas, undifferentiated marketing approach follows single product for the whole

market. For instance, any university that uses this approach will be offering general

subjects which serves anyone in the mass market. While in the differentiated marketing

approach, the firm tries to differentiate itself from its competitors based on its product

offerings and use these characteristics to promote its products. This strategy offers

artificial diversity and contributes to the superficial advantages, instead of making real

calls according to the needs of the different segments of the market (Glanert, 2012).

Targeting Strategy

The targeted marketing requires concentrating on one or more selected segments of the

market and developing separate marketing strategies for each segment. There are

varying responses of different segments for the educational services. This depends on

the market segments that are to be targeted and which method to be used including

differentiated, concentrated or orchestrated marketing approach (Cavanagh 2002;

Rindfeish, 2003; Selingo, 1999; Thomas, 2004):

In differentiated marketing approach, two or more segments are selected to work in. The

institute may select scattered target markets and go for selected differentiation or it may

target every market segment by using complete differentiation, whatever the case may

be, distinct marketing strategy will be required for every segment selected.

Concentrated marketing requires high degree of focus. It can either be exclusive or

integrative in nature. Exclusive concentrated strategy involves dominating the single

segment of the market through total

penetration. Whereas Integrative

concentrated approach involves expansion

of single segment to capture similar

segments. Implementation of this strategy

requires knowledge of market and

experience gained from serving in original

segment for successful expansion.

Orchestrated marketing strategy involves

selective marketing to meet the similar

needs of segments with characteristics or

behavioral need that is different in other

groups otherwise. It can either be vertical or

horizontal. The similarities in needs serves

as the basis to develop a distinctive but collective marketing program, suitable for the

collection of segments. This approach is a middle option between differentiated and

concentrated strategies.

Selection of Strategy

Like any other organization, universities also face problems when designing their

marketing efforts. On the one hand, it can obtain efficiency of operating costs by offering

of a single and undifferentiated services. On the other hand, when the market is not

uniform (and, as is usually the case), and the higher costs arise from offering exclusive

products aimed at the unique needs of the different segments, brings great satisfaction

and improves the success of students in the market. Therefore, it is advice to choose a

strategy that meets the needs of its students and works effectively in a balanced manner

(Lewison & Hewes, 2007).

Educational Consumer Market and Mass Marketing

Mass marketing offers the university cost advantages in distribution and promotion of its

services. Though, this strategy is very vulnerable in competitive scenario where other

educational institutions use mixed or other strategies to the target market. This is also

likely to result in a slightly lower average level of satisfaction for the recipients of the

service. Given the diversity and intricacy of the market segments catered by universities

along with the increasing involvedness of students, the ripeness of the product life cycle,

which increases the accountability requirements of the students interested and the cut

throat competition in the market, an undifferentiated mass marketing strategy has a very

limited scope.

On the contrary, Product differentiation offers some potential. If it were possible to

develop a unique commercial proposal that clearly defined the full spectrum of

educational services of the university then it would be possible to obtain important

operational advantages. For this, the university can categorize some common themes

that can be used to determine competitive edge.

Targeting the Educational Consumer Market

In recent years, when competition among universities increased and resource restrictions

become more concentrated, it has become more important to meet the specific needs of

the students (Coccari & Javalgi 1995; Lewison & Hewes, 2007).

The targeting strategy includes the process of market segmentation and provides

important opportunities for success in the higher education market (Klein et al., 2001).

There are large number of universities using this approach. To divide this market into

common subset, different dimensions can be taken into account. Demographics has

conventionally been basis of segmentation, especially the geographical, as well as

psychographic factors and other methods to classify varying needs of groups also help in

the strategy development. As universities study these options, they should bear in mind

that all market segments should be evaluated in terms of accessibility, materiality and

applicability (Kotler 1982 in Lewison & Hewes, 2007).

The segmentation based on the customer behaviors involving what motivates them can

include two kind of dimensions; the benefits required by the consumers and their

motivation for its consumption (Miller & Rose 1994). The figure 2 represents motivation /

benefit matrix of students for

many universities (Lewison &

Hewes, 2007). They are

three type of buyers centered

on their benefit requirements

(bhatnagar & Ghose; 2003):

Quality buyer: these buyers

wants high quality services

and they are not concerned

about the high prices as they

are willing to pay higher for

the superior quality products

or services.

Value buyer: this type of buyer includes the good valued products or services with slightly

higher prices for that quality. Such buyers / students wants to have valued products or

services against the money they spend and expect that the quality matches the level of

prices charged.

Economy buyer: This buyer / student, in the first place, is interested in minimizing the

funds involved and acquisition costs and, as a general rule, prefers the least expensive

and easily accessible product or services. He or she is a consumer who wants to accept

the borderline quality, if the price is right, and it is convenient to acquire it.

Type of buyers / consumers can be matched with the motivational factors that influences

the behavior of these consumers in the educational marketing context. In this regard there

are four type of learners presented in the horizontal axis of Figure 2 (Lewison & Hewes,

2007):

Career learner

This type of consumer is a consumer or student who primarily get motivated to obtain

career oriented educational services from the institution. This type of consumer look for

specific degree and skills set that will increase his chances to get a prominent or

successful job in the market and there are chances of promotion and that job offers social

security as well. They also seek to have the type of job or career that will be satisfying for

them and offers social class advancement in the long run.

Socio-improvement learner

The consumer in this segment is motivated to seek the higher educational services to

improve their knowledge about various things by broadening their horizons so that they

can realize their own potential, improve their game to achieve their goals successfully.

This type of students or consumers are motivated by the need of self-actualization.

Leisure-learner

The main reason for receiving educational services by this type of consumer or student

is to get recreational and / or recreational value provided by the educational service

providers or universities. This type of consumer wants the type of education that offer a

pleasant learning experience, allow them to escape from routine matters, provides

chances of socialization, improve the quality of life, improve their knowledge on various

topics of interest and contribute to mental well-being in general.

Ambivalent learner

The consumer or student who falls in this category are get motivated to seek higher

education by number of factor therefore it is unknown or unclear that what triggers them

the most. The purpose for seeking the university educational services of this type of

consumer is to satisfy another people (possibly parents), recognize their personal

interests, obtain instructions or avoid other situations in life that may come forward if they

are not seeking education.

Conclusion

The purpose of this study was to briefly analyze various traditional segmentation,

targeting and positioning strategies that may be used by the University of Derby to reach

their current or potential customers. The student profiles were also discussed in this paper

to understand the needs of consumers in order to devise the right marketing strategy.

The future of university marketing strategy depends on multi-channel marketing through

more creative and analytical approaches. The universities need to define their markets

well and profile their consumers carefully to develop the marketing tactics to directly

interact with the students. In order to attract and retain the students, it is important for the

universities to offer unique value proposition or offer customized or personalized offers

tailored to the student needs so that they understand the individual or group needs of

their current or potential students.

The well-executed marketing program depends on the well-defined segmentation

strategy. There are now diverse markets of undergraduate and graduate students that

are continuously increasing. The student’s demographical, psycho-graphical and

behavioral features diversity has led to the “age of individualism” in which the students

are treated as individuals in the educational markets and this idea has become market

trend due to the advancement of technology, globalization and more options to socialize

as well as sense of entitlement. It is therefore important to carefully develop the marketing

strategies based on the customer segments.

The clear market definition and the strategy has become more important in developing

economy based on the knowledge that defines the higher education sector. The intangible

and delicate nature of a typical university courses requires to have clear target market

and an effective strategy to achieve it. The proposed strategies included many well-

proven ideas and practices. These processes will allow marketing professionals in the

university to consider alternative ways of defining target markets and choosing strategies

to cover that market.

It is important for the university to carefully define the markets in which it wants to operate.

This requires market sense and linking customers to the programs it offers. The sense of

markets will allow the university to understand the changes in the student behavior and

what kind of opportunities they seek after these changes in the market environment. The

customer linkage fosters close relationship with the current students and their retention

over a longer period of time as well as collaboration with the prospective students. This

relationship lets the university know what kind of needs its students have and what are

their preferences. For this purpose, the relationship marketing approach is best suited to

the universities or higher education institutions.

As higher education becomes more competitive, and the students are more selective and

versatile, the universities are forced to apply strategic marketing which is based on market

segmentation, target market definition and positioning. Segmentation of the market

makes it possible to differentiate between different target groups. The definition of target

groups enables the university to formulate a targeted marketing strategy, formulate

content of services offered and the choice of academic staff and optimize resource

allocation to achieve and provide services. This process of higher education is a complex

phenomenon that requires a consistent and rapid preparation in various steps, ensuring

the achievement of market goals, satisfaction and feedback from students. Because such

marketing is based on cooperation and trust, it undoubtedly contributes to the quality of

education and research, the implementation of the institution's goals and the

modernization of the business.

Reflective Report

The task was to discuss the traditional Segmenting, Targeting and Positioning (STP)

strategies briefly and discuss the possible strategy that University of Derby may adopt in

order to market itself to its current and potential customers. For this purpose, I have visited

various websites to gather the information on the underlying subject and prepared data

bank in order to write first draft and then finalize it. I have also paid visits to the university

library and consulted books on strategic marketing and consumer behavior along with the

journal articles available on the subject task. Also in order to gain the relevant information

on task 1 and task 2, I further consulted my notes and the online sources to obtain the

information. For this purpose, I have also tried to study the marketing strategies adopted

/ followed by the other institutions / universities of same cadre.

These case studies, I found to be very interesting and understandable for the learning

point of view. The practices and strategies followed by the fellow similar organizations

throw light on how a university can position itself in the market and target different

segments effectively in order to reach the right customers at right time without wasting

the time and resources.

The other task was to relate marketing tactics that university can adopt with the profiles

of various students in relation to the customer behavior theories. For this purpose, firstly,

I briefly tried to gather all the information I could manage on consumer behavior theories

and then based on that information the marketing tactics were proposed.

Likewise, in order to obtain the real time information and insights about what student think

and expect from the university, some of the students from different faculties were

approached and interviewed to get insight about their views. The respondents or students

belonged to different cultural, social and professional backgrounds. After gathering all the

relevant information, I have analyzed the date to prepare my final report and

recommendations were made accordingly.

It has been a very fruitful experience from learning point of view. From collecting data

from journal articles to interviewing the students, this whole exercise has been proved to

be opening new horizons for me in terms of learning and conducting the research, finding

relevant data and preparing the reports. Moreover, all my previous understanding about

the topic has been renewed through this activity and most of the ambiguities I had are

now cleared.

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