Marketing Plan For University Of Sydney: Market Segmentation, Demand Analysis, Target Segmentation Essay.

About the University

The following paper is the presentation of the marketing plan of University of Sydney that facilitates the students and millions of aspirants with high quality academic support.  One of the largest and most prestigious academic institutions in the country as well as the world, University of Sydney provides the students with practical and theoretical guidelines for aspiring better future.  This report is going to illustrate the marketing strategy of the University with the help of different marketing tools such as market segmentation, advertisement and promotional activities. Moreover the report covers up different marketing analysis methods through PEST and SWOT.

 According to the scholars marketing strategies are the main driving forces that have the effective impact upon the future promotional activities of an organisation. May it be the University or another profit making company, the marketing policies and strategies are always set to be in use as per proper analytical study of the market. While making the marketing strategies and plans, the actual scenario of the market in Sydney and the overall country has been taken into consideration.  As per the marketing analysis, the marketing plan has been made so as to fit the institution to the target segment.

The University of Sydney is one of the largest and leading institutions in the Country. It is not only prestigious within Australia, but it has also gained its popularity for providing academic excellence in a global aspect.  Since 1850, the university has been facilitating thousands of students and professional aspirants in terms of gaining strong academic plinth so as to achieve overall success. Every individual studying in the under the university curriculum has been exposed to the realm of excellence thus providing them with realistic and empirical process of academic courses (Hazelkorn, 2015). Apart from its academic interventions, the university has been engaged into different social works and welfare deeds through charity.  After being recognised as a global university, the University of Sydney expanded its working branches across the world- especially to the developing countries. Having more than 50,000 students the university has now reached to the greater level of global standard.

The market of the university has to be analysed in different forms. So far as the belonging is concerned, the University of Sydney Belongs to the higher education market. The education industry in the country has witnessed rapid growth after steady boom of globalisation in academic sector. As it is expected that the education sector and market in Australia has the likelihood to create a benchmark of its own by 2020, several government and private universities and institutions have been showing their interests in investing in this sectors so as to gain a greater return from it.  The expected benchmark figure by 2020 of Australian education market is $ 115 billion (USD). Due to its English medium of study, the students have found a common platform to proceed with higher study.  The country’s academic facilities do not only provide the students a huge scope of research but they also create a chance for professional business courses through management and engineering. It has become a firm competitor in the global education market. It has been found through statistical data such as the

Summary of the Market

Demand analysis refers to the process that analyses the existing market demand among the particular customers.  According to the law of demand, the relationship between price and demand always remains constant. If the price is high, the demand decreases and quantity demand increases with the downfall of the price. As a matter of fact both demand and the price move together in an opposite manner. However, in terms of demand analysis it has to be taken into consideration whether the demand is going to be affected by substitution in the market. In lieu of the downfall of the price it needs to be confirmed through the effective measurement of the customer and the product or service relation.  While understanding the higher education market it can be state that a positive market trend has been draped due to constant admission and migration from the foreign countries.  

In recent years student influx from China, India and Bangladesh has put a positive impact upon the market demand of the higher education sector of the country. in recent years the accommodation industry in Australia has recently experienced a sudden change that has precisely been upward.  Since the Australian universities have been providing the students with better academic and professional scopes, they are highly sought after in the recent years. As a matter of fact, the basic changes were in the department of business management and engineering.  According to the report published by the government of Australia, department of higher education, more than 1.3 million students have enrolled in the universities of Australia in 2013.  

The number of admission in the universities was much higher than what it was in the year 2011. Admission in the universities in the academic year 2013 saw more than 32% growth than its previous academic years.  This total number constitutes both the domestic and international students. The academic year 2016 experienced highest number of student enrolment in the Australian universities. The total number of admission of hte foreign students in the universities in Australia has been more than 700,000, which is record enrolment in higher education sector (Day et al., 2015).  The following graph presents with a statistical and graphical data showing gradual admission process of the foreign students in the Australian academic institution:

As per the data it can clearly be stated that the higher education sector in the country has been positively affected by gradual student influx from the foreign countries.  Admission of the foreign students in the recent years has increased rapidly through international level competitive examinations. The popularity of the Australian universities has been raised to a new level after successful placement of innumerable students thus providing them with job and research opportunity.  As per the Government of Australia, the University of Sydney has been the third best rated university in the country. In this regard, the university has been providing best academic offers to the students- both the domestic as well as the international ones. It can thus be stated that the market demand for the university has been quite positive. Depending on the market demand, the university is going to venture the marketing plan for its future initiative.

Demand Analysis

The demand analysis of the existing higher education market in the country would be performed with the help of an analysis team. In order to comprehend the existing demand for higher education in Australia among the domestic as well as the international students a team is going to be formed that could study the entire movement of the market ad design a plan accordingly. The market research team shall be responsible for the analysis of the entire characteristic of the market and the trend of student admission in various departments. As a matter of fact, the basic understanding of the market demand has to be set under a particular frame so as to ease the entire process of the marketing plan.   

Target Segment segmentation refers to the mode of population that would be targeted for the marketing process. The audiences or the customers are targeted in differently depending on the mode of the organisation. Segmentation of target helps an organisation in its marketing process as it eases the complexity of targeting a greater number of masses. Hence, segmenting target audiences in different slices not only helps the organisation be specific and narrow down the process, but it also eradicates the hurdle of dealing with a mass altogether. In terms of a market, target segmentation can be of different types. These are:

1. Demographic Target Segmentation
2. Geographic Target Segmentation

• Economic Target Segmentation

1. Psychographic Target Segmentation
2. Behavioural Target Segmentation

While looking forward to marketing, the university is going to choose the demographic market segmentation as its target audience.  Since the university is a premiere Educational Institute that focuses on the the admission of students from different countries and different cultures for its various courses for higher studies, the aim of the institutes going to be the aspirants teenagers and the youths who opt  for higher study. There would be a particular age group that the university is going to target for marketing purpose. Apart from age group the certain literary group would be targeted as well. Hence, initial marketing segmentation of the University of Sydney would be demographic segmentation. Following is the outline of demographic marketing segmentation targeted by the university:

1. The age group between 18 and 25
2. There shall be no discrimination on sex and race

In recent years the higher education sector has witnessed that a flock of Chinese students have been taking sheer interest in taking interest for admission in the Australian universities. In the year 2014 more than 136,000 students have taken admission in different academic institutes in the country.

Apart from demographic and geographic market segmentation, the University is going to choose behavioural market segmentation for its marketing purpose. It has been found that there is growing trend of studying in Australian universities.  As per the statistical data it has been found that Australia has remained the strongest education hub in the academic year 2014 and 2015.  There has been a 10% increase in the student admission in the Australian universities.  Hence this growing trend is going to be the basic factor to drive the marketing plan among those students who have been showing interest in studying in the Australian universities. As a matter of fact the university is going to address the global students through campaign and education fair held in different countries.

Plan for Demand Analysis

The target market set by the university shall be under a certain vigilance so as to adopt a certain marketing plan with effectiveness.   With the aforesaid discussion it can be stated that the Australian market of higher study has a positive feedback and the demand in the market acts as a strong plinth to the marketers. The plethora of the ongoing student mass has been helping the academic institutes grow into a bigger state of business sector providing academic excellence to the students. In order to design a marketing plan for University of Sydney, different factors are to be taken into account so that they can be speculated in terms of understanding the actual need. The factors that determine the marketing plan of the University of Sydney can be segmented into two different types. These factors can be internal as well as external ones.  While analysing the present market character of the University both the factors ought to be studied and considered properly with the help of market research.

The external factors impacting upon the market movement of the higher education sector constitute political factors, economic factors, social factors and technological factors. Availability and unavailability of all these factors determine how a market or an industry an devise its growth. In this section the external or the pest analysis are to be considered as they are not internally controlled by the chosen organisation.

There are different layers of bureaucracy in the higher education industry of the country.  Basically the school education system has been distributed to the regional and domestic governments where as the major decision making power in terms of higher education has been kept under the power of the federal government. Hence, it has been concise while proceeding with the decision making process in terms of assisting the Universities and the graduate schools.  The university council of Australia is held responsible for the entire process of university accreditation, fund control and budget establishment.  Universities Australia, the council for all the nationalised universities is responsible for the entire performance level of all of the universities.  The political factors include the government policies upon the universities and the budget establishment of the government and the allocation of the budget on the higher education sector.  The federal government in recent years has shown positive interest towards both the qualitative and quantitative development of the research institutes and the universities. Hence, it can be said that there is a high chance for University of Sydney tto become a centre of attraction for the students thus approaching to the government for extra fund and capital investment for its academic and research process.

Target Segmentation

There is a negative impact in the recent years that the Labour party has been under certain scrutiny after having decided to cut the funding capital down to $2.8 billion. This has led the universities and the research institutes miss the opportunities for further growth. On the other hand, there has been a positive advice from one of the government officials that have been taken into consideration that objective of repayment of HECS debt, proper taxation can be framed in terms of imposing upon the professionals instead of putting extra burden upon the universities.  Hence, the recent advice from the government officials led by the Labour party has been positively impacting upon the development and expansion of the universities (Harmon, 2015)

Economic factors refer to the investment policy of the government and the funding capacity of the universities and graduate schools in the country. It has been found that the government has been spending much on the engineering and management sector. However, there has been a positive source of money for the universities thus creating a better opportunity for them to provide the students with global facility of practical learning. Economy of Australia in regards to the investment policies and the support of the corporate sectors

The social factors in terms of the educational sectors in Australia refer to the behaviour of the students, efficacy and willingness of the society to opt for higher education.  Social factors also constitute literacy rate and percentage of students in domestic term as well as the international ones. Australia is no doubt highly literate country when it comes to factor of literacy. On the basis of the data established by the Australian government a firm concept has been developed pertaining to the literacy of the country.   There are some negative social factos that would affect the student admission in the University. In recent years Australia has reportedly been taken into headlines for racist practices. Therefore, the universities are losing the foreign students.  They taken admission and do not continue with the study as they are reportedly attacked by the racist expatriates.  However, the government has been taking stringent actions against racist practices so as to encourage the admission and interest of the foreign students in the Australian universities (Racism and the Tertiary Student Experience in Australia - Adam Graycar (2010) | Australian Human Rights Commission, 2017).

The technological factors refer to the usage and exploitation of technological potential in the provision of educational expertise. Since the universities are getting flexible day by day in terms of technological advancement and adoption, there is a hgh chance for them to dive into the new genre of excellence. Changing mode of technology, adoption of virtual learning by the universities, ease of access to online learning skill and governments’ intervention into bringing the technological changes has created a strong realm of educational environment in the country for the students who have been migrating to Australia in hope of the attainment of better education.  There are several changes that have been already introduced in the Australian universities. These are BYOD (bring your own device),  flipping the classroom (becoming much more project based than lecture based),  mobile learning (through the use of smart phones and tablets), micro credits (online recognition programme providing award to excellence) and so on (Twelve technologies set to revolutionise higher education in Australia...and beyond, 2017).  

The internal process analysis refers to the strength, weakness, opportunity and threat that the University of Sydney has to provide the students with.  It can shortly be called the SWOT analysis. The following diagram precisely demonstrates the SWOT analysis of University of Sydney.

Reference 

Crain, T., Gramoli, V., Larrea, M., & Raynal, M. (2017). University of Sydney, Australia. arXiv preprint arXiv:1702.03068.

Day, A., Nakata, V., Nakata, M., & Martin, G. (2015). Indigenous students' persistence in higher education in Australia: contextualising models of change from psychology to understand and aid students' practices at a cultural interface. Higher Education Research & Development, 34(3), 501-512.

Harmon, G. (2015). Australia as an higher education exporter. International Higher Education, (42).

Hazelkorn, E. (2015). Rankings and the reshaping of higher education: The battle for world-class excellence. Springer.

Racism and the Tertiary Student Experience in Australia - Adam Graycar (2010) | Australian Human Rights Commission. (2017). Humanrights.gov.au. Retrieved 20 May 2017, from https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/race-discrimination/publications/racism-and-tertiary-student-experience-australia-adam

Te Riele, K. (2014). Putting the jigsaw together: Flexible learning programs in Australia final report.

Thomas, S. (2015). University of Sydney, Australia.

Twelve technologies set to revolutionise higher education in Australia...and beyond. (2017). Times Higher Education (THE). Retrieved 20 May 2017.