Marketing Plan Report: University of Hertfordshire in South Africa

This report provides a comprehensive marketing plan for the University of Hertfordshire Business School, focusing on its expansion into South Africa. It begins with an introduction outlining the report's purpose and scope, followed by an analysis of both the internal and external environments using the McKinsey 7S model and PESTLE analysis, respectively. The report then conducts a SWOT analysis to identify the university's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the South African market. Subsequently, it details a marketing mix strategy, covering product/services, promotion, pricing, place, people, physical evidence, and process. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and emphasizes the importance of the marketing plan for successful business operations. The report aims to assist the university in increasing its market share and achieving growth in the South African market, providing a strategic roadmap for its expansion efforts.

Marketing Plan

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Purpose........................................................................................................................................1
Internal and external analysis......................................................................................................1
SWOT Analysis..........................................................................................................................4
Marketing Mix............................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
A marketing plan is the comprehensive dossier or blueprint that outlines a business
advertising and marketing efforts for the coming year (Armstrong and et.al., 2015). In
accordance with this context, this report will aid in formulating the marketing plan for University
of Hertfordshire business school whose management desired to open their branch in South
Africa. In this context, the marketing plan will analyse the internal and external environment of
organisation as well as South Africa in order to analyse the factors of influences. The target
market will be analysed and action plan will be prepared in on the basis of which the
management can promote their business school efficiently. Further, with the help of marketing
mix, the marketing strategy will be prepared. This will aid the management of university in order
to increase their market share and growth in the market economy of South Africa.
Purpose
The purpose of this report is to prepare the marketing plan for the management of
University of Hertfordshire business school so that they can expand their courses another country
(South Africa). The marketing plan will help the management to promote their courses and
learnings in South Africa efficiently (Brennan, 2014). This will aid in promulgating the customer
base and also helps the university to drive forwards towards growth and development. Further,
the management of University of Hertfordshire will able to gain adequately the competitive
advantage in South Africa. Thus, the marketing plan will help the organisation to improve their
performance and aid in increasing their profitability.
Internal and external analysis
The internal analysis of University of Hertfordshire will be made with the help of McKinsey 7S
model which is provided below:
1

 Strategy: The key strategies of the university is to provide expert teaching, offering
workplace engagement, creating and developing innovative ideas, fostering and
strengthening research with global partners (Santacroce and et.al., 2015). These strategies
aid the management to sustain in the competitive environment. Structure: The Board of Governors are accountable for running the responsibility.
University follows traditional hierarchy structure where communication flows from top to
bottom and vice versa. Systems: The system of the university is governed by the Board of Governors who
formulate effective polices that benefits both the students and staff members in order to
accomplish desired goals and objectives of University (Engelland, 2014). Shared Values: The culture of University is positive, where both management and
employees collectively and collaboratively work so that benefits can be provided to the
students efficiently. Style: The leadership style at the college is democratic, where every employee have right
to give suggestion and ideas for improvement. They work cooperatively in order to
increase the effectiveness in learning in the University.
2
Illustration 1: McKinsey 7s Model
(Source: Jurevicius, 2013)

 Staff: There are about 2700 staff members who currently give lectures in the university
out of which 812 are academic staff members (Smith, 2017). They are highly efficient
and provide precise knowledge to the students.
 Skills: University of Hertfordshire is one of the best university in United Kingdom
which ranked in top two university in east England (Li, Song and Collins, 2014). This is
due to the effective skills of management and employees who work collectively in order
to accomplish the set goals and targets.
The external analysis of University of Hertfordshire will be made with the help of PESTLE
model which helps in analysing the environment of South Africa.
 Political: South Africa is democratic country whose polices and legislations proposed by
the ruling political party (Rees and Smith, 2017). From the analysis of political factor, it
was identified that the current political environment is stable and is effective for
3
Illustration 2: PESTLE Analysis
(Source: Marketing Theories – PESTLE Analysis, 2017)

University of Hertfordshire. They can open up their college without any issues and
problems. Economic: The economic conditions of South Africa is good as compared to other
African countries. The government fully support the need of education and prepare
budgets accordingly (Joshi and et.al., 2017). The University of Hertfordshire will able to
grow their college effectively and efficiently. Social: The depleted rand currency and unemployment in South Africa being 25% affects
the buying power of the people. It will influence the University of Hertfordshire as local
natives will not able to afford the high cost education. Technological: There are immense opportunities in South Africa regarding technological
advancements. Further, the University of Hertfordshire is equipped with high technology
that will aid in providing quality education to the students of South Africa (Schifano and
et.al., 2016). Legal: Many laws of South Africa is identical to the laws of United Kingdom. Though,
management of the university must consider the other laws in order to avoid any legal
consequence.
 Environmental Factors: It is the responsibility of management of University to work for
sustainable growth and development. They must contribute in order to protect the
environment and natural resources of South Africa (Brennan, 2014). This will promulgate
the reputation of University and they will able to sustain in the competitive environment.
SWOT Analysis
In respect to entering into a new market it is essential for the University of Hertfordshire
business school to identify its strength and weakness, so that company can overcome its
weakness and use opportunities while entering into a new market (Bull, Jobstvogt and Carter-
Silk, 2016).
Strengthen:
 Strengthen of the University of Hertfordshire business school is that it has highly
experienced teachers that work hard for increasing the knowledge of students. Teacher
care about students and their futures (Bohari, Hin and Fuad, 2017).
4

 Further, school management used advanced technological with respect to providing
quality services to students. Further, they provide excellent support to students in their
studies so that students can learn new things every day.
 Group collaborative spirit among various staff members is one of strengthen of the
University of Hertfordshire business school. Further, the school has created the good
image in the market due to which people from different place come to take admission.
Weakness:
 There are lots of new technologies but teacher avoids using them from teaching the
students. Further professional development is still required with respect to integration
learning. There is no increase in the voluntary activities and management team do not
provide time to staff for planning more events.
 Staff is not clear about their role related to parent relationship. Along with this, no
additional activities are there for students with respect to develop their knowledge
regarding different fields (Niederwieser, Baldomero,and Iida, 2015).
Opportunities
 Active volunteer can help in planning and organising the events.
 Training facilities can be provided to teacher so that they use advanced technology for
teaching the students. Further use of parents so that they contribute to curriculum
delivery.
 Different types of activity can be planned for the development of skill and knowledge of
students such as sports activity, debate competition etc.
Threats
 Competitors are one of threat of University of Hertfordshire business school.
 Confidentially is at risk which is one of the other threat for the school.
From the above SWOT analysis, it can be stated that University of Hertfordshire
business school can easily overcome its weakness and grab the opportunities for successfully
enter into a South Africa higher education. Through organising different types of activities and
provide the chance to students and teacher to show their skill help in grabbing their attention.
Marketing Mix
University of Hertfordshire business school can use marketing mix elements with respect to
increasing the awareness of their services for grabbing the attention of students and teachers of
5

South Africa higher education”. Here below are provided elements of the marketing mix that can
be used as the strategy by University of Hertfordshire business school.
 Product/ services: University of Hertfordshire business school can focus on delivering
quality services so that more students can be attracted to take admission in their school
(Korgaonkar and Parameswaran, 2015). It provides some additional services then student
prefer to take admission instead of going to other schools.
 Promotion: To promote the new school in South, Africa University of Hertfordshire
business school can use social media networking. It helps in targeting a large number of
people in less time and cost (Smith, 2013). Further, it can provide detail information on
Facebook, Twitter related to their products and services with respect to increasing
admissions.
 Price: There are different types of pricing strategies can be used by University of
Hertfordshire business school in respect to attracting students (Hussain, Ismail and Nisar,
2016). Further, with the use of penetration pricing school can easily make position in the
market and increase profit. If the price of its services are below the other competitor then
company can easily attract large number of people
 Place: To open new university it is important for the Hertfordshire business school select
such place where students can easily visit and they do not face any type of trouble. It is
important for the University of Hertfordshire business school to ensure that students can
easily take admission through online website if they face issues in visiting to the school
(Korgaonkar and Parameswaran, 2015).
 People: University of Hertfordshire business school can hire highly skilled teacher who
can teach students effectively with the use of new. Skilled teacher focus on students and
their work which help in making good image in the market and increase the profit
(Lovelock and Patterson, 2015).
 Physical evidence: Physical evidence play significant role and it helps to attract clients
and students. The school building should be appropriate and like educational so that
students can like to visit. Further websites should be attractive and all information related
to school facilities and services should be provided in it, So that students do not need to
search enough (Hamid, Ab Talib and Mohamad, 2016).
6

 Process: The process of admission should be systematic and simple so that students do
face any trouble while taking admission (Jain, 2013). Further, fee deposit process should
be online so that students can pay their school fees in less time without facing any issues.
Therefore, process need to be simple and appropriate.
 The above mentioned marketing strategy is effective enough for University of
Hertfordshire business school in respect to enter into a new market and make good
position. Further it focuses on different types of pricing techniques so that it can survive
in new market (Samani, F.S., Hashemi, Shahbazi and Sarhadi, 2017). Physical evidence
play significant role the interior of any service environment is important and it help in
making feel students appropriate. It shows that this all elements of marketing mix play
significant role within the expansion of new school in new market.
CONCLUSION
From the present report, it can be concluded that marketing plan is very essential for the
organisation in order to promote the business operations effectively and efficiently. In this
context, the present study helps in evaluating the marketing plan of the University of
Hertfordshire whose management desired to make entry in South Africa. In this context, the
marketing plan has analysed the internal and external environment of organisation as well as
South Africa in order to analyse the factors of influences. The target market has been analysed
and action plan has been prepared on the basis of which the management can promote their
business school efficiently. Further, with the help of marketing mix, the marketing strategy has
been prepared. This aid the management of university in order to increase their market share and
growth in the market economy of South Africa.
7

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Academic
Bohari, A.M., Hin, C.W. and Fuad, N., 2017. The competitiveness of halal food industry in
Malaysia: A SWOT-ICT analysis. Geografia-Malaysian Journal of Society and Space,
9(1).
Brennan, R., 2014. Reflecting on experiential learning in marketing education. The Marketing
Review, 14(1), pp.97-108.
Bull, J.W., Jobstvogt, N., Böhnke-Henrichs, A., and Carter-Silk, E., 2016. Strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats: A SWOT analysis of the ecosystem services
framework. Ecosystem services, 17, pp.99-111.
Engelland, B.T., 2014. Religion, humanism, marketing, and the consumption of socially
responsible products, services, and ideas: Introduction to a special topic section. Journal of
Business Research, 67(2), pp.1-4.
Hamid, A.B.A., and Mohamad, N., 2014. Halal logistics: A marketing mix perspective.
Intellectual Discourse, 22(2), p.191.
Hussain, G., and Nisar, F., 2016. Substitutes for leadership among the faculty of institutions of
higher education and their moderating effects on leadership styles and individual
outcomes. International Journal of Management in Education, 10(3), pp.250-277.
Jain, M.K., 2013. An analysis of marketing mix: 7Ps or more. Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary
Studies, 1(4).
Joshi, S., and et.al., 2017. Customer experience and associated customer behaviour in end user
devices and technologies (smartphones, mobile internet, mobile financial
services). International Journal of High Performance Computing and Networking, 10(1-
2), pp.118-126.
Korgaonkar, P.K. and Parameswaran, R., 2015. Product Involvement, Cognitive Dissonance and
Product Satisfaction: An Experimental Study. In Proceedings of the 1982 Academy of
Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 87-91). Springer, Cham.
Li, H., Song, W. and Collins, R., 2014. Post-event visits as the sources of marketing strategy
sustainability: a conceptual model approach. Journal of Business Economics and
Management, 15(1), pp.74-95.
8

Niederwieser, D., Baldomero, H., and Iida, M., 2016. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
activity worldwide in 2012 and a SWOT analysis of the Worldwide Network for Blood and
Marrow Transplantation Group including the global survey. Bone marrow transplantation.
Samani, F.S., and Sarhadi, H., 2017. Investigating the relationship between marketing mix
elements (7ps) and iranian efl learners’choice of langugae institutions. European Journal
of Foreign Language Teaching.
Santacroce, R., and et.al., 2015. Psyclones: a roller coaster of life? Hidden synthetic
cannabinoids and stimulants in apparently harmless products. Human
Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental, 30(4), pp.265-271.
Schifano, F., and et.al., 2016. The consequences of drug misuse on post-marketing surveillance.
Smith, B.D., 2017. Between saying and doing is the ocean: an empirical exploration of the gap
between strategic marketing plans and their implementation in the life sciences
industry. Journal of Strategic Marketing, pp.1-12.'
Books
Armstrong, G., and et.al., 2015. Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.
Brennan, R., 2014. Business-to-business Marketing (pp. 83-86). Springer New York.
Lovelock, C. and Patterson, P., 2015. Services marketing. Pearson Australia.
Rees, G. and Smith, P. eds., 2017. Strategic human resource management: An international
perspective. Sage.
Smith, P.J., 2013. Commercial Revitalization Plan and Marketig Strategy for the South Park
Avenue & Perry Street Corridors.
Online
Jurevicius, O., 2013. McKinsey 7s Model. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.strategicmanagementinsight.com/tools/mckinsey-7s-model-
framework.html>
Marketing Theories – PESTLE Analysis. 2017. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.professionalacademy.com/blogs-and-advice/marketing-theories---
pestel-analysis>
9

10