Marketing Activities Of Holmes Institute For Maintaining Its Position In The Competitive Australian Educational Market

Brief Description about the Organization

With the increasing competition, every organization is looking to increase their marketing activities for achieving continues success in the market. Appropriate use of marketing activities provides businesses the opportunity to communicate all the required information to the potential customers (Chan et al., 2012). As a result, it allows people to understand the kind of benefits they will receive at the time of purchasing any products or service. Now, technological advancement has provided different tools and options for the businesses to formulate effective marketing campaign for fulfilling all the business objectives. Now, in order to create maximum impact through the utilization of different marketing tools and techniques, businesses will have to understand the needs and wants of the customers. It will also have to understand the kind of competition a particular business will have to face in global market. Effective evaluation of these factors will provide an idea to the businesses regarding the best way to utilize market tools and techniques for maximizing the impact on the market.

In this study, the focus will be on one of the premium educational institute in Australian market. Like any other sectors, educational sector also have gone through significant amount of changes over the past few decades. With time, the number of international students visiting Australia for the completion of higher education has increased rapidly. It also induced several other institutes to merge in the Australian market. Therefore, Australian educational sector has become extremely competitive, which increased the significance of using effective marketing tools and technique for maintaining popularity in the market. In this study, the focus will be on marketing activities of Holmes Institute for maintaining its position in Australian market.     

Holmes Institute is an extremely popular higher educational service provider in Australia. The focus institute was established in 1963 as one of the premium commercial college in Australian market. It highlights the fact that Holmes Institute is present in the Australian educational sector for more than 50 years (holmes.edu.au, 2017). The institute is present in 6 different locations in Australia including Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Gold Coast, Hong Kong and Cairns. Holmes Institute provides VET level courses in Diploma of IT and Software development, Diploma of Management, Diploma of accounting, Diploma of hospitality and many others. The mission statement of Holmes Institute focuses on achieving greater acceptance and higher visibility by the students and educational community.

On the other hand, vision statement of Holmes Institute focuses on providing higher professional and academic standards in the accomplishment of becoming the premier educational institutes in Australian market.  For that reason, Holmes Institute has focused on utilizing different promotional tools and techniques in order to reach to its potential customers or people. Holmes Institute has developed major orientation with the digital and social media platforms for accomplishing all the goals and objectives (Lindgreen et al., 2012). Effective utilization of social media and digital platform has allowed Holmes Institute to reach every section in the Australian market. Moreover, social media promotions have provided enough opportunity for the Holmes Institute to increase popularity among the potential international students as well.  

5C analysis for Holmes Institute

As illustrated by Barile et al. (2012), in order to satisfy the needs of the customers, organizations will have to understand the internal and external situation of the market in an effective way. 5C analysis provides a useful framework that can investigate both internal and external factors of business in an effective manner. The 5C analysis for Holmes Institute is as follows:

Company:

Holmes Institute is present in the Australian market for more than 50 years, which has helped in the creation of strong brand name. Moreover, Holmes Institute provides variety of courses including IT, accounting, management, fashion, science and many others. Therefore, it has allowed Holmes Institute to target entire student market for emerging as the biggest institution across the world (Jolibert et al., 2012). Holmes Institute use different advance educational technologies for the students for enriching the knowledge of the students comprehensively.

Customers:

As mentioned earlier, Holmes Institute provides educational service for all the students in Australian market. Moreover, the institute is also extremely popular among the foreign students, as it has achieved continues growth in the international student admission every year (Chernev,  2014). Presence of six different locations has allowed Holmes Institute to capture student from all across the Australian educational market.

Collaborators:

Holmes Institute started their business as traditional educational service providers. However, it has diversified its products and offerings with time. For instance, Holmes Institute has collaborated with Zhengzhou Railway Vocational and Technical College, Qingdao University, JMC Music Academy and University of Worcester for providing effective English language training to the students and professionals (Miquel-Romero, Caplliure-Giner & Adame-Sánchez, 2014). It has also developed several departments for providing knowledge to the students as per employer demand.

Competitors:

Over the years, Australian educational sector has become extremely competitive with the inclusion of new educational institutes. For that reason, Holmes Institute also has to face extreme competition from the institutes like AGSM, Melbourne Business School, Macquarie Graduate School and others for maintaining position in the market (Meffert, 2013). In addition, different popular universities are also focusing on developing new educational branches in every parts of Australia, which is likely to increase the competition level even further.

Context:

Over the years, educational sector have gone through immense changes in their operational procedure. For instance, modern educational structure is using different advance technologies on regular basis. It has also induced Holmes Institute to use advance technologies for remain competitive in the market. Moreover, Holmes Institute also have focused on maintaining different legislative restrictions like privacy for avoiding any unnecessary challenges in the business process.

Figure 1: 5C analysis

In order to capture relevant information about the internal and external business situation, Holmes Institute has focused on utilizing market research technique. As per the article by Mudie and Pirrie (2012), appropriate use of market research procedures can allow any business to capture relevant information about the market situation. Now, proper evaluation of customer wants is necessary for providing appropriate products and service. It has been assessed that student’s preference of a particular specialization changes with time. Therefore, Holmes Institute also has to increase or decrease the capacity of specific educational program as per the needs of the market. For that reason, it is critical for Holmes Institute to conduct market survey among the domestic and international students regarding the kind of educational facilities they are looking at the time of taking admission for higher educational courses.

Process of Collecting Information about 5C

On the other hand, market research is also an extremely popular technique to investigate the type of marketing and business strategies competitors are using for enhancing the popularity in the market. It will help Holmes Institute to develop effective counter strategies for maintaining the popularity in Australian market. As stated by Liu, S., Kasturiratne and Moizer (2012) effective use of market research technique provides an idea to the businesses regarding the major threat of competitors. For that reason, Holmes Institute has focused on analyzing the yearly growth report of different competitors in an effective manner. It will help Holmes Institute to take some necessary steps for avoiding any market related threats in an effective way. Moreover, market research will provide an idea the way educational sector in Australia is changing. It has been assessed that different advanced technologies have been introduced in educational sector over the past few years. Therefore, it has induced Holmes Institute to change the educational services are provided to the students for encouraging more international and domestic students from the market. Moreover, Australian government also loosens legislative regulations for the inclusion of international students (Ibidunni, 2013). As a result, it is providing more opportunity to Holmes Institute to emerge itself as the most popular educational service providers in Australia. It addition, Holmes Institute also has measured the amount of impact business collaboration with other universities have made on the popularity level. It has evaluated the significance of business collaboration for reaching to maximum potential customers regularly. Therefore, it has helped Holmes Institute to achieve continues success in the market.

As described by Lee and Carter (2012) marketing strategy is key for achieving continues success in the market. Appropriate use of marketing strategies allows businesses to differentiate its product in the market. Therefore, it directly creates positive impact on the revenue level of the organization. However, utilization of appropriate marketing strategy depends on different factors including choice of target markets, value proposition for the target market and positioning of the target market. The evaluation of these factors for Holmes Institute is provided as follows:

Choice of target markets:

Selection of appropriate target market is critical for maximizing the impact through the marketing strategies. Now, Holmes Institute has consciously focused on keeping the price level for educational facilities low compared to other institutions. As a result, it has allowed Holmes Institute the opportunity to target entire Australian student market that is looking for suitable higher educational institute for completing study (Sheth & Sisodia, 2015). Moreover, Holmes Institute also provides variety of educational degree along with different part time courses. It has helped the organization to target students from all across the country. Moreover, healthy educational culture and low fees structure has allowed Holmes Institute to expand their popularity outside the Australian market as well. Specifically, Holmes Institute has become extremely popular in different Asian countries like India, Bangladesh, etc. For that reason, Holmes Institute has selected both domestic and international market for enhancing their popularity level even further.

Value proposition for the target markets:

Marketing Strategies for Holmes Institute

As illustrated by Hutt and Speh (2012) value proposition is a marketing or business statement that companies use to summarize the reason for customers to purchase a product. Effective utilization of value proposition statement can convince potential customers those products offerings of the company are capable of fulfilling all the needs and wants in an effective manner. Now, the value proposition statement of Holmes Institute has focused on listing the reason for why students should select this institute for completing higher educational degrees. For that reason, the value proposition statement of Holmes Institute has highlighted the presence in different parts of Australian market. Therefore, it will convenient for all the domestic students to complete their higher educational study in an effective way. Secondly, it has highlighted the variety of courses they provide with the help of highly qualified professors so that student can become ready for professional careers. Thirdly, Holmes Institute has highlighted its healthy educational environment for both domestic and international students along with low cost structure. It has allowed Holmes Institute to achieve continues success in the market.

Positioning statement for target markets:

The positioning statement of Holmes Institute focuses on creating separate market share in Australia. For that reason, Holmes Institute has tried to highlight its 50 years experience in Australian market successfully. It has also highlighted the number of students have successfully developed professional careers after the completion of higher studies from the institute (Hutt & Speh, 2012). Moreover, the degree provided by the Holmes Institute is acceptable in all across the geographical region. Therefore, it has provided opportunities for the student to go to different countries for developing strong professional career. Moreover, Holmes Institute have included different advance technologies like Wi-Fi, live teaching through different video calling portals by the best professors across the globe. It has also focused on providing suitable environment for both domestic and international students so that they can able to complete their higher education effectively. For that reason, Holmes Institute has able to position itself uniquely in Australian market, which has definitely increased the popularity of the organization.  

Holmes Institute will have to focus on developing effective marketing tactics for countering different future challenges in an effective way. As per the article by Mullins, Walker and Boyd Jr (2012) appropriate use of marketing mix is the best possible way to capture major share of the potential market. The marketing mix strategy for Holmes Institute is provided as follows:

Product:

Holmes Institute will have to focus on increasing the number of courses for reaching to more potential students in an effective way. For instance, Holmes Institute can focus on developing courses of educating different foreign languages. It can also focus on providing musical, editing and acting degrees to the student, which will definitely create positive impact on the business perspective (Wilson & Gilligan, 2012). In addition, Holmes Institute can also focus on increasing the number of seats for each courses in order to provide more opportunities to the students for completing their higher education from the this institution.

Price:

Holmes Institute has focused on utilizing economic pricing structure for reaching to maximum number of customers on regular basis. However, it will also have to focus on providing some additional facilities to the needy students so that they can able to complete higher educational without facing any difficulties (Barile et al., 2012). For instance, Holmes Institute can focus on providing percentage off or stipends for the poor students, which is likely to increase the popularity of the institution even further.  

Place:

According to Lindgreen et al. (2012) place is another key factor that can have major impact on the overall business procedure. Now, Holmes Institute has already established its presence in 6 different locations. Still, it will have to target other areas or states for increasing their present number of location in order to ensure the provided educational facilities of Holmes Institute reached to all potential customers in an effective way.

Promotion:

According to Hollensen (2015), effective utilization of promotional tools and techniques can increase the trust and believe of the potential customers in a significant manner. Now, Holmes Institute will also have to focus on utilizing different marketing tools and techniques for enhancing their popularity in the market. For instance, Holmes Institute will have to use different digital platforms like trusted portals and websites for providing required level of information to the customers. It will also have to use direct promotional techniques to encourage students to select Holmes Institute for completing higher educational studies in an effective manner.

Figure 2: Marketing mix

Conclusion: 

The above illustration emphasizes the fact that appropriate use of marketing strategy is extremely important for maximizing the profit in the targeted market. Effective use marketing strategies and tactics help businesses to identify different changes in the needs and wants of the market. For that reason, it allows businesses the opportunity to develop effective counter strategies for achieving continues growth in the target market. The study has highlighted that appropriate evaluation of the market has allowed Holmes Institute to increase the popularity in Australian market effectively. Moreover, it has also helped the organization to deal with increasing rate of competition, which will ensure future success of Holmes Institute.

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