A Strategic Marketing Plan For The Norwich Student Market

A strategic marketing plan for the Norwich student market

Market Analysis

Student Markets

Norwich Institution of higher education have been notorious for ignoring shifts in their markets, as proved by history, but one must admit that a college's exchange with its market is more complex than the simple product-money exchange between busiMarketing Planning for Colleges and Universities 109 nesses and their customers. Colleges have two markets in which they perform exchanges. The product of education is exchanged for money with the clients or students, but the students do not pay enough to cover the actual cost, so another exchange between donors and colleges must occur.

The donors receive tenuous 'positive feelings' for their contributions. A college's image is of tremendous importance both in attracting students and in soliciting donations, and when the image and strategic unit research is taking place, another type of study-a determination of the needs of the potential students, what they are seeking in a college-should be conducted. Higher education has been accused for being too product-oriented when it should focus more on its markets, both students and donors. Businesses are well aware of the marketing concept which basically states:

We're not the boss, the consumer is. What the consumc'r wants, the consumer gets. Under the marketing concept, the consumer is at the top of the organization chart." A good place to start would probably be with current students, then shifting to the communities from which the college draws most of its students to see if there are potential, untapped students whose needs the college could serve. Krachenberg points out that finding the needs of the various distinct markets is itself not enough, but the colleges must also discover their 'wants', their sizes, and how they are changing. For instance, a college might locate a group of people who arc working fLll1 time and fleed computer science courses for their jobs. Their rzeeds would be evening or weekend courses, but they might ~lufzt child care facilities, ten-week terms rather than semesters, courses of limited student size, access to a career counsellor, or a myriad of other offerings. Fulfilling some of the

Colleges have been slow moving Norwich Institution historically, but when they are faced with extinction, they become less lethargic and more creative. The 'new' idea is 'adults'. In fact, more adults are on college campuses now than have ever been before, with some colleges having over 40 per cent of their enrollments being adults. Some colleges arc clearly hoping that adults uTil1 offset the decline in traditional enrollments."" Having more adults on campus is important because of the revenue they contribute, but there are other benefits to be gained from having older students in classes. Colleges with noticeable adult cnrollmcnts have reported a more mature atmosphere, increased evening enrollments, which were traditionally light, and livelier class discussions due to the experience that adults could bring to academics. There is disagreement about whether adults in the United States will continue to attend colleges as ...