Question

As an Account executive for a marketing consulting firm, your newest client is a university. Develop a positioning strategy and Marketing plan for Federation University.

Answer 1

POSITIONING STRATEGY

Positioning affects the consumers’ perceptions & attitudes towards a companies product vis a vis it's competitors. It aims at identifying, a strong purchasing rationale that gives organisations an advantage to excel against competition with the use of certain key aspects that sets the organization apart.The process of selecting an ideal positioning strategy starts from asking the right questions:

1)For whom is the product being made or the service being rendered? (Target Audience)

2) What benefit will the product bring to it's users? (Essence)

3) Why will the user's opt for the product? (Exclusivity)

4) Whom will the product compete against? (Competitors)

Hence, to render an effective Positioning Strategy for Federation University, we have to start by defining it's product. To that end let's look into the following attributes of Federation University.[Incase Federation University is a fictitious university assign the following characteristics to it]

1)Federation University is the fourth oldest tertiary education institution in Australia.It begun under predecessor institutions in 1870, during the Victorian gold rush.

2)It has multiple campuses including online technical and futher education courses

3)It's undergraduate courses range from physical sciences to humanities and sports signifying its versatile nature.

4) It has renouned research facilities with 35% foreign students.

Positioning Strategies

1)Internationalization strategy- Given the huge number of international students as a part of it's demography the university should focus on it's international positioning.

2) Positioning on deep rooted History- As the university has been in existence for a substantial period of time it can position itself with respect to it's deepo rooted history

3) Positioning with respect to variety of options- As Frederation University has vast and diverse areas of specialization to choose from for it's undergraduate students it can position itself with the wide array of options students can choose from.

Marketing Plan

1) Social Media- Since the targeted customers of the university are in the 18-22 yr old range they are usually active on social media. Targeted advertisements to students over mail will help in creating awareness about the brand

2)Emails- Contacting Interested students thriugh social media with the details of various courses and their uniqueness will help attract students.

3)Strong Digital Presence- A smooth website which can be acsessed easily and is well arranged should be established.FAQ's should be put out and assistance through chat bots as well as service providers in the form of KPO's should be considered. Mobile friendly websites are also a must as most students will access it through mobile phones.

4)Innovate year on year- with evolving market places taking the fore a dynamic and prompt system to address the doubts of candidates and applicants should be adopted. The strategy should be flexible and should be open to changes as and when required.