Marketing in Education Sector | Report

RUNNING HEAD: MARKETING IN EDAUCATION SECTOR
MANAGEMENT
ACADEMIC AND BUSINESS RESEARCH

MARKETING IN EDAUCATION SECTOR 1
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Marketing mix theory.............................................................................................................2
Independent variable..................................................................................................................3
Dependent variable.....................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
Bibliography...............................................................................................................................7
Appendix....................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The research report focuses on the concept of ‘Marketing’. It refers to the promotion of a
brand for fulfilling the marketing objectives of an organization (Kumar, 2015). Considering
the report structure, the initial section includes the factors affecting the strategic marketing of
the organization. The next section comprises of various strategies for improvement in
marketing. The succeeding part covers the findings of the research in a brief manner. The key
objective of the report is to emphasize on the strategic factors affecting organization and
suitable methods for improvement in marketing in a rapidly changing education market.
Marketing mix theory
According to Shaw (2012) marketing includes the activities for advertising, selling and
delivering products to the end users. The author develops the application of secondary
research to avail information based on marketing. It attains a high significance as it allows the
company to gain high recognition, consumers and financial gains. According to the writer
developing the target market allows in easy conducting the marketing activities. Choice of
right marketing strategy requires adequate knowledge to yield best result. It is a significant
element of business success to gain the attention of potential customers or target market
(Shaw, 2012).
According to Naidoo and Wu (2011), the 4ps of marketing mix framework determines the
feasibility of a venture. The appropriate usage of Product, Price, Place and Promotion allows
the organization to gain high financial return and success (Naidoo & Wu, 2011). According
to Festa et al (2016), feasibility is achieved by offering valuable service, under reasonable
price, at convenient place that is easily accessible by the customers and by availing the use of
right platform for product/service promotion (Festa et al., 2016).
According to Shaw (2012), marketing mix theory involves developing strategies for
effectiveness in Product, Price, Place and Promotion (Shaw, 2012). It is analyzed that the
organization should lay high attention in the marketing of an educational course. Initially it
should focus on its target market (youth) that includes competent, genuine, and skilful
students suitable for the course. It will allow the organization to devote better attention on its
marketing.

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Independent variable
The authors named Pour et al. (2013) have developed the use of primary research to analyze
the effect of marketing mix. They have framed a questionnaire and included total 30
questions to collect information from the respondent. The author focuses on the element of
marketing mix and stated that product (or service) is offered to the customers in return for the
price (Pour et al., 2013).
Product
According to Mintz and Currium (2013) product is the commodity offered to the customer in
return for the price. It can be tangible or intangible and it is the actual item held in the market
for sale. From the author’s views, it is realized that Product element of marketing mix highly
affects the strategic marketing. The author states that product should offer high benefits and it
must fulfill the actual need of the customers. The business organization should develop the
use of quality raw material for the manufacturing of a product. They stated that product
offering inadequate benefits and delivering minimum level of performance will gave rise to
unsatisfied customers. Therefore, failure in providing quality product and service will
minimize the benefits generated from other elements of marketing mix. The business
organizations should rely on ‘Quality focused’ strategy in the manufacturing of products.
Offering quality products to the customers assist the organization in raising its market share,
total customer and reputation in the market. The business organization should consider the
lifecycle of the product to address any form of challenge. It will allow the organization to
solve the potential problems that may arise in the process of product usage. The authors have
stated that the organization should devote efforts to develop distinct products from its
competitors as it will allow in gaining competitive advantage (Mintz & Currim, 2013).
Price
According to Day (2011), price is the amount charged from the customers in return for the
product/service. The author has stated that price has a high impact on the marketing mix as it
influences the positioning of the product in the market. He stated that developing the use of
appropriate pricing strategy allows the organization to easily attract the customers towards
the product/service. The product price should be in accordance with the value offered by the
product/service. According to the authors, Penetration, Skimming, Competition and Premium
pricing are key forms of pricing strategies for a product. The Penetration pricing involves
assigning low price to a product/service to capture a high market share. It is mainly suitable

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to develop a strong customer base in the market. The organization engaged in high
production of commodities to achieve economies of scale and it enables the company to offer
products at low price. The skimming pricing involves setting high price initially and then
lowering the price. It is highly suitable for new entrant to gain the attention of large number
of customers. It is mainly adopted by organization offering a unique product with high
benefits. The competition pricing is set in accordance with the level of competition prevailing
in the market. The organization charges high price in the presence of high number of rivals
offering homogenous products to the customers and vice versa. The authors stated that
premium pricing is mainly assigned to luxury products with an aim of developing a
perception of ‘high quality product among the customers in the market (Day, 2011).
Place
According to the Pour et al. (2013) place refers to the distribution channel opted for
delivering product and service to the potential customers (Pour et al., 2013). The organization
should opt for suitable distribution channel to make the product/service easily available to the
customers. It involves direct and indirect distribution channel to offer the product/service to
the end users. The direct distribution channel involvers selling product and service directly to
the customers. It is mainly opted by organizations engaged in production of luxury
commodities. It helps the organizations in early satisfaction of the cravings of the customers.
It allows the organization to easily connect with the customers and effectively respond to
product performance, queries and suggestions. The direct contact with the customers enables
in developing better interpersonal relation with the customers. It helps in collection of
valuable data about customers buying habits. It assists in minimizing the distribution cost as
the organization does not have to incur cost in intermediaries. It also enables in delivering
right product and minimizing competition with the rivals. The indirect distribution channel
involves the inclusion of intermediaries to offer product/service to the customers. It allows
the organization to target larger customer base with the assistance of intermediaries in the
distribution channel. It minimizes the complexity of managing distribution logistics.
Additionally, the organization should rely on convenience and prime location for offering
product/service to the customers (Pour et al., 2013).

MARKETING IN EDAUCATION SECTOR 5
Promotion
According to Zhou and Wang (2014), promotion includes the marketing activities undertaken
by the company for attracting the number of customers. For promoting the course, the
organizational should seek for suitable marketing platform. There are multiple forms of
marketing strategies for gaining the customer’s attention towards the product/service. It
includes word of mouth, internet marketing, social media marketing, paid promotion and
many more. The word of mouth marketing is highly effective and consider more genuine and
trustworthy by the customers. The consumer interest towards the product/service is reflected
in the daily dialogues. The internet marketing is an economical method to reach the target
audience. It involves developing the use of email and web for the promotion of
product/services. According to the author, the marketer should avail the use of social media
marketing for the promotion of product/service. They added that with the passing years the
social media usage has increased among the customers. It will help the marketer to have an
access to large customer base on a single platform and it will enable in easily connecting with
the potential customers. There are multiple social media channels for availing the benefit of
social media marketing and it includes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp and Wechat.
The social media usage differ from country to country therefore, the marketer should opt for
highly used social media according to the host country (Zhou & Wang, 2014).
Dependent variable
According to Varadarajan (2015), strategic marketing refers to developing customer centred
strategies, plan and approaches with an aim of raising the profitability of an organization. He
rely on the application of secondary research based on improved strategic marketing. It is a
method availed by an organization to provide better product and services to the customers
(Kellezi, 2014). It allows the organization to distinct themselves from the competitors and
providing valuable product/service in a consistent manner. It allows the organization to
achieve a sustainable competitive advantage (Milichovsky & Simberova, 2015). It enables
right allocation of resources and exploiting them to gain full benefit. It helps the organization
in determining as how to compete in the market and assessing the base for achieving a
competitive advantage. It is highly beneficial to understand the customers as it assist in
raising satisfied customers and developing better word of mouth in the market (Varadarajan,
2015). The improved strategic marketing is highly dependent on each element of marketing
mix. Creation of marketing strategies is highly essential for making an improvement in this

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area. This is because adopting suitable marketing strategies will only help the organization to
give rise to improved strategic marketing. Therefore, it clearly states that the organization
should lay high attention on improved strategic marketing as it offer many pros and benefits
in building competitive advantage against the competitors.
Conclusion
The reports summarizes on marketing of education program in Australia. From the above
discussion, it is acknowledged that marketing mix (Product, Price, Place and Promotion)
forms the part of independent factors and improved strategic marketing is a dependent
variable laying an impact on the organization’s strategic marketing. Therefore, it concludes
that the organization should develop the appropriate usage of marketing mix as improved
strategic marketing is highly depended on this factor.

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Bibliography
Day, G.S., 2011. Closing the marketing capabilities gap. Journal of marketing, 75(4), pp.183-
95.
Festa, G., Cuomo, M.T., Metallo, G. & Festa, A., 2016. The (r) evolution of wine marketing
mix: From the 4Ps to the 4Es. Journal of Business Research, 69(5), pp.1550-55.
Hughes, C., 2019. Social media usage Australia 2019 by brand. [Online] Available at:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/729950/australia-social-media-usage-by-brand/ [Accessed
21 January 2020].
Kellezi, J., 2014. Trade shows: A strategic marketing tool for global competition. Procedia
Economics and Finance, 9(1), pp.466-71.
Kumar, V., 2015. Evolution of marketing as a discipline: What has happened and what to
look out for. Journal of Marketing, 79(1), pp.1-9.
Milichovsky, F. & Simberova, I., 2015. Marketing effectiveness: Metrics for effective
strategic marketing. Engineering economics, 26(2), pp.211-19.
Mintz, O. & Currim, I.S., 2013. What drives managerial use of marketing and financial
metrics and does metric use affect performance of marketing-mix activities?. Journal of
Marketing, 77(2), pp.17-40.
Naidoo, V. & Wu, T., 2011. Marketing strategy implementation in higher education: A mixed
approach for model development and testing. Journal of marketing management, 27,
pp.1117-41.
Pinterest, 2020. EPIQ Course. [Online] Available at:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/89086898866108477/ [Accessed 23 January 2020].
Pour, B.S., Nazari, K. & Emami, M., 2013. The effect of marketing mix in attracting
customers:Case study of Saderat Bank in Kermanshah Province. African Journal of Business
Management, 7(34), pp.3272-80.
Pour, B.S., Nazari, K. & Emami, M., 2013. The effect of marketing mix in attracting
customers:Case study of saderat bank in Kermanshah Province.. African Journal of Business
Management, 7(34).

MARKETING IN EDAUCATION SECTOR 8
Shaw, E.H., 2012. Marketing strategy. Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, 4.
Varadarajan, R., 2015. Strategic marketing, marketing strategy and market strategy. AMS
review, 5, pp.78-90.
Zhou, L. & Wang, T., 2014. Social media: A new vehicle for city marketing in China. Cities,
37, pp.27-32.

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Appendix
Conceptual Map
The above conceptual map shows that there is direct relationship between the marketing mix
factors such as product, price place and promotion on the improved strategic marketing of
organization X. It is because organization X wants to recruit competent students which are
appropriate for the EPIQ course. Therefore due to the changing environment organization
either becomes successful in partnership with university. The organization has to keep the
factor in mind while doing marketing of the “Graduate Certificate in Nursing-EPIQ RN
program” and while doing partnership with university. If organization X does not become
successful in partnership with university so it can adopt cost-leadership and focus strategy.
However, if it becomes successful organization X can take competitive advantage because of
decrease in marketing cost and expenditure as well as can recruit more skilled students.
Figure 1: Social media users in Australia
Source: (Hughes, 2019)
Improved Strategic
Marketing
Price Product Promotion Place

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Figure 2: EPIQ course
Source: (Pinterest, 2020)