1) Marketing departments in universities have lost focus on key aspects of marketing like product, price and placement, and instead focus only on promotions. 2) To be effective, marketing departments need to influence all areas of the marketing mix and drive program development by providing data and expertise on industry trends. 3) Developing compelling business cases for new programs that consider student needs and market opportunities can help marketing departments gain influence over academic decisions and boost enrollment.

1. Back to Basics
The traditional approach to
increasing enrolments
John Miles
Brand and Marketing Specialist
Business Development Professional

2. Marketing Departments have a
problem in most
Higher Education Institutions
They have lost 3 of the P’s

3. And replaced them with 1 P
Policies
The number 1 enemy of good business sense!

4. Marketing Departments have little or no impact on
Product
Price
Placement
in most Higher Education Institutions

5. A typical University definition of the Marketing Role
The Marketing Manager provides strategic and tactical marketing
advice and support to senior academic staff (bring in the students!)

6. What this means in practice
Make us an advertisement
Run an event
Produce a brochure
Design us a webpage
And when we didn’t get enough
students – its marketing’s fault

7. Research of 10 Australian Universities showed marketing
departments’ key responsibilities were for
advertising, communications, events
and student liaison

8. Typical examples
"The Office of Marketing & Communications provides strategic
leadership for all aspects of marketing communication at Uni A”.
“Marketing Services provides strategic advice and assistance to faculties
and divisions on marketing communication across a range of audience
groups. It is responsible for managing the Uni B brand and, as part of an
integrated approach, advises on and approves all communication
materials in line with new visual identity guidelines”

9. Yet we all know if we have the wrong product or
price or deliver it in the wrong place the
result is inevitable!

10. Marketing Departments need to be
marketing departments not
Promotions Departments

11. BUT University policies and academics want to keep marketing
departments in their box!
How does marketing break out of this box?

12. By driving Program Development
Being the expert on all data relating to subject
areas.
Developing compelling business cases
“You can never go to far wrong by thinking
like a customer who is new to the business”
Richard Branson

13. 1. Source of current business, size of
market
2. All industry trends
3. Innovations in content locally and
internationally
An expert will be the oracle on all to do
with the programs

14. You can drive development if
you are the person who is
asked the question what’s
happening out there!

15. 1. Where do students come from?
̴ Geographic
̴ Top schools
̴ Demographic
̴ How delivered?
2. Size of market – what’s happening with
competitors? What’s our share?
Source of Current Business

16. 1. What’s happening in the industry
2. Job prospects
Industry Trends

17. 1. New courses within degrees
2. New degrees related to subject
3. Delivery methods – online, blended
4. Customer experience
Innovations in content locally and
internationally

18. 1. Students for life – attend any
course every 2 years
2. Specialised MBA learning spaces
3. Teachers who are 50% consultants
4. Made to feel very special

19. ButI hear you say – we must be getting
more students as we are focused on communicating!

20. Instead of brand advertising we are getting
Bland Advertising

23. Paid Advertising Jan.-June 2013 (excluding
search-word advertising)
Non-profit institutions - $302.0 million
For-profit institutions - $268.5 million
Total - $570.5 million
And a lot of money is spent promoting
mundane messages

24. “Universities waste too much of
their advertising budgets on
rather pointless attempts to
differentiate themselves”.
“Thousands of marketing
committee hours are spent
coming up with positioning
statements like "learn, think,
do", "live, learn, thrive", and
"making life happen".
Professor Byron Sharpe, Director
Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for
Marketing Science

25. “Few staff, let alone the
students or other customers of
the university, learn these
slogans before they are
changed (again)”.
“Unsurprisingly, a survey of
staff of 180 US universities
showed that their most
common response to their own
Uni slogan was embarrassment
(McKnight & Paugh 1999)”.
Professor Byron Sharpe, Director
Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for
Marketing Science

26. University brand
Build through PR, web, staff, awards, rankings
Credibility that we are a good institution,
as good as the myriad of others
Programs that we are brilliant at – study here
Boosting enrolments will happen by focusing efforts
at program level

27. Students want to know that the program they want
to study is great

28. It’s a worthwhile investment in their time
and money

29. It will help them get to where they want to go

30. As long as we have the right product at
the right price, delivered how
students want it!

31. Example of Successful Program led Marketing –
Bay of Plenty Polytechnic
The Marketing Department
̴ Experts at research
̴ Academics were our clients
̴ Drove program development
̴ All new programs had to be approved
by Marketing Manager
̴ Drove institution innovation

32. Started with generic advertisements highlighting key
institution advantage – our location
Integrated approach

33. Integrated approach
Getting prospective students
on campus
Consistent communication

34. Mature market – worked
with local newspaper
High School students
Integrated approach

35. And teacher professional development
days on campus –
they became our advocates!

36. We did this for all major programs

37. The Results

38. Program advertising can be
interesting, provocative!

39. Focusing on programs lets students
know what they are going to get and be!

40. So how do I get buy in?
By developing compelling business cases
̴ Full business case
̴ Strategic plan
̴ Opportunity cost
̴ Marketing plan – not a promotions plan

41. Great example of a marketing plan an
academic might read

42. One Page Summary
Objectives Strategic Initiatives Tactics
Primary
Objective
Secondary
Objective
Any more than 4 initiatives
and they won’t get done
Major items that will impact
your business, achieve your
objectives
Strategic Initiatives are always
actions such as launching
online, opening new market
Key tactics to support
strategic initiatives
Body of plan has detail
and rationale
Focuses effort and spend
on the things that will
make a difference

43. Body of Marketing Plan
Executive Summary
State of Business
Objectives/Strategic Initiatives/Tactics
Financial Implications
Milestones

44. If you really want to boost enrolments
You need to innovate
To innovate, you have to consider all the 4 P’s

45. And having the right product is at the
core of boosting enrolments

46. A last example
̴ 2009 – Dept A generated $155,000 in revenue
from one online postgraduate program through
Open Universities of Australia
̴ Developed a marketing plan focused on face to
face interaction (EXPO’s etc.)
̴ Made strategic decision to raise prices 10% year
on year

47. A last example
̴ End of Year 1, decided to develop new variant as
result of the personal contact
̴ Opportunity came up to extend into
undergraduate space. Had to help head of
department convince staff to participate
(compelling business case)

48. • Postgraduate income up to $950,000
• Undergraduate income $1,900,000
• Total for 2013 $2,850,000

49. Summary
Universities can be a bit slow

50. Policies are important but can be the number one killer
of good business sense and market development
And many
are just plain
silly!

51. Marketing Departments in Higher
Education have to evolve into being
a true Marketing Department
not a Promotions/Communications
Department

52. the 4 P’s, not just 1 P
Higher Education Marketers
have to be involved all
aspects of the marketing mix

53. Be the one that is asked
What’s Happening?
Think DifferentAnd, of course

54. Thanks for your time
John Miles
Brand and Marketing Specialist
Business Development Professional