Promotional Strategies for ABC College-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Marketing Policies to be Implemented by ABC College. Answer: Introduction Education sector is one of the most attractive and profitable sectors in the present scenario (Breneman 2012). Numerous new educational institutions are entering this sector to gain a pie of market share (Casidy 2013). Existing institutions are diversifying their offered courses to cater to more number of customers. ABC College was established on 2008 and gradually it is growing. They are intending to launch new course named, Certificate IV in marketing. They are also intending to enter in the global market by catering to overseas students. However, extensive marketing policies need to be implemented to aware and attract the probable students. This report will discuss about the suitable promotional strategies for ABC College along with all the aspects of marketing policies. Recommendation will be discussed based on the findings to further improve the effectiveness of the promotional strategies of them. Marketing policy To push their new course and to attract international students, ABC College has implemented various marketing strategies. Attending different career fairs and expos can be a beneficial strategy (Osbom et al. 2014). This will enable them to increase their identity in the international market and have the information regarding the expectation of the international students. It will also provide the option of meeting the probable leads physically and resolve their queries. Marketing through social media is another effective tool to reach out to larger audience. The probable customers for them will be from the younger generation and majority of them are comfortable in the social media (Burchell, Rettie and Patel 2013). Thus, it will be beneficial for them to communicate to the target audience in a two-way approach. Consulting agents are also beneficial in providing students from various regions without the direct involvement of the college. They also act as the branch around the world. Therefore, through them, students from different regions around the world will have the access to their courses offered and can get admission from there. The last effective promotional strategy is generating positive word of mouth. ABC College already has large number of existing students from different departments. They can act as the marketing agents by transmitting good word of mouth about the college (Sweeney et al. 2012). If the service provided to them is good then, they will automatically transfer it to their known circle. It can be act as a good and effective tool for marketing. These promotional strategies are compliant with the promotional policy of ABC College. All the queries of the students irrespective of their cast, creed and religion will be solved. Third party consultancy are being instructed about not providing false and bubbled up information to the customers. In transmission of word of mouth, prevention of leakage of any private and confidential information will be the top most priority (Heatherly et al. 2013). Marketing objectives The main objectives of the promotional strategy will be to attract more students and gain more recognition in the international market (Kotler et al. 2015). The newly introduced course is unknown to the probable students. Thus, promotional activities should cover the major part in promoting the new course. Another marketing objective of ABC College is to gain foothold in the Korean market. ABC College has zero presence there, thus it is important for them to attract students from there. First step of marketing should attract probable students. Social media marketing should be initiated to communicate with the international students. It is difficult to determine the expectation of the international students without being there. Marketing through social media will enable them to communicate with the students more effectively (Tuten and Solomon 2014). For the Korean market, the promotional strategies should be customized according to their requirement and preference pattern. The second step will be to resolve their individual queries by meeting them physically through different expos and fairs. The cost for online media marketing will be nearly $5000 and the cost for attending expos and fairs will be $10000 approx. Total budget for the entire promotional activities should be $20000. From the total budget, $15000 will be for the activities and $5000 will be used for student visit, consultancy expenses and miscellaneous expenses. Separate designated work force is required to drive the promotional activities. New course launch function Promotional Campaign Course launch function Campaign duration: 3 months Campaign objectives: To aware the potential students about the new course Marketing activity Resources required Staff responsible Deadline Cost Organizing seminars in various locations. Addressing the queries of the students. Devices for conducting seminars. Marketing team and consultants responsible for conducting seminars. 1 month before the start of the session. $12000 Advertisement in Korean magazines Promotional Campaign Promotional advertising in Korean print media Campaign duration: 6 months Campaign objectives: To attract Korean students and gain a foothold there. Marketing activity Resources required Staff responsible Deadline Cost Advertising through various print, media customized according to the preference pattern of the Korean customers. Local human resource and manager to monitor the effectiveness of the advertisement. Promotional team responsible for overseas market. 1 month before the start of the session. $171000 Marketing coordination Marketing strategies to be implemented are being discussed in the management. Majority of the members are agreed with the policies. Allotments of the members are done according to the background and qualification of the members. A specific department to look after the international students is being incorporated. Recruitment of new employees is also being discussed. New employees are required to look after the activities around the world. A separate team will be initiated for the Korean market only. Diversified workforce will be maintained to meet the different preference pattern of the students around the world (Saxena 2014). New employees will be recruited with the help of local recruitment consultancy in the particular region. Budget has been partly allocated by the finance department of ABC College and partly will be allocated by determining the initial output of the activities. Launch function will be conducted simultaneously in various locations. Auditorium will be the best place to conduct. Time duration will be of 2 hours and will be conducted in the evening to attract from audience. Guest will include prominent individuals from the marketing fields, professors from ABC College and will be open to any students or people. It will be interactive session and various queries will be discussed (Fink 2013). For the Korean market, advertisements will be according to the requirement of the Korean students. Focus group Focus group meeting was being conducted with the selected audience to gain an authentic feedback from them about the implemented promotional strategies (Stewart and Shamdasani 2014). It is being seen that, implementing new strategies has garner interest among the probable students. They are now more aware about the courses offered in ABC College. Extensive advertisement has also generated required recognition in the market. Thus, consultants are now more interested about this college. Added services providing by the college is attracting more overseas students. Recommendations Customized promotional activities such as the activities done in the Korean market will have to be initiated for other markets also. It will helps in attracting more students from the different regions if the benefits can be communicated to them properly. More overseas students are enrolling in this college. Hence, seats should be increased in order to admit more students. This is due to the reasons that, negative image will be created if students are denied seats. Customer support should be more effective in order to address the increasing queries of the student (Tucker 2013). Holistic approach of monitoring is required to look after the promotional teams and consultancies to determine their effectiveness. Conclusion Having analyzed various aspects of the marketing policies to be implemented by ABC College, this report concludes that effective marketing strategies are being initiated by them. Analyzing the feedback of the students and the consultants, it is seen that, these strategies are generating positive image for the college. Strategies are also effective in terms of enrolling more students. Further improvements by following the above discussed recommendations will help them to penetrate in more markets References Breneman, D.W., 2012.Earnings from learning: The rise of for-profit universities. SUNY Press. Burchell, K., Rettie, R. and Patel, K., 2013. Marketing social norms: social marketing and the social norm approach.Journal of Consumer Behaviour,12(1), pp.1-9. Casidy, R., 2013. 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