La Trobe's Online Master Of Management Course Essay: Marketing Management For Self-Regulation.

Situation and competitor analysis

Discuss about the Marketing Management for Self-Regulation for Interaction.

In order to identify the relevant activities and events to target before launching a completely new product in the market, marketing plan plays a significant role. According to Martin (2012), a proper and potential marketing plan for a new product should be strategic, as it will help the marketers to stay focus while coordinating their efforts for product launching in the particular market. La Trobe University is famous for its innovation and excellence in its offered course. Only with different policy, this particular university of Australia hold one of the positions of top three in Victoria. La Trobe University offers the student of Australia to study management online with La Trobe’s Online Master of Management course. This multi-campus university offers both the postgraduate and undergraduate courses of Science, Arts, Commerce, Social Sciences, Health and Engineering. However, in order to make its positive step in the management study centre, La Trobe University offers this online course of Master of Management, which will suit the lifestyle of the targeted students.

As the online study course has become famous in today’s fast forward lifestyle, therefore, this study course is perfect to attract the new generation students. The top competitors of La Trobe University are Melbourne Business School, AGSM MBA, Monash Business School. All these mentioned business and management school is famous in Australia because of excellent study materials, business academics and international recruiters. The competitors of La Trobe University occupy the top position in the list of business management schools in Australia (Latrobe.edu.au 2016).  

According to Wang et al. (2012), the external factors are uncontrollable, still with potential process of decision making, strategies and performance, the influence of these factors can be resolved.

Political	·         The new state tax policies of Australian government for accounting have major influence on the business of La Trobe University. ·         Another problem arrives for the Online Master of Management is the political instability in the foreign partner country.
Economical	·         The constant economic growth in international level influences this course study. ·         Even the changes in the interest rates have impact on this particular course study (Swan et al. 2012).
Social	·         There is a drastic shift in the educational requirements because of the transformed career attitudes of the students. ·         The lifestyles of the students have been changed and it will influence the online course of La Trobe University.
Technological	·         The rate of innovation is high and it continuously transforms with the technological incentives. ·         There are gradual developments and innovations in the online management studies offered by various universities (van der Zanden et al. 2012). ·         The changes in information and mobile technology also influence this online course.

Table 1: PEST analysis of La Trobe’s Online Master of Management

(Source: Driscoll et al. 2012)

The mission of La Trobe’s Online Master of Management is to provide the student international quality of education with enriched study materials and to be innovative, accountable and always connected with the students. Even the management of the university recasts some of the existing goals in order to target and provide a transparent and clear concentration on the outcomes of the performance of the students. CSR of La Trobe Online Master of Management involves effective corporate actions and strategies, which are critiques and explored from various interdisciplinary perspectives in order to explore the managerial process of decision-making (Latrobe.edu.au 2016).

Macro environmental force

Resources:

There are very low requirement of Human Resource in order to continue the online management course of La Trobe University as mainly every functions are completed through online process and it is automated. The financial resources are required in large level in order to develop the official online website of the university, as the students will gather information from this. In order to provide information and  communicate with the clients, La Trobe University uses social media platform, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and blog as most of the deals are finalised thorough these particular media.

Current offerings of La Trobe Unoversity include the online course of Master of Management and it is offered with two duration, 1.5 years for cognate students and 2 years for non-cognate students. This course study is made for both the local student of Australia and the international students. This online course is perfectly suitable with the established mission of La Trobe University (Latrobe.edu.au 2016).

Target market segments:

The segmentation and positioning of a brand reveals the fact that the impression, perception and feelings of the clients. There is already a concept of management study occupied in the mind of clients, therefore, when the management of La Trobe University decides to launch Online Masters of Management course in the educational sector of Australia, they made a thorough and detailed market research on the competitor companies in online management studies in the Australian market.

Demographic	Both the middle and upper class students of Australia are targeted customers.
Behavioural	Behavioural segments involve the benefits, usage rate and status of the clients. Mainly those students, who are working, this online management course will be perfect for them (Simpson 2013).
Geographical	The students of Melbourne and Victoria are the targeted students. However, Online Master of Management is online course; therefore, international students also can apply for the particular course.
Psychographic	Those students are interested to pursue career in management posts are suited for this course. As the course is online, therefore, it is available for all time with sufficient study materials. It will be helpful for the working students of Australia.

Table 2: Segmentation of La Trobe’s Online Master of Management

(Source: Cho and Kim 2013)

As this online course can be completed from any location throughout the world, therefore, the clients are happy and satisfied with the services of La Trobe University. From the current research, it has been revealed that approximately 48% students enrol for online course in present days and it is an important information for the university. The course mainly targets 30 thousands students and among them at least 22 thousands students are expected to enrol. However, as it is an online course, therefore, there will be no loyal customers for repeating the course (Kuo et al. 2013). The success of la Trobe’s Online Master of management is measurable and substantial. Online communication process makes it easy both for the learners and the faculty to interact in short period and to fulfil the requirements with online study materials.

Competitiveness:

Although La Trobe University encounters a large level of competition in the field of online business management schools from Melbourne Business School, Monash Business School and AGSM MBS, still the profit of this particular university has not been influenced only because of incorporation of potential strategies. All these mentioned business schools fail to provide online course studies for the international students. As La Trobe University holds the third position in Australia’s business school, therefore there are hardly any scopes or possibilities of threat from future competitors.  This university this concerned university also has planning in future to offer online course for other subjects such as Arts, Commerce, Social Science and Science. Fetzner (2013) has mentioned that a large number of resources helps an organisation to hold a strong position in a particular industry. Similarly, La Trobe University possesses sufficient financial funding, good academic faculties to compete with the competitor business schools in Australia. Most of the business school in Australia merges with other schools in order to serve both the local students and the overseas. The management of La Trobe University has understood this strategy of the educational sector and has planned accordingly to meet the demand and criteria of the customers.

Resources

Moore (2013) has stated that an effective marketing objectives helps an organisation to make plan according to the planned and established strategies in order to reach the targeted goal of an organisation. The marketing objectives of La Trobe’s Online Master of Management are following:

• To increase annual sales
• To launch new online course
• To build brand awareness of the organisation
• To target new students form Australia and overseas
• To enhance the customer relationship

All these above-mentioned objectives are specific, measurable, attainable,

relevant and time span is required minimum 6 months.

Marketing mix:

Product	·         Online Master of Management
Price	·         The fee of the course is ranged in between AU$13,000- AU$20,000. ·         The course fee of La Trobe University is a bit expensive than the other available business school in Australia. ·         However, the fee is a bit high for the foreigner student and it cost approximately AU$25,000.
Place	·         The course is made for the students of both Australia and overseas.
Promotion	·         The promotion of the course will be done on social media platform such as Facebook, Twitter, Blog and official website of La Trobe University.

Table 3: Marketing Mix of La Trobe’s Online Master of Management

(Source: Meyer 2014)

The product:

The core benefit the clients expect from this course is to gain business knowledge in similar manner like the regular courses of the campuses in Australia (Dalsgaard 2014). The high quality study materials are the tangible element, the guidance, and the teaching process of the faculties, their behaviour and perceptions are intangible elements of this course. This course also offers four elective subjects as a part of it and there are facilities of alternate specialisation. Most of the students select Project Management specialisation and choose electives from Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Harry et al. (2013) have determined that as these two elements possess a strong interlink with the management studies, therefore most of the students select these electives rather than others. La Trobe University offers four starting dates of the course and the students can enrol for any of the date accordingly their demand. The mentioned dates are on 24^th October 2016, 2^nd January 2017, 27^th February 2017 and 24^th April 2017 (Latrobe.edu.au 2016). La Trobe University checks the required documentation, such as educational background, reasons for the application into this particular university, resume, evidence of the competency level of English language and experiences of the students before enrolment for Online Master of Management.

The Brand:

Name of the brand play a vital role before launching a new services or product in the market. La Trobe University is famous in Australia because of its excellent courses, facilities of modern education and academic faculties, who provide international level knowledge of business management to the students. The students of Australia, New Zealand and overseas prefer La Trobe University rather than other available business school in Australia only because of its top three position. The online management program of La Trobe University has been recently introduced, however, the students have already established faith on this brand because of its success on other subjects including Science, Commerce, Arts and Social Sciences. The motto of this university is “Whoever seeks shall find” and the mascot is a wedge-tailed eagle (Latrobe.edu.au 2016). La Trobe University enjoys the affiliation of Universities of Australia and Innovative Research Universities (IRU).

Current offerings

Wang et al. (2013) have mentioned that the marketing strategy of an organisation should not be confined within the marketing team and it should be analysed with proper alignment of high-performing business leaders, business strategies in order to take relevant and adequate decision regarding the services, brand, competition and the customers. The online management course of La Trobe University even provide MBA level training in order to help the students to understand strategic marketing as it enhances the capabilities to make proper decisions regarding the department, unit and the entire function of the organisation. This course will equip a student to evaluate the usage of basic framework to formulate a perfect market strategy in order to identify relevant business application. A student will apply the concept and idea of segmentation, targeting and positing of a service or product after the course and can employ proactive and strategic approach while taking decisions of pricing. As opined by Rubin et al. (2013), management studies also enhance the engagement of an individual with the concerned organisation and its customers.

La Trobe’s Online Master of Management helps a student to know about the overall market share of an organisation with adequate use of social media marketing. This course is effective and ideal for both the marketing managers, who require updating their knowledge and skills according to the modern demand and criteria of the customers in today’s competitive business world. After completing the course, the marketing manager will be able to make potential marketing plan for the concerned company in better manner than the previous one (Glance et al. 2013). This online management course is also ideal for the business leaders, non-marketing professional rather than students in order to enhance their marketing strategies. However, La Trobe’s Online Master of Management is initially targeted the students rather than above-mentioned individuals, who are associated with the business. Even the students, who will successfully complete this online course, will receive a postgraduate certificate from the La Trobe University.

Ni (2013) has mentioned that the landscape of digital marketing continues to increase at a rapid pace and both the marketers and the customers encounter with completely new kind of opportunities and challenges within modern digital age. As online management studies save times of the students as it provides study materials through online rather than daily attending of classes, therefore, most of the students prefer it. Simonson et al. (2014) has suggested that it also provides the students to enrol for international top universities to pursue further study.

Target market segments

Recommendations:

Although the newly introduced online management course of La Trobe University has been proved as efficient as regular classes, still it possess few flaws and drawbacks.

La Trobe University should post the entire details of the course syllabus on the official website.

The management course should be more flexible in order to offer the students a large variety of e-learning program.

La Trobe University should incorporate new alternative subjects.

Instructors and faculties of its university should be responsive all the time to the requirements of the students. 24-hour responds are always expected from the side of enrolled students as they have paid a lump sum fee for admission.

There should be variety of assessment test as the knowledge and talents of every student are different.

The management of the La Trobe University should improve the service quality to the students, as it will enhance their sales revenue if the enrolled student recommends this course to other individuals. As there is no scope of face to face communication in between the student, instructors and the academic faculties, therefore, there should be adequate maintenance of interaction.

All these above-mentioned recommendations are appropriate and relevant enough to retain the top three position of La Trobe University and its online management course. La Trobe University will continue its successful e-learning process with a huge variety of course option in future with proper following of these recommendations.

References

Cho, M.H. and Kim, B.J., 2013. Students' self-regulation for interaction with others in online learning environments. The Internet and Higher Education,17, pp.69-75.

Dalsgaard, C., 2014. Social software: E-learning beyond learning management systems. European Journal of Open, Distance and e-learning,9(2).

Driscoll, A., Jicha, K., Hunt, A.N., Tichavsky, L. and Thompson, G., 2012. Can online courses deliver in-class results? A comparison of student performance and satisfaction in an online versus a face-to-face introductory sociology course. Teaching Sociology, 40(4), pp.312-331.

Fetzner, M., 2013. What Do Unsuccessful Online Students Want Us to Know?. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 17(1), pp.13-27.

Glance, D.G., Forsey, M. and Riley, M., 2013. The pedagogical foundations of massive open online courses. First Monday, 18(5).

Harry, K., John, M. and Keegan, D. eds., 2013. Distance education: new perspectives. Routledge.

Kuo, Y.C., Walker, A.E., Belland, B.R. and Schroder, K.E., 2013. A predictive study of student satisfaction in online education programs. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 14(1), pp.16-39.

Latrobe.edu.au (2016) Home Page Available at https://www.latrobe.edu.au/ [Accessed on Sep 5, 2016]

Latrobe.edu.au (2016) Master of Management Online Available at https://www.latrobe.edu.au/online/master-management [Accessed on Sep 5, 2016]

Martin, F.G., 2012. Will massive open online courses change how we teach?. Communications of the ACM, 55(8), pp.26-28.

Meyer, K.A., 2014. Quality in Distance Education: Focus on On-Line Learning. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report. Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series.

Moore, M.G. ed., 2013. Handbook of distance education. Routledge.

Ni, A.Y., 2013. Comparing the effectiveness of classroom and online learning: Teaching research methods. Journal of Public Affairs Education, pp.199-215.

Rubin, B., Fernandes, R. and Avgerinou, M.D., 2013. The effects of technology on the Community of Inquiry and satisfaction with online courses.The Internet and Higher Education, 17, pp.48-57.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M. and Zvacek, S., 2014. Teaching and learning at a distance. Information Age Pub.

Simpson, O., 2013. Supporting students in online open and distance learning. Routledge.

Swan, K., Matthews, D., Bogle, L., Boles, E. and Day, S., 2012. Linking online course design and implementation to learning outcomes: A design experiment. The Internet and Higher Education, 15(2), pp.81-88.

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