Marketing Plan for Australian College Information Centre - Case Study Example

Australian College Information Centre (ACIC) Report Situational Analysis External Environment External environment brings into consideration factors that are beyond the organisation control. To understand better external environment, it is better to analyse it from the angel of SLEPT analysis (McDonald, 1992). SLEPT analysis includes social, legal, economic, political, and technology factors affect operations in an organisation. Social Social factors bring into consideration tastes, behaviour and lifestyles of the consumers. Society appreciates important of quality education, and they frequent request and look for information that will help them better understand educational preferences and options. Thus, Australian College Information Centre (ACIC) is in a better position to benefit from this opportunity (Steuernagel, 1998). Laws (Legal) Laws frequently change, and it is a requirement for an organisation to be updated on new changes in legal fraternity. Some of the common areas that laws change include environmental legislation, consumer protection legislation, employment law, and health and safety law. Laws that are in place favours operation of the organisation activities. Economic Changes in the economy changes the way organisations operate and so far, ACIC can operate smoothly since wage rates, interest rate, and inflation is stable. No changes have been reported, and moreover, most of the tasks are accomplished online. Political Australia is a stable country and government influences is minimal because of democratic space. This means that ACIC can operate and achieve its vision and mission requirements easily. Technology Technology chances at a faster rate, which means that ACIC should be ready to embrace these changes into ensuring the organisation is modernised. ACIC appreciates the importance of technological changes and thus they update their operations to suite the way the business operate. Some of the important features that the organisation utilises include financial payments infrastructure e.g. credit cards and wire transfer, and other components that make up technological advancement. Internal Environment The strengths and weaknesses of an organisation may determine the success of the organisation, and may help in formulation of strategies that could aid the organisation towards success. Strengths It has enough resources through collaboration with other players in the market It has reliable and hardworking staff who are versed with most organisation requirements Weakness High employee turn over because of wages and salaries Partners quality may be questionable and they are loosing customers to competitors Service-goods continuum The service itself is picking students from the airport, informing them on availability of educational facilities and factors that support education. On the other hand, goods refer to the visa, pamphlets, accommodation facilities, and application and enrolment forms. Service Characteristics Intangibility This means that services cannot be handled, touched, tasted, heard or any other physical activity towards it. Moreover, services cannot be stored, transported, owned, (re)sold or can it be returned. ACIC offers services that are intangible and they facilitate accomplishment of tasks based on fundamentals of services (Steuernagel, 1998). Perishability Service is perishable ion two ways, which are after providing a given service, the entire process is irreversible and thus vanishes. The other way, is that the relevant processes, resources and systems that are assigned last for a definite period (Baker, 2003). Inseparability The service provider and the service itself are indispensable in that it cannot be separated. This means that the service provider is supposed to generate the service at that instance that he or she is required to do so (Weinstein, 2004). Heterogeneity This is the variability in the service quality because the service provider is provided by people who are associated with inconsistencies. Thus, service provided to one person may differ from services provided by another person. Core and Peripheral Services Core service is the actual activity that is provided by a service provider (Allred, Addams and Chakraborty, 2007). For example, in the case of ACIC the core service is educational consultancy, thus any other service that support the consultancy is called the peripheral services. Customer Analysis The target markets that the ACIC concentrates upon are the demographic and geographic (ACIC, 2010): Demographic Segment Demographic brings into consideration income, age, and sex to name some. The organisation concentrates on age and income since they are differentiating factors in most of the schools. Institutions and schools are differentiated in terms of cost and services offered and thus the cost. Another element is age in that there are students for lower schooling, upper schooling, colleges and universities (Baker, 2003). Geographic Segment People who study in Australia come from different parts of the world. This means that ACIC concentrates on Australian students and students from overseas - resulting in provision of quality services. Customer Expectations Customers usually require quality and appropriate services that suites different environmental conditions or context. The service that is offered has numerous benefits and its performance is appropriate to the people involved because: It provides an appropriate avenue in which students can access reliable and appropriate information Provides other assistance that helps in fulfilling educational requirements Minimisation of time because the consumers access information from a centralised location Perceived Risk Perceived risk is the level in which the customers believes that certain service is that as appropriate or suites their requirements. Perception of the society may affect the way the organisation is viewed, and the services that it provides Psychological views of the customer may inhibit the success of the organisations based on the services that are been offered. The customer may think the service is beyond their financial capabilities, which means the organisation is supposed to price their products within the reach of many consumers. Service Duration/Emotional Content The customer is supposed to feel associated with the service been provided. This means there should be emotional content associated with the delivery of the service such as trust and loyalty and the belief that the service provided is worth the cost. ACIC understands the importance of emotional content, which they champion and ensure they use it to create competitive advantage (ACIC, 2010). Level of Customer-Provider Interaction The interaction between the service provider and the consumer contributes towards satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the service provided. This means those individuals ho provided the education consultancy service in ACIC should be knowledge on the services provided and maxima of the services been provided. Thus, services provided in ACIC requires high competence level, customer experience, and effort to ensure that the customer is satisfied on the services been provided. The boundary of services spans since it incorporates different stakeholders and collaborators such as taxi divers and accommodation providers. Service Product Analysis Physical Evidence The nature and circumstances of the place that the services are been provided. This means that at ACIC offices, the offices are supposed to be presentable, neat, organised, and friendly environment. Thus, physical evidence is paramount in that consumers will perceive based on first sight impression and may affect ACIC perceptual plan of the service (Ruskin-Brown & Clarke, 2000). Role of Servicescape Servicescape refers physical environment in which the service process takes place. Servicescape brings into consideration facilities interior e.g. equipment, layout, interior design, facilities exterior e.g. parking, exterior design, landscape, and other tangibles such as stationary, employees dress and brochures. The physical evidence provides a means in which employees present themselves to the customers, while the consumers may utilise the level of physical evidence to perceive the quality of service provided in the facility (Davids and Newcomb 2006). Cognitive and Affective Responses Physical evidence may affect the way the service of an organisation can be appreciated by the consumers. This means an organisation may utilise physical evidence for competitive advantage since it creates initial and lasting impression of the entire organisation. Consumer behaviour is shaped by perception, society, peers and family members and thus an area that is perceived to be good get higher marks compared to an area that has poor physical evidence. Pricing Strategies Numerous pricing strategies exist, and the circumstances that are used are based on the quality or quantity of the service or the product. Two common strategies exist in many service industries which are cost plus and penetration pricing strategies (Wedel & Kamakura, 1999). Cost plus brings into consideration cost of the supportive services (manufacturing) plus a small amount that is referred to as profit while penetration strategy is fixing a lower price for the services later increasing the price after the organisation has increased market share and has numerous loyal consumers. ACIC utilises cost plus strategy to ensure that they gain competitive advantage by providing affordable services and also making enough revenues to sustain operations of the organisation (ACIC, 2010). Internal Marketing Organisational Culture Organisational culture brings into consideration the norms, values, perceptions and traditions. Employees should understand the requirements and goals of an organisation to be able to provide services based on such requirements. The organisation culture of ACIC supports customer orientation and they are the major factor that has made the organisation be successful for this while (ACIC, 2010). Employee Reward Programs Two strategies are utilised to reward employees, which are individual recognition and team recognition. Individual contributions and teams contributions are rewarded based on customer satisfaction. Moreover, loyalty programs are mostly used for individual employees so that turnover rates of employees are minimised (Ruskin-Brown & Clarke, 2000). Service Provider Emotional Evidence In doing business, emotions can contribute to the success of an organisation or they contribute to failure of an organisation (English, 2006). Emotion is usually associated with temperament, disposition, personality, mood and motivation. Thus, a service provider should ensure they empathise and understand position of the consumer to enable satisfaction of services provided. Marketing Strategy Future Target Markets Segments Future target markets that the company will try to concentrate on are: Online Students Importance and influence of online classes as increased and many students and people do not understand how this provision operates. Thus, the organisational website will be edited and content increased to ensure that this issue is addressed. Exchange Programs The issue of exchange program is gaining advantage in the education fraternity, which means that it is a sector that the organisation can maximise. Brand Positioning The online services and regional offices plus collaboration with agents could improve provision of ACIC services. Product Strategies Differentiation and clear-cut between the services should be championed to ensure that consumers can clearly different between the services offered by the organisation and the services that are offered by third parties. This could prevent poor quality of collaborators from negating the quality of ACIC services (Davids and Newcomb, 2006). Promotional Strategies Advertisements will be carried out in the media, and the organisation will market its services to institutions through provision of pamphlets and brochures. Process and Physical Evidence Strategies Redesigning of all branches to ensure that they have the same colour and the interior and exterior facilities should create a positive and lasting impression. Budgets Expenditure Type Cost in $ (Australian Dollars) Percentage (as per the entire budget) Media Factor Tv 35,000 17.5 Newspapers & Magazines 15,000 7.5 Radio Channels 30,000 15 Billboards 10,000 5 Packages, Receipts, brochures, and pamphlets 5,000 2.5 Exhibitions and visits 20,000 10 Funds Reserved for Publicity (signed up) 15,000 7.5 Market Research (Secondary and primary) 10,000 5 Public Relations (PR) 5,000 2.5 Operational Charges 30,000 15 Miscellaneous 25,000 12.5 Total Expenses 200,000 100 Implementation Task Description Person Responsible Completion Date a) Meeting of directors from different departments to promote the plan and to analyse the budget P.C 1/15 b) Consultation team meet to deliberate on timescale and trial specifics K.P 1/15 c) Definition of the profile of project implementation K.C, L.M 1/22 d) Meeting of stakeholders in marketing to promote the trial and to schedule other important activities M.R 1/30 e) Launch of trial plan All 2/1 f) Analysis of outcome of trial and analysing the feedbacks concerning the implementation of marketing plan, and refinements can be made B.K 2/16 g) Results from trial are assessed and analysed B.A/ All 2/15 h) Marketing plan is launched incorporating all activities of marketing plan strategies B.A 2/18 i) Quarterly reviews are championed B.A 4/1, 7/1, 10/1 Evaluation and Control Marketing strategies bring into consideration numerous strategies to ensure that the organisation achieves its vision and mission requirements (Wedel & Kamakura, 1999). Some common ways that can be utilised to determine the impact of marketing plan includes market share analysis, sales analysis, expense to sale analysis, and marketing audit. Moreover, strategies should be in place to determine the impact of direct marketing e.g. the use of pamphlets and media adverts e.g. the use of TVs. Individuals should be assigned to monitor timing of ads and analyse the impact of such ads. Timescale and budgets should be utilised to control the marketing initiative. References Australian College Information Centre (ACIC) (2010). Our Services. Available at http://www.acic.com.au/ Allred, A., Addams, H.L., and Chakraborty, G., 2007. ‘Is informal planning the key to success of the inc. 500?’ Journal of Small Business Strategy, 18(1): 95-104. Baker, M., 2003. The Marketing Book, 5th Ed. London: Butterworth-Heinemann Publishers. Davids, M., and Newcomb, K., 2006. ‘Planning for marketing success: Turning the “Wheel,” Debt 3, 21(4): 22-25. English, J., 2006. How to Organise & Operate a Small Business in Australia: How to Turn Ideas Into Success, 10th Ed. Sydney: Allen & Unwin Publishers. McDonald, M.H.B., 1992. ‘Ten barriers to marketing planning,’ The journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, 7(1): 5-18. Ruskin-Brown, I. & Clarke, G., 2000. Marketing a Service for profit: A Practical Guide to Key Service Marketing Concepts. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Steuernagel, R., 1998. Cellular Marketing, New York: John Wiley and Sons Publishers. Wedel, M. & Kamakura, W., 1999. Market Segmentation: Conceptual and Methodological Foundation, 2nd Ed. New York: Springer Publishers. Weinstein, A., 2004. Handbook of Market Segmentation: Strategic Targeting for Business and Technology Firms, 3rd Ed. London: Haworth Publishers. Read More