Australian University: Reassessment of Branding - Research Proposal Example

Research to prepare Australian University for re-assessment of branding to develop a new positioning and communication strategy for the University A research proposal INTRODUCTION The Australian University, founded in 1952, is one of the oldest universities in Australian Capital Territory and was ranked as one of the best universities until around two decades ago. In its heydays it has been a favourite educational destination for both domestic and as well as foreign students particularly from both developed and developing nations from the continents in the closest vicinity of Australia. But in the last twenty years, despite its best efforts, it has been difficult for it to sustain the inflow of students from domestic and international markets alike. While the university has been trying its best to maintain the standard and rigour of education that it has been known for, it is still not able to attract as many students in this age of information technology as it used to in absence of it. One reason for this is that highly negative changes have been promoted by educationists through the last two decades at all – tertiary, secondary and primary education levels. This has plummeted standards in this field through this time span (Meyers, 2012). While policies are to some extent beyond the Australian University’s capacity to modify, the best it can do is to do a re-assessment of it’s the brand that it is and develop new strategies on communication and positioning in order to do a renewed image-building. The first pre-requisite to accomplish such image makeover would be a market survey done amid a cross-section of people, directly or indirectly linked with the university , like former alumni, current students and prospective admission-seekers. 1. MANAGEMENT DECISION PROBLEM The university management is under a predicament on how to execute a fresh strategy meant to re-assess and re-brand the university. 2. MANAGEMENT RESEARCH PROBLEM Market research problem would be collection of relevant data and creation of meaningful information that alleviates the management decision problem and goes into the making of a viable strategy that can address goals.. 3. OBJECTIVES The overall objectives of the market research would rest on the existing need of the university to re-assess its branding in order to develop a new positioning and communication strategy. i. To re-asses the brand so analytically through in-depth market survey that it establishes a firm foundation for the university to develop a new strategy for repositioning and communication. ii. To conduct comprehensive surveys among old alumni and current students and gauge the perception of both on the university, its ethos and expectation they have from it. iii. To analyse the loose ends in the projection of university's image and methods used thereby particularly through the last two decades 4. RATIONALE Education nowadays has become a global phenomenon. This is especially true in case of Australia and other major-English speaking countries. The competition is stiff on both home-based and international turfs, and even major universities across the world are finding the need to market themselves. Correct marketing demands that information be collected systematically, and then documented methodologically, scrutinised and critically analysed in order to be able to develop effective strategies and communications to foster growth (Brown and Oplatka, 2006). Recent years have witnessed a paradigm shift in education, particularly at the tertiary level. The trend has been widespread across the world, and even in top universities, which use marketing mixes at national and international level to rebuild an image that is de facto supposed to influence at the domestic front even as marketing inputs might be focused at international level. The higher education, for example, has seen an upsurge in market-type mechanisms and marketisation policies even in countries that have been previously known to adhere to the rigidities of government control on education (Jongbloed, 2003). Young (2002) has gone to the extent of remarking that marketisation, in a number of countries, has been assumed as a compromise between state control, academic autonomy and privatisation. Principally in UK and Australia research has been undertaken on the key factors that determine the student choice for a specific institution. Such research, according to Foskett & Hemsley-Brown (2001), has been undertaken in order to enable institutions to understand these key student factors and their long-term implications. This research has, and is also expected to take the type of consumer behaviour on certain brand. Specific researches conducted in Australia include those by Soutar & Turner (2002) and Kemp & Madden (1998). One study by Gatfield et al. (1999) was focused on the impact of providing print communications to students and how they influence the university's image and student choices. The approach used by this study was that of problem identification, as this marketing research proposal intends to do, and then finding a possible mismatches or matches between factors that determine student choice, where students are deemed as consumers. The rationale, thus, for this research would be to collect information in such a manner that it helps segment profiling and generating marketing techniques according to each profile. This will help narrowing down the objectives mentioned above and consequently ascertain possible means to employ effective marketing tools first to measure the new market potential and then develop most relevant strategies to cash in on that potential. In the Australian context one noteworthy study as this has been conducted by Rindfleish (2003). Since the university is dealing with students as customers, albeit for a noble intention of imparting excellent levels of knowledge, the rationale for this marketing research would be to sub-divide segments based on characteristics, needs, values, and demographics of these segments. Research reveals that one principal barrier towards creating customer satisfaction and brand value is the inability to understand that different segments of customers have different priorities and needs and thus need to be differently serviced. 5. PROPOSED RESEARCH DESIGN The research design would be such that it enables the university to discover what the students want and value of their each need; discovers loyalty drivers, satisfaction levels, niche segments and market opportunities, and acceptable price points. It will be designed such that it keeps university's marketing plans on track, assesses whether or not it has met the goals and whether or not the goals were reasonable vis-à-vis the education market, and is able to identify competitive position, helps the university to establish benchmarks, and analyse strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Furthermore, the design would be such that it helps the university to identify the right audience for the right message while being able to identify customer experiences, lifetime value and retention. The marketing research would be applying universal findings to sample market segments and sample markets while keeping a scope for the forecasting future behaviour and actions. The research design will translate the management decision problem at the university into market research problem by way of questions that would create meaningful information-sets which are required by the management to take effective decisions. For example, a management decision problem in hand would be whether or not to modify the 60-year-old emblem of the university. The research problem corresponding to it would be whether or not the audiences, particularly students, would be positively receptive to any such change. In order to ascertain this, XYZ Market Research Company would, through several methodologies, outline possible scenarios for this and the predicted corresponding results. Such scenarios, when developed before the market research has begun, attempt to weed off anomalies and reach a consensus point - in this case between the university and XYZ Market Research Company - before the research commences. Broadly, XYZ Market Research Company will incorporate two different categories of marketing research methods. One will be exploratory method and another descriptive method. This classification is being made keeping in view the objectives outlined at the beginning of this proposal. i) EXPLORATORY RESEARCH Exploratory research will be formulating problems vividly and precisely, while keeping in mind the other goals of gaining insights, gathering explanations, clarifying concepts, doing away with impractical ideas, and formulating a strong hypothesis. This type of research will perform literature search in the beginning, use surveying methods among groups of people previously linked with the university or likely to linkup. Case studies and focus groups will also be incorporated. The surveys will not be just representative samples but would be mixed insights of knowledgeable people either through questionnaire-based responses or direct interviews. Similarly XYZ Market Research Company will use contrasting situations and also pick up a few top universities reputed for their excellence so as to create initial benchmarks. ii) DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH Descriptive research, on the other hand, will follow a rigid method of describing customers, predict future demand for the university or determine the type an extent of domestic student population that are likely to be part of the university. Descriptive research is a little bit of contrast to the exploratory research in the sense that it apart from collecting user data explains users too. In other words it defines people surveyed, questions and also methods before beginning actual research. The descriptive research mostly goes to the extent of dealing with 4Ws and H, which is who, when, where, why and how of research (QuickMba.com, n.d.). The descriptive research will further use cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, though the later will be conducted in a limited manner on account of its repetition as a limitation. But this will be an important pointer towards establishing a parameter on brand-switching behaviour. Cross-sectional studies will be time-specific and abandoned after certain measurements are got. This is an important type of study since product demand's long-term forecast can be properly established by this type of descriptive research (Cohen, 2007). Given the extent and nature of work, it will be a mix of qualitative and quantitative research (Denzin et al, 2000). a) Qualitative methods Qualitative method has an advantage of providing complex textual descriptions of people's perceptions on a specific research issue. Since it provides the "human" side information of an issue, it is ideally suited for a research like this. Where hundreds of human beings are involved in any activity or an association - just like student-university relationship - it is important to understand and analyse as many contradictory or similar behaviours, opinions, beliefs, relationship and emotions (Nkwi et al, 2001) . This method has been dubbed as the most effective method for assessing intangible factors like ethnicity, gender roles, religions, socioeconomic status and social norms – all, incidentally, relevant in the Australian University context (FHI360.org, n.d.). b) Quantitative methods Quantitative methods, on the other hand, are closed-ended, numerical-based, and have a stable study design from beginning to end. The analytical objectives of this method provide quantification of variation, do casual relationship prediction, and describe population characteristics. This method seeks to confirm phenomenon hypothesis, uses rigid instruments for response categorisation, and uses methods that are highly structured like surveys, questionnaires and structured observation. XYZ Market Research Company will begin research with 'desk research'. An initial search will be carried on the education scenario in Australia tracing it background and trends through the last five decades. The literature pertaining to the last 10-20 years will be specially focused on. The desk research will specifically gather information on the student patterns, attitudes and demographics through all Australian universities. The desk research will be continued until the trend yielded gives some useful indication on the Australian education marketplace. Top ten brands will be noted down and salient features of each analysed. Once the preliminary results are tabulated the objectives outlined will be refined further after due deliberations and discussions with the Australian University management. This will provide foundation for the next stage of the research. As part of the initial procedure, XYZ Market Research Company will begin its research internally at the Australian University itself, which will have to allow its staff access to records retrieval of which is essential for this research. The university staff will be briefed in advance about any such requirements and seek permission to hold at least weekly meetings for the first one month. The analytical team whom the company would like to have access to records will be outlined in the contract that will be signed with the university. A possible indirect access may also be sought by XYZ Market Research Company for university's internal reports on student enrollments, their area-wise distribution through Australia, correspondence (if any) with students' parents pertaining to any concerns or complaints and university's perception on domestic education market within the country. All these inputs will help the company establish weaknesses and strengths of the university, two essential requisites for segmentation. While internal research is going on at the Australian University campus, an external research will simultaneously be conducted by another team of the company. This research will obtain current market assessments from a number of organisations including Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Council for Educational Research, and Australian Association for Research in Education. The company will also put together a portfolio of Australian University competitors and recent media coverage on the university to check in which light is the university being projected at the moment. These inputs will, in the long run, help develop effective promotional platforms for re-branding. 6. DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS As explained above, both qualitative and quantitative research methods will be used to collect data; however it is possible that in the course of actual research one may outweigh another in terms of the size. The company predicts that it may be qualitative research method that could provide crucial information for rebranding the Australian University. Most common methods of qualitative research that will be used would be as follows: Participant observation: This method provides data in the matter-of-fact manner and in naturally occurring behaviours. In-depth interviews: This narrows down the participation observation to individual observation and gives individual histories, experiences and histories. This method is ideal for dealing with topics of sensitive nature. Focus groups: When data is to be elicited on a group's cultural norms, this is the most befitting method. This broadens the scope of research and takes it to opinion-seeking among subgroups or cultural groups linked by one common thread. For example, in this case, the thread the university or the education that it imparts. The data collected through these methods will be in the video or audio formats or in the form of transcripts, recordings, and field notes. Interviews will also be used in quantitative method but the same will be, as a norm, more structured. That means in this method the research will ask nothing more than a standard set of questions (Leedy and Ormrod, 2001). But since these methods and particularly some of the instruments that they use, like questionnaires, have some inherent flaws the company would not suggest using the same at a large sample size for cost-saving purposes. Many respondents do not return the questionnaires and feel filling out the same trespasses on their personal freedom. But once the questionnaires are already printed and distributed using different methods and thus corresponding resources, the investments made get wasted. 7. DATA ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES Kumar (1996) has remarked that it is important to focus on wording and form of the questions to be asked in a research instrument since they exert and influence on the quality and type of information that is obtained. Burns (2000) on the other hand has explained that both questionnaire questions and interview schedules can be either open-ended items or closed items, besides being scale items, like those on Likert scale. In open-ended questions respondents reveal what they feel they must. In closed-ended respondents do not have much freedom to display since they will have to select one of the multiple choice answers pre-defined in response to the question asked. In Australian University, XYZ Market Research Company will rely more on open-ended questions since for doing a re-assessment of the university it is vital to get real, first-hand information from the respondents. The university can be given an image makeover by seeking opinions hence focus on open-ended questions, but if facts behind those opinions are to be obtained, then closed-ended questions will be used. Measurements will be done on ratio, interval, ordinal and nominal classifications. Likert and attitudinal scales will be considered as well. All these scales are widely employed in research. However, it will be the company's prerogative to see which measurement and interpretation technique suits the most in this case. Since most of the research will be attitudinal in nature, according to Sarantakos (1998) the most suitable scale that could be incorporated would be the attitude scale. A range of questions could be selected for the questionnaires and interviews. The selection would depend on what sort of information is desired to be extracted from the respondent. Some of the questions could be as follows: a) What are your criteria for selection of a university when you contemplate admissions into one? b) Would you prefer to join a university that is only a few years young or has a half-century history behind it? c) Do you feel universities with a rich past and heritage history need repositioning in the modern times. Explain reasons for a ‘yes’ or ‘no’. d) How would you like to see Australian University projected now; do you see a scope for its modernization? 8. LIMITATIONS Universities have been considered as temples of understanding and education where students from different walks of life, faiths and cultures mingle together with a uniform purpose of attaining knowledge. This research and its outcomes will be a tightrope walk since any attempt at creating a strategy that conveys the intent of commercialisation can boomerang. Australian University has been brought up on a given ethos and generations have come out of the university wearing a hue from that ethos. Caution has to be taken not to go as far in rebranding the image that it washes away then said ethos in the process. Should that happen, the results will be damaging. Also, limitations as are inherent to researches of this type would be applicable on this one too. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods have their limitations and same transferring to this research cannot be avoided. REFERENCES Burns, R.B. (2000). Introduction to Research Methods, 4th edn, Longman, Melbourne. Cohen, L. (2007). Research Methods in Education. P. 217. Routledge. Denzin N.K. Lincoln Y.S. (eds.). (2000). Handbook of Qualitative Research. London: Sage Publications. Foskett, N. H. & Hemsley-Brown, J. V. (2001) “Choosing Futures: Young people's decision-making in education, training and careers markets,” Routledge/Falmer, London. FHI360.org. (n.d.). Qualitative Research Methods: A Data Collector’s Field Guide. Qualitative Research Methods Overview. Retrieved http://www.fhi360.org/nr/rdonlyres/etl7vogszehu5s4stpzb3tyqlpp7rojv4waq37elpbyei3tgmc4ty6dunbccfzxtaj2rvbaubzmz4f/overview1.pdf. Accessed October 24, 2012. Gatfield, T., Barker, M., & Graham, P. (1999) “Measuring communication impact for university advertising materials”, Corporate Communications: An international Journal, Vol. 4 No. 2, pp. 73-79. Hemsley-Brown J.V. and Oplatka, I. (2006). ‘Universities in a competitive global marketplace: a systematic review of the literature on higher education marketing’ International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol 19, No 4, pp 316-338. Jongbloed, B. (2003) “Marketisation in Higher Education, Clarke's Triangle and the Essential Ingredients of Markets”, Higher Education Quarterly, Vol. 57 No. 2, pp. 110-135. Kemp, S. & Madden, G. (1998) “Emerging Australian Markets: A discrete choice model of Taiwanese and Indonesian student intended study destination”, Education Economics, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 159-170. Kumar, R. (1996). Research Methodology, Longman, Melbourne. Leedy, P.D. & Ormriod, J.E. (2001). Practical research: Planning and design, 7th edn, Merill Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Meyers, D. (2012). Australian Universities: A Portrait of Decline. Retrieved http://www.australianuniversities.id.au/Australian_Universities-A_Portrait_of_Decline.pdf. Accessed October 24, 2012. Nkwi P, Nyamongo I, Ryan G. Field Research into Social Issues: Methodological Guidelines. Washington, DC: UNESCO, 2001. QuickMba. com. (n.d.). Marketing Research. Retrieved http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/research/. Accessed October 24, 2012. Rindfleish, J. M. (2003) “Segment profiling: reducing risk in higher education management”, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 147-159. Sarantakos, S. (1998). Social Research, 2nd edn, MacMillan Education Australia, South Yarra. Soutar, G. N. & Turner, J. P. (2002) “Students' preferences for university: a conjoint analysis”, The International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 40-45. Young, S. (2002) “The use of market mechanisms in higher education finance and state control: Ontario considered”, The Canadian Journal of Higher Education, Vol. xxxii No. 2, pp. 79-102. Read More