Analyzing La Trobe University's Brand And Marketing Strategy

La Trobe University's Competitive Environment

La Trobe University is founded in 1964. It is member of innovative research and universities. The university has campuses in cities of Bendigo, Albury-Wodaya, Mildura, Shepparaton and three CBD campuses in Sydney and Australia. The university provides under graduate and post graduate courses across its 2 colleges i.e. Science, Health and Engineering (SHE) and Arts, Social Science and Commerce (ASC). The university is strong in the field of arts and humanities (Pathan & Bacic, 2015). The university has curriculum which is based on schools of studies and college format. The large number of students lives on campus. The motto of university is ‘Whoever seeks shall find’. Its logo Australian wedge- tailed eagle represents Australia and Sprigs of Heath represents Victoria. The university was established to meet the long term demand of university education. La Trobe was considered to be unique because of its school based and college like structure. Later it changed to departmentalized concept. The university established its law school in early 1990s and dentistry in late 2000s. The university leads in Health and Bio-Medical sciences but even then it does not have medical school. The higher reforms have allowed La Trobe to increase its fees. The university operates on 20+million dollar surplus. Main campuses have recreation and sporting facilities like gym, indoor stadium and playing fields. There are also training facilities around. The university has also provided area to Centre of Dialogue which is an interdisciplinary institute for domestic and international inter-cultural and inter-regional conflicts. The student radio of La Trobe i.e. FM broadcast is on FM frequency. It includes 96.5 Inner FM, Northwest FM 98.9, Stereo 97.4, 3SER, 3WBC, Yarra Valley FM, 3NRG, 97.9 FM, Golden Days and Radio, FM 87.6 Network, Eastern FM 98.1 and 88.3 Southern FM. The university also provides courses at offshore cities in fields of economics, finance, biomedicine, management, linguistic and health. The offshore countries include Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, China, France and Vietnam. It has majority of partners in Asia and Europe.

La Trobe has been ranked as one of the top universities of the World. According to Times Higher Education Young University Ranking, its rank is #56. It comes under top 10 universities of Australia. The university is featured in top 100 global universities for hospitality and leisure management, archaeology, nursing, sports-related subjects and sociology. The location of La Trobe University is added on factor. Australia has ranked 4^th in terms of system strength for higher education and Melbourne is put on 5^th position in world’s best student cities. One of the specialties of university is its research.

Marketing Objectives

One of the major competitors of La Trobe is Deakin. Deakin’s rating is comparatively better and it is less costly. But La Trobe has better environment and better infrastructure. Swinburne is another competitor which is under the budget. Students generally prefer Science and Engineering in Swinburne or RMIT. Arts and Law is mostly preferred in La Trobe or Deakin. La Trobe is more of traditional universities whereas Swinburne and RMIT are more developed technical colleges. In case of practical studies, RMIT is preferred over La Trobe. On campus thing is one of the competitive advantages of La Trobe. It has 500+ spots with medical options and rental accommodations. There is issue with transportations. La Trobe, these days give priority to some disciplines where as closed the other like Geology and Music Department. RMIT is considered to have good partnership with industries. La Trobe has scholarly reputation. There is uncertainty in education sector and increase in competitiveness in Australian Universities (Martin-Sardesai & Guthrie, 2017). The universities are choosing disruptive approaches like La Trobe has gone live with SAP S/4 HANA in cloud to enhance organizational efficiency and student experience. It is believed that move has increased its efficiency 20% across its business units. La Trobe thrives to be student centric. All the Australian universities today are trying to simplify processes, increasing capacities, focus on providing unique experience to students (Forsyth, 2014).

Objectives

La Trobe focus on innovation to deliver competitive edges. They are looking towards operational efficiency i.e. managing business day-to day rather than month-by-month. The university wants to exploit technology to support real time data requirements. La Trobe wants to create simplicity in the process. The other objectives of La Trobe include discovering solution to protect environment and provide greater sustainability. La Trobe also aims to enhance the research capability by improving impact and quality, developing strategic partnerships, enhancing research income and building collaborations (Chernev, 2018). The students and researchers should be provided with support and tools to accelerate programs and outcomes. The university wants to enhance their capabilities (Baker, 2014). They want to enable proper management. They want to make knowledge available for benefit of all. Enrolled students must seek all the opportunity and become learned. The other benefits like practical education should be offered to students.

La Trobe wants to target high caliber students and well qualified staff. The staff is expected to guide or teach large number of students simultaneously. There is compliance requirement related to governance, ethics and quality (Amos, 2016). The university wants to build highly qualified new relationships. It is highly interested in building productive and strong partnerships with pathway providers offshore and onshore. It also focuses on partnership with international focused research. The university also wants to support and create opportunity for international students. The university wants to create build relationship with industry, alumni and employers.

Target Market

The university tries to support students’ to meet load targets. It has developed positive reputation and strong brand recognition (Armstrong & Brennan, 2015). It has enhanced both marketing and communication activity. The university is strongly trying to diversify and increase the boundaries in and outside the country. It tries to build lasting relationship with industry and alumni. The university has also introduced effective ways to communicate and engage with potential and prospective students. It is done to aware them about programs and overall University. It has developed efficient and effective organizational structure, business processes and a strong culture (Pulendran & Widing, 2015). It has improved the selection and recruitment of high qualified staff. It has also aligned selection to the core priorities of University. It has designed master plan for all campuses. It has increased the percentage of revenue devoted to key strategic priorities like learning, teaching and research. La Trobe focuses on effective coordinated marketing and publicity to create reputation of high quality teaching and learning provider. It acts as innovative. It tries to build stronger links with stake holders and external communities. It tries to create international and local engagement. It also makes stronger contribution for sustainable communities and for advancement of knowledge.

Brand is defined as a name, sign, term, design and symbol done to identify services or goods of one seller and differentiate it from that of competitors. Brand can give competitive edge to the service provider. It helps customers to identify the authenticity of the service or product. The good experience of audience helps in strengthening the brand. It creates brand loyalty and helps in retaining the customers. It also creates Word of Mouth promotion. It gives quality assurance up to certain level. Brand also provides legal protection towards unique aspects. It also helps in extending and diversifying product line. Premium amount can be charged from customers if brand hold strong value. Brand is valuable asset to an organization and it cannot be imitated. It increases the overall worth of organization.

Brand positioning is designing offering of company and creating image that occupy unique position in the target markets’ minds (Gammoh & Okoroafo, 2015). In case of La Trobe, brand positioning will help in creating points-of-differences (PODs) and Points-of-parity (POPs). Points-of-difference will have certain attribute that could not be found in the competitive brand to the same extent (Singh & Ledden, 2014). Points-of-parity is not unique to the brand. It is the necessary attribute that brand may incorporate in itself to be at par with other brands. Brand value is total of extra amount people will pay or the number of times they choose a particular brand over other alternatives. The opposite of value is just a commodity which does not have much perceived value (Ramaswamy & Ozcan, 2016). For La Trobe, it is necessary to offer something different than everybody else. This valuable thing should be perceived as scarce. It is necessary to provide something valuable which is uncommon and distinct and then position it unique and worthwhile.

General Marketing Strategy

Brand Analysis of La Trobe will help in finding the current situation of the brand. It will help in understanding both customers and competitors. Following are sub elements of Brand Analysis:

La Trobe is delivering excellence in learning and teaching from past 50 years. It is one of the top universities of the world. The university has graduated more than 190,000 since its inception in 1967. It has high profile alumni which include Olympians, researchers, activists and CEO of Organizations. It is providing education both to local and international students. Almost 8000 students from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Singapore, Vietnam, India and China have enrolled for the courses at La Trobe. The university is based in multiple locations like Albury-Wodonga, Bendigo, Melbourne, Melbourne CBD, Shepparton, Mildura and Sydney. It offers more than 200 courses for international students. It also offers research which provides insight about real world issues. La Trobe has been place in the top 400 ranking of Times Higher Education Ranking. La Trobe provides exceptionally beautiful campus. The campus is equipped with opportunities and provides great chance of socialization. La Trobe is ranked at 301 in the ARWU i.e. Academic Ranking of World University. It is one of the most improved Universities in Australia. Australian Federal Government has conducted assessment of La Trobe’s research and industry connections. This has strengthened La Trobe position and put them in top three universities of Victoria.

Points of Parity (POP) and points of difference (POD) both helps in positioning of particular brand (Sasmita & Suki, 2015). This helps in providing competitive advantage. Points of Parity refer to similar offerings which brand provides similar to its competitors. Points of differentiation are the attributes which make your brand different from that of competitors.

POP (Points of Parity): The institute is located in one of the famous cities Melbourne, Australia. It provides a number of courses for both under graduation and post-graduation. The teachers are high qualified and learned. It is fully featured. It offers multiple campuses. The teaching experience at La Trobe is good. The university has good academic reputation. It is one of the top universities in Australia. It has partnership in industry and with alumni in order to provide jobs to students. It has diverse groups of people of ethnicity, identities, culture, and sub-culture. The basic transportation facility is available to students. The fee structure is also similar to other universities.

PODs (Points of Difference): La Trobe is more of traditional universities. It provides excellent learning in case of Arts and Humanities. The campus of La Trobe makes it unique and attractive. It has one of the biggest urban campuses. Another forte is its research which is renowned and world class. La Trobe has scholarly reputation.

Analyzing La Trobe University's Brand

Brand Elements are the tangible elements to brand. It creates auditory and visual brand identity (Kladou & Salonika, 2016). It helps in identifying and differentiating the brand from competitors (Quinn, 2017). The brand elements include packaging, logo, symbol, jingle, character, name, URL and slogan (Klink & Wu, 2017). Following are the brand elements of La Trobe

Name

Charles Joseph La Trobe was the first Lieutenant-Governor of colony of Victoria and first Superintendent of the Port Phillip District. La Trobe University was named after his name. This man was driven by the need to make a difference in Society. The University also believes his ideology of serving the community by providing access to higher education (Dennis & Bourlakis, 2016).

Logo

La Trobe University has used wedged tailed eagle as its brand mark. It signifies university’s philosophy of forward thinking depicts La Trobe history and adapt to the requirements of new digital technology.

Slogan

Motto of La Trobe University is Qui cherche trouve. It is in French Language. The English interpretation of this logo is whoever seeks shall find. It is at the heart of everything what university does.

URL

URL is uniform Resource locator which represents web address. It is reference to a resource on web which depicts its location on the network and method to retrieve it. The URL for La Trobe University is https://www.latrobe.edu.au. This URL directs both local and international students to its official website which helps in communicating with the university and determines its authenticity.

La Trobe has invested energy, time and expertise in planning and management. It is done to meet students’ requirements. Various functional bodies or authorities are involved in creating and executing marketing support program like University Council, The Academic Board, Senior Executive Group, Pro Vice-Chancellors, Vice-Chancellor's Fellows, University Ombudsman, and colleges, Administrative Division, The Campuses and University Housing. The marketing operations of La Trobe works on Brand and Market engagement, devise sponsorship strategy, online and offline marketing, social channel management. The university focuses on partnering and channel development. It uses research and analytics to design market strategy (Kotler, 2015). It gives priority to media relations, publications and internal communications. Its primary objective is on recruiting qualified candidates. It also tries to build school partnerships. Customer service is another aspect considered by the institute. The university also considers aspects of designing in terms of Graphic Design, Videography and photography. The social channel management and website management is another agenda of university. Moreover, University tries to adapt new environment of digital technology. It pays special emphasis on being digital and thus provide better student experience and improve efficiency. Also the special attention is given to build relationship with industry experts, alumni and corporates.

Summary of Brand Equity using Keller's Model

Brand leveraging uses the power or value of existing brand to enter into new but related product or service category (Bonnet & Molina, 2015). La Trobe University was established in 1964. It is one of the top rank universities in Australia and Worldwide. It has scholarly and traditional reputation. It is also member of innovative research universities. It has huge campus. The university also has international value. It was established at a time when there was need of reform in higher education. Because of its popularity, the university has entered into main domains like dentistry etc. since its inception. It is using its excellence in research to build itself as worldwide researcher. It has developed its image for exploring the boundaries of society, environment and economy. It is expanding to offer subjects across all disciplines. It is trying to enhance its corporate and its international relationship. The brand image is also helpful in case of various sponsorship events. The brand image is used to attract exceptional students and teaching staff. The number of enrollment every year is increasing. The brand is also leveraged to increase its assets and reduce its liabilities.

Brand Extension is part of Brand Leveraging strategy (Ferguson & Phau, 2016). Brand leveraging strategy has elements like line extension, vertical stretch of brand, co-branding and brand extension (Barnes & White, 2017). Brand stretching or brand extension is a strategy in which organization or firm marketing a product or service uses the same brand image for other product or service category (Guo & Le?Nguyen, 2018).

La Trobe wants to seize all the opportunities and mitigate the risk and threats. The University thrives to become future ready. It looks forward to challenge convention and reconsider the ways of doing tasks. One of the most disruptive organizations is universities. La Trobe wants to use digital technologies to change the method of teaching. It wants to partner digital technology for higher research. It looks forward to market which demands new skill from the students. It is planning to incorporate University 4.0 which is new model or ecological model. It combines research excellence and teaching along with connection to social communities. It also looks forward to partner with government to address major issue faced by local people.

The concept of Brand Equity Model states that in order to build strong brand it is necessary to understand consumer feeling about the product or service. It is important to create the right kind of experience with the brand (Keller, 2017). This will help in building positive thoughts, opinions, feelings and perceptions about your brand. This will help in building brand equity which is nothing but commercial value that is created from perception of customers about the brand of a product or service (Cho & Russell, 2015). It is the value of the brand.

Recommendations

Keller’s Brand Equity Model has following elements (Keller, 2016)

The first step is Brand Identity or Brand Salience or Awareness. It defines “Who are you”. The companies try to make sure there is correct brand perception at this stage (Huang & Sarigöllü, 2014). In case of La Trobe University, students and teachers are their customers. Along with this they have relations with alumni, industry and government. La Trobe brand is generally seen as traditional one. The students see it as one of the renowned universities worldwide. However it does not stand exception. There are other competitors in line to compete with it. The education, faculties, fee structure is according to market. The sources of attractions are its campus, its research, art and humanitarian discipline. Overall La Trobe University is an Australian university which offers multiple courses (some are exceptionally well) and opportunities in terms of interaction with global diversity. USPs is its research. La Trobe needs to advance its courses to provide unique value proposition to its customers. 

The next stage is Brand Meaning which depicts “What are you”. Performance and Imagery are two building blocks here. Performance explains how well your product or service offerings are meeting the needs of customer. The elements corresponding to performance include primary features, durability, reliability, efficiency, effectiveness, design and price (Liu & Lin, 2015). Imagery deals with how well brand is meeting needs of customer on psychological and social level. It can be directly or through Word of mouth. La Trobe University is providing ample number of courses. The university is located in sub urban area so it is easy to seek multiple opportunities in terms of internships. The fee structure is comparatively higher but overall returns are good. So it is reliable. The university is providing good campus lives which help students to learn various personal skills. Overall infrastructure is excellent. Moreover university is giving preference to digital education which is current requirement of society which improves its dimension of effectiveness. There is international diversity in university which is added on aspect to the learning. The network with alumni is very strong and efficient. Coming over to psychological fulfillment, the university looks attractive when it comes to gain on campus and international experience. Its campus is plus point. But what lacks is its connectivity with other parts of country as compared to its competitors.

The third step is “What do I feel or think about you”? It constitutes feelings and judgments. The judgment considers key aspects like Quality, Credibility, Superiority and Consideration. Brand also helps in evoking feelings which helps them to respond emotionally (Tanner & Raymond, 2015). Self-respect, warmth, social approval, security, excitement and fun are positive brand feelings.  

Conclusion

The service quality of La Trobe is good but it is not unique. The customer requirement is of superior and excellent education along with other aspects of students’ life. The university is extremely doing well in terms of some of courses. But in practical courses competitors are taking edge. The university is extremely good in terms of ranking which makes it likeable. In terms of expertise, it is lacked in innovation aspect. The university is meeting needs of customer by providing digital support. However, La Trobe is giving tough competition to competitive university. But none of the university can be called superior. The brand feeling which La Trobe generates is Social Approval and Security.

The last aspect of CBBE model is Brand Resonance which says “how much of connection would I like to have with you?” It is most desirable which a brand would like to achieve. The brand resonance is achieved when customer feels psychological or deep bond with the brand. For La Trobe the no. of students’ enrollment has increased. Many students who have opted undergraduate courses are also enrolling for post graduate courses. Since there are other better service providers and there is large number of university options so relative attachment is low. Due to its culture, there is community like feeling. La Trobe should primarily focus on creating active engagement with the brand.

La Trobe is one of the renowned universities. It should focus on providing unique value to customers through innovation. It can leverage digital technology for this. It can build a mechanism where national and international students can learn using most innovative approaches. There should be learning outside the classroom, more practical and exciting approach. In addition to this, the university should work on its drawbacks like lack of transportation facilities, its service compared to competitors in specific field. It should use its core service to gain competitive edge. The university should expand its core service which will benefit both customers and service. It should revisit its fee structure as it may decrease the access of many students which may have good caliber. The university should also introduce specific courses like digital and sports. The university may look at the mechanism of working of top universities to provide superior offerings.

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