Marketing Communication Strategies and Rebranding Analysis for ACU

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Australian Catholic University's (ACU) rebranding and marketing communication strategies. It examines the rationale behind the rebranding, focusing on the need to address market challenges and increase awareness. The report details the changes implemented in the brand identity, including visual and verbal elements, and evaluates their effectiveness in areas such as student experience, research, and service delivery. It explores ACU's positioning strategies, particularly its emphasis on 'impact through empathy,' and assesses the effectiveness of its communication channels, including branding marks and social media. The analysis offers recommendations for improving communication, fostering a service-oriented culture, and leveraging mobile applications and social media to enhance student engagement and brand promotion. Overall, the report highlights the importance of branding in influencing student decisions and achieving a competitive advantage in the higher education sector.

MARKETING

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Was a rebranding needed?...............................................................................................................1
In what ways has the brand been changed?.....................................................................................1
How effective are these changes?....................................................................................................2
How is the university positioning itself?.........................................................................................2
How is this positioning being communicated?................................................................................3
What does making ‘impact through empathy’ mean?.....................................................................3
Is the communication working?.......................................................................................................4
How well is the ‘rebranding’ working?...........................................................................................4
Will the branding make any difference to students selecting a University?....................................4
What recommendations would you make?......................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Marketing communication plays the most significant role as it allows the company is
sharing information regarding its products and services. Further, it is all about sharing service-
related information with the target market in order to attract them appropriately. In marketing,
the most crucial elements involve branding, promotion, advertising, etc. through which it
becomes possible for the business to strengthen the relationship with its target market in every
possible manner. The present study carried out is based on ACU brand which is a publicly
funded university with seven campuses around Australia. ACU offers education services where
students can opt for the different type of courses as per their real expertise (University 2017).
The present report focuses on marketing communication strategies of ACU along with the
positioning tactics that are employed by the business to target its customers. Apart from this,
branding strategies of the business have also been undertaken so as to know whether they are
effective or not.
WAS A REBRANDING NEEDED?
In case of ACU, the new branding has taken place where it has been identified that
Australian Catholic University has introduced new brand which has been developed in
partnership with brand consultancy push collective. It is the guiding principle of creating “Impact
through Empathy.” Further, the new brand identity has been represented with the help of visual
and verbal identity (Bidar, Watson & & Barros 2017). It has been highlighted for the first time in
a multi-channel open day campaign. The rebranding was needed as a large number of challenges
are present in the market that is adversely affecting ACU such as competition where other
universities are also offering education services and in order to position education services in a
different manner it is necessary for ACU to rebrand itself. Apart from this, another important
reason is awareness where a large number of students can know about education services of
ACU, and this is the main reason behind rebranding.
IN WHAT WAYS HAS THE BRAND BEEN CHANGED?
The new brand of ACU will change in a large number of ways where it has been
identified that it will deliver the unique experience to the stakeholders (Zeng 2017). The new
brand will bring change in different areas that involve research, student engagement, service
excellence, etc. Apart from this, it has focused on some other areas such as reshaping culture, the
student experience, and course offering. ACU believes in building the strong relationship with its
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stakeholders, and this is the main reason due to which the brand has been reshaped so that it can
provide the remarkable experience to the stakeholders who are associated with the business. The
main target market of ACU is students, and due to this reason, the brand has been changed in
every possible manner (Velásquez & & Meunier 2017). Therefore, with the help of this, it can
be stated that brand has been changed in the form of culture, communication pattern and
delivering experience to stakeholders.
HOW EFFECTIVE ARE THESE CHANGES?
The changes brought through brand rebuilding are effective in every possible manner.
Further, the effectiveness is in the form of the value of ACU degree, shaping the student
experience, approach to learning and teaching and the research priorities. All these areas are
representing the effectiveness of the changes that have taken place within ACU (Trump & &
Newman 2017). Further, it will allow students to gain more information about ACU like its
degree program, staff members who are quite passionate about ACU and the partners who
support business in carrying out overall operations in an effective manner. In short, the overall
changes that have taken place are effective where they allow in satisfying the overall requirement
of the stakeholders who are associated with the ACU brand (Steenkamp 2017). Further, students
can be delivered right kind of information that is associated with education and additional
requirement for their career growth.
HOW IS THE UNIVERSITY POSITIONING ITSELF?
The leading Australian university engages in using different positioning strategies that
support them to market their activities and services within the overall market. The higher
education sector is becoming increasingly competitive and in this environment ACU must
articulate a strong, unique and compelling brand promise (Favaloro 2015). The key strategy that
is used by the university for positioning themselves includes engaging in partnership activities
with push collective this help them to position the university in the education industry. With this,
it also engages in conductive extensive market research as well as consultation with their
stakeholders, discussing the role of higher education so that it may directly benefit the overall
community and their members (Gottschall & Saltmarsh 2017). Along with this, the university
also engages in unique positioning comparative to their competitor universities as it assists in
enhancing or increasing the number of enrolments within the universities.
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HOW IS THIS POSITIONING BEING COMMUNICATED?
The positioning strategies of Australian Catholic University has been communicated
within the education sector in different ways such as-
Brand mark (Logo)
With the help of using brand mark or logo of ACU, they can easily communicate to the
customers as well as students. The brand mark or logo of ACU is in dark purple, representing
empathy and contrasting to the robust red of the shield (Imms et al. 2017). The letter C has a
prominent ball serif, visually tying the lettering to the guard. With the help of brand mark, the
university can easily enhance their reach up to the large masses of audiences and students that
ultimately increase the number of enrolment.
Using social media sites
Another effective way of communicating the positioning of ACU include using effective
social media sites and platform so that large mass of audiences get attracted towards the
university and their services that they render. With the help of using social media, they can
directly engage in attracting number of individuals or students, the range of courses university
offers, campuses, and experiences that university offers, etc.
WHAT DOES MAKING ‘IMPACT THROUGH EMPATHY’ MEAN?
Impact through empathy is not tagline but it mainly considers as a profile of ACU, it
engages in offering the comfy environment to all their staff, students, alumni irrespective of their
cultural and religious background (McMullen, Beirne & Carpenter 2015). With this ACU nurture
people’s capacity to go beyond their limits and viewpoints to engage with empathy so that it
explores the world from different perspectives. Along with this, impact through empathy also
ensures ACU commitment towards their students, staff as well as the community (Yakimova et
al. 2017). It mainly forms pillars that help the university in performing their activities in efficient
manner it mainly include-
 University values each and everyone within the community and encourage them to attain
intellectual potential.
 Along with this, the university also endeavours to put their students and staff at the centre
of the network of scholars, partnerships, and opportunities (Rossiter 2013).
 University is also deeply engaged with committee and industry so that it may create
tangible results with shared values and beliefs.
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 The last activity that university engages in considering education on the priority basis so
that it benefits both university and community.
IS THE COMMUNICATION WORKING?
At present, the communication within ACU cannot be termed as satisfactory, and it is
affecting the overall operations and changes within Australian Catholic University. As per the
provided case scenario, the competition among higher education sector has become highly
competitive, and this has encouraged ACU to carry out its rebranding (Stuart 2016). Effective
working of communication is essential to communicate factors such as what it is and what kind
of services it is offering. The Schramm theory of communication emphasizes on the fact that
communication is a two-way process and thus, both sender and receiver are required to take
active participation in the same (Shah 2017). However, it can be asserted that ACU needs to
make use of effective communication channels such as online and offline mediums. Furthermore,
effective monitoring of the communication process is also required to identify loopholes and take
corrective measures to overcome the same.
HOW WELL IS THE ‘REBRANDING’ WORKING?
The rebranding of Australian Catholic University has worked quite well, and it has
helped the brand to attract new students and sustain in the highly competitive environment.
Furthermore, the decision of rebranding has affected several areas of ACU in a positive manner.
For example, it has enhanced the way in which the university is attracting students from different
places of the world (Reddy 2017). On the other side of this, the overall method of teaching,
research, and service delivery has been enhanced with the strategy of rebranding. The rebranding
is working well as it has also generated a high degree of satisfaction among all individuals who
are making use of the services provided by the university. In addition to this, the teachers and
staff members have been able to improve their effectiveness and overall efficiency with the help
of this rebranding strategy.
WILL THE BRANDING MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE TO STUDENTS
SELECTING A UNIVERSITY?
The branding will play significant role in influencing the decision-making process of the
students. In the modern era, the students and scholars are having various large numbers of
alternatives and options available to choose from. The result of this is that the universities are
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now facing various issues and challenges in terms of attracting adequate and desired number of
students. It can be expressed that the branding will allow Australian Catholic University to gain a
competitive advantage over other universities operating in the marketplace (Lyons 2017). ACU
has been able to change the entire work culture, and the way services have been delivered to the
student. This rebranding will act as a motivational factor and will encourage the student to
choose ACU University over other universities operating in the marketplace. In the modern era,
every student or scholar seeking to enroll in the university which can deliver quality education
and can contribute to the professional growth and development of the student (Homburg, Jozić &
& Kuehnl 2017). Australian Catholic University is carrying out its branding with an objective to
attract more and more students.
WHAT RECOMMENDATIONS WOULD YOU MAKE?
It can be recommended that effective channels of communications should be used and
implemented by Australian Catholic University to carry out effective branding and achieve the
desired results. The rationale behind this is that communication will support in dealing with
issues and challenges linked with branding in more efficient manner. On the other side of this, it
is also suggested that Australian Catholic University should emphasize more on develop and
promote a service culture within the university. The university is required to focus on enhancing
the response rate to the doubts, queries, and concern of the students and teachers. It can be also
recommended that Australian Catholic University can introduce its mobile application to make
the procedure more convenient for the student (Hisrich & & Ramadani 2017). The key benefit of
using mobile application is that it will allow the university to provide a fast, convenient and more
accurate solution to the doubts and concern of students. It has been recommended that for
indulging in rebranding universities must engage in using Facebook networking site where they
can quickly create their webpage. It has been assessed that majority of students access such
networking sites to gain information. Therefore, recommending Facebook site is justifiable for
ACU in promoting rebranding. Another recommendation includes that they must also involve in
competitive analysis of their rival university campuses so that they may easily come to know
regarding the branding strategies that are used to attract teachers as well as students.
CONCLUSION
The entire study carried out has supported in knowing about the rebranding strategy of
ACU. Further, it has been identified that the new brand will shape culture, research, new offering
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and student experience in every possible manner. Moreover, the valid reason due to which brand
has been reshaped is to deal with the issue of competition and another form of challenges present
in the external environment. It will surely support ACU brand to attract a large number of
students, and they will be influenced to access services of ACU frequently. Apart from this, the
positioning and another form of marketing strategies of ACU brand are effective, and this can
surely support ACU in accomplishing its desired goals and objectives.
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