Market Segmentation and Integrated Marketing Communication of Algonquin College Kuwait

This article discusses the market segmentation and integrated marketing communication strategies of Algonquin College Kuwait. It explores the geographic, economic, and psychographic segmentation strategies used by the college to attract students and generate high revenue. The article also provides recommendations for specific IMC objectives, strategies, and tactics that the college should adopt.

Running head: B2B IMC
B2B in IMC
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Introduction:
Market segmentation and integrated marketing communication play pivotal roles in
ensuring high profitability of private organisations. The private organisations involved in diverse
sectors have to integrate these two marketing concepts to ensure that they generate high profits to
support their own businesses. The fact also applies to the private organisations operating in the
education sector. This is because provision of education involves immense investments towards
acquisition of fixed assets like property for erect the campus, furniture and set-ups like
laboratories to simulate real life situations to impart education to students. The private
educational institutes also have to recruit highly qualified teaching staff members to impart
quality education to students which in turn attributes them with the market goodwill. Moreover,
these educational institutes in order to ensure smooth operations, have to acquire highly qualified
staff members in non-teaching departments like accounts. Thus, it is evident from the discussion
that the private educational bodies have to target appropriate base of students which would
attribute them with high revenue generation. They have to from power integrated marketing
communication strategies to ensure that they are able to market their educational services before
an immense base of prospective students to be able to generate high revenue. The aim of the
report is to delve into the market segmentation and integrated marketing communication of IMC
of one of the most prestigious private colleges based in Kuwait namely, the Algonquin College
Kuwait, the Kuwaiti branch of the Algonquin College, based in Canada (Ac-kuwait.edu.kw,
2019).
Market segmentation of Algonquin College, Kuwait (AC-Kuwait):
The Algonquin College Kuwait is required to form a formidable market segmentation
strategy in order to ensure that it is able to attract appropriate students’ base to impart education

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in graduation and diploma courses to generate high revenue. Huerta-Muñoz, Ríos-Mercado and
Ruiz (2017) define market segmentation as the strategy of categorising the entire customer base
into groups or segments based on common needs. The market segmentation takes into account
factors like purchase power and lifestyle of customers which goes into creation of the common
needs among several customers. Bruwer and Li (2017) strengthen the discussion by mentioning
that markets segmentation does not only allow in marketing of products but also identifying the
appropriate methods which can be used to communicate with specific customer bases. Thus, it is
evident that market segmentation lays the substratum for appropriate integrated marketing
communication strategy. The Algonquin College, Kuwait would be required to form a powerful
market segmentation strategy prior to forming an IMC strategy. The following are the market
segmentation strategies of the Algonquin College:
Geographic segmentation:
The first segmentation category which the Algonquin College would consider would be
geographic segmentation. Hemsley-Brown (2017) defines market segmentation as the process of
dividing the customer base on the base of the countries, states, cities or any other geographic
identification. The authors further go on to mention that the geographic segmentation stands on
the assumptions that customers of specific regions have specific needs. As far as the Algonquin
College is concerned, the college provides educational services to students, who are its end
customers. The Admission Requirement’ section mentions clearly mentions that the mothers of
prospective students should be Kuwaiti by citizenship. This refers to strong emphasis on
geographical segmentation in the segmentation strategy of the college. Pérez and del Bosque
(2015) support this discussion by linking geographic segmentation with corporate social
responsibility. This opinion of the previous author is supported by Alvarado-Herrera et al.(2017).

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They mention that geographic segmentation of the customer bases of companies enable them to
serve specific customer base within selected countries. For example, the Algonquin College
though Canadian by origin, clearly mentions that the college employs students who are Kuwaiti
citizens. This way the college restrict entry of foreign students in the AC-Kuwait which
minimises the competition which Kuwaiti students would be faced from foreign students. This
availability of the facilities exclusively enables the college provide superior education to Kuwaiti
students. This enables the college to educate the local community and ensure professional
development of the students. Thus, the geographic segmentation of the market enables the
college to partner with various stakeholders like local communities and bring about development
among the latter. Thus, it is evident from the discussion that geographic segmentation enables the
Algonquin College to generate high revenue by entering into attracting large number of students,
its end customers.
Economic segmentation:
The second segmentation strategy of the Algonquin would consist of economic
segmentation. Manasakis, Mitrokostas and Petrakis (2018) defines economic segmentation as the
process of differentiating between customers on the grounds of their income and spending
capabilities. Amaeshi, Adegbite and Rajwani (2016) opine that the appropriate economic
segmentation enables the private organisations to cater to appropriate customer base which
would generate high revenue. Pérez and del Bosque (2015) strengthen the discussion by pointing
out that generation of sufficient revenue enables the private organisations to mobilise funds
towards support CSR initiatives like providing education to underprivileged children. As far as
the Algonquin College is concerned, the college provides education to upper class students who
can afford expensive educational courses. This enables the college to generate huge revenue

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which has established it a high-end private college in Kuwait. The college owing to its high
revenue generation is able to invest in acquiring infrastructure like state of art computer
laboratories which enables impart of quality education. This enables the college to partner with
top multinational companies which employ the students after their completion of the courses.
Thus, it can be established that the economic segmentation strategy of the Algonquin College
paves way for partnerships with companies and other colleges.
Psychographic segmentation:
Saha and Kumar (2016) defines psychographic segmentation as the division of the
customer base on lifestyle, tastes and personality. The Algonquin College provides education to
students who are career oriented. Thus, psychographically, the student base of the college can be
termed as career oriented and ambitious. The official website of the college mentions clearly that
the students can enjoy extra-curriculum activities like sports. Thus, in other the students are
expected to be aligned towards sports and healthy lifestyle.
Recommendation of specific Integrated Marketing Communication Objective, Strategies
and tactics:
It is recommended that the Algonquin College should adopt an integrated marketing
communication strategy as attached. The IMC should cover three objectives. The first objective
of the strategy should be getting access to a large customer base of prospective base of students
aiming to pursue higher education in renowned international colleges. The second objective
should be building partnerships with companies like international publication houses of books
and study materials which would enable the college to gain access to books and study materials
at low costs. This would enable the college to provide superior education to students and keep
the cost of operation low, thus boosting its net profit generation. The third objective of the IMC

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would be boosting the career placement capabilities of the college, thus enabling attracting
highly talented students to receive education. The following are the IMC strategies which the
college should adopt to achieve the aforementioned objectives:
Official website:
The Algonquin College should use its official website to promote its services. The
official website of the college should educate the stakeholders like the prospective students about
the facilities and courses it provides. The official website should also provide information about
the future courses which the college would incorporate in its product line. This method of
communication would also enable the college attract highly qualified teachers to impart
education at the campus in Kuwait. Thus, it is evident that this method of marketing
communication would promote the business generation of the college.
Corporate visits:
The departmental heads of the college should visit leading multinational companies in
Kuwait. This would enable the college to enter into partnership with these companies to employ
the students of the college post their completion of education. These partnerships would enable
the college to attract highly talented students from the upper class to receive education at its
premises. This would boost the revenue generation of the college and enable it to attract more
students.
Partnership with leading publishing houses:
The Algonquin College should partner with leading international publication houses of
books and study materials. These partnership would enable the college to acquire these books
and study materials at economic rates. This would enable it to provide superior education to

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students at lower costs. The college would be able to keep the cost of provision of education low
and earn high rates of net profits.
Social media promotions:
The Algonquin College must promote its educational services on the social media
platforms like Youtube and Facebook. The videos which the college would upload on the social
media platform should give information about salient aspects of the college like the courses it
provides and awards it has won. This would enable the college to get access to a large base of
students among whom it would promote its services.
The tactics which the Algonquin College would promote would be first its high standard
of educational service provision and the talented staff members which constitute its teaching
staff board. The college should also use its state of art facilities and the campus to attract students
from rich upper class families.
Conclusion:
It can be concluded that the Algonquin College Kuwait should use its segmentation
strategy to attract a large base of students. The college as already discussed, should segment its
market geographically, economically and psychographically. However, it can also be suggested
that the management of the college should allow admission of foreign students from other
countries as well to receive education at the renowned institute. This would enable the college to
attract large base of foreign students which would ultimately boost its revenue generation. It can
also be pointed out that the company should use IMC aggressive to acquire more students. The
IMC should include its official website, partnerships and social media presence.

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References:
Ac-kuwait.edu.kw. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.ac-kuwait.edu.kw/welcome
Alvarado-Herrera, A., Bigne, E., Aldas-Manzano, J., & Curras-Perez, R. (2017). A scale for
measuring consumer perceptions of corporate social responsibility following the
sustainable development paradigm. Journal of Business Ethics, 140(2), 243-262.
Amaeshi, K., Adegbite, E., & Rajwani, T. (2016). Corporate social responsibility in challenging
and non-enabling institutional contexts: Do institutional voids matter?. Journal of
Business Ethics, 134(1), 135-153.
Bruwer, J., & Li, E. (2017). Domain-specific market segmentation using a latent class mixture
modelling approach and wine-related lifestyle (WRL) algorithm. European Journal of
Marketing, 51(9/10), 1552-1576.
Hemsley-Brown, J. (2017). Higher Education Market Segmentation. Encyclopedia of
International Higher Education Systems and Institutions, 1-3.
Huerta-Muñoz, D. L., Ríos-Mercado, R. Z., & Ruiz, R. (2017). An iterated greedy heuristic for a
market segmentation problem with multiple attributes. European Journal of Operational
Research, 261(1), 75-87.
Manasakis, C., Mitrokostas, E., & Petrakis, E. (2018). Strategic corporate social responsibility by
a multinational firm. Review of International Economics, 26(3), 709-720.
Pérez, A., & del Bosque, I. R. (2015). How customer support for corporate social responsibility
influences the image of companies: Evidence from the banking industry. Corporate
Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 22(3), 155-168.

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Pérez, A., & del Bosque, I. R. (2015). How customers construct corporate social responsibility
images: Testing the moderating role of demographic characteristics. BRQ Business
Research Quarterly, 18(2), 127-141.
Saha, N., & Kumar, B. (2016). Concordance of Psychographic Pattern of Junior College
Students & Initially Employed Youths In Silchar, Assam: An Empirical
Analysis. International Journal in Management & Social Science, 4(1), 279-292.