Marketing Plan: Promotional Mix and Objectives for Higher Education

This report presents a comprehensive marketing plan for higher education institutions, focusing on the Australian Institute of Higher Education. It begins by identifying factors affecting the quality and delivery of higher education, such as research, infrastructure, faculty, environment, and syllabus. The plan outlines marketing communication objectives, including syllabus design, infrastructure development, faculty recruitment, improved communication, and increased research activities. A promotional mix incorporating advertising, public relations, personal selling, and direct marketing strategies is proposed. The report details criteria for measuring the success of the promotional mix, including return on investment, student numbers, educational growth, and ratings. Budgetary considerations and a timeline for implementation are also provided, culminating in a conclusion summarizing the key findings and recommendations.

Marketing Plan

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Executive Summary
In education industry especially in the higher education industry, there is an intense rivalry
going on among different institutions. Due to this it is essential that a company evaluates the
factors that might affect the quality of education and service delivery. It was found that
Amount of research, educational infrastructure, faculties, environment for education and
Syllabus are some of the factors that need to be analysed by the institutions. At the same
time, institutions must be able to design their promotional mix in such a manner that it has
impact on the minds of students who aims to go for higher studies. This report highlights the
promotional mix for higher educational institutions. It was found that Return on Investment,
numbers of students, improvement in the student’s educational growth and ratings by
different magazines and governments are some of the criteria that helps in measuring the
success of the promotional mix.

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Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Factors that affect the quality and delivery of higher education............................................................2
Marketing promotion plan.....................................................................................................................3
Marketing communication objectives................................................................................................3
Promotional Mix................................................................................................................................4
Criteria that can be employed to measure the objectives...................................................................6
Budget...............................................................................................................................................6
Timeline................................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................8
References.............................................................................................................................................9
Introduction

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In today’s time, every organisation is facing tough competition from their rivals. In this
environment, it is crucial that companies understand the factors that might affect the quality
and delivery of their offerings. This is crucial for gaining competitive advantage over the
rivals. On the basis of these, it is also essential that firms design the marketing
communication plan to achieve all the goals and objectives (Kalenskaya, Gafurov &
Novenkova, 2013). A designing of effective marketing promotion plan helps an organisation
in achieving the desired benefits. This report provides the factors that affect the quality and
delivery of the higher education services. It will also provide the marketing promotional plan
for Australian Institute of Higher Education till the year 2020 along with budgets.
Factors that affect the quality and delivery of higher education
There are several factors that are having impact on the quality and delivery of the higher
educational institutions. Evaluation of these factors helps any company in understanding the
way in which they can design their future plans. Some of these factors are:
Amount of research: The extent to which any company is focused towards the research has
a greater role in the quality of education. The numbers of projects that are running in any firm
plays a highly critical role in increasing the value of the organisation. Since new research
allows students to learn something extra hence they are also attracted towards the institutions
where maximum numbers of researches are going (Enache, 2011). At the same time, these
new research improves the delivery of the education as students gets indulged in these
research hence learning new things.
Educational infrastructure: Another essential thing that improves the quality of education
at the education institution is the type of educational infrastructure present in that institution.
This infrastructure includes laboratories, classroom facilities, use of technology for providing
education, facilities for other co-curricular activity etc. This also includes the infrastructure
for disabled people so that they might not face challenges in their day to day activities
(Durkin McKenna & Cummins, 2012).
Faculties: The qualification of the faculties at the institutions plays a critical role in quality
of education. This is because qualified faculties are always able to deliver the education in a
right manner without any specific problems. It is also crucial that an institution have faculties
from different cultural backgrounds. This is because it helps a firm to deal with students from
different cultural backgrounds (Alipour, Aghamohammadi, Ahmadi & Hoseini, 2012). At the

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same time, it also brings a feeling of comfort in the minds of student as they feel safe when
they have mentors from similar cultural backgrounds.
Environment for education: For any educational institution, the environment that is present
plays a critical role in delivery and the quality of the education. A harmonious environment
ensures that students face no kinds of conflicts (Constantinides & Zinck Stagno, 2011). A
positive educational environment also allows students to learn without any problems. This
allows students to learn in a team which is again essential for both quality and delivery of the
education.
Syllabus: This is again a major factor that is having effect on the quality and delivery of the
education service. An educational institution need to ensure that they have a syllabus that is
effective which means that it ensures holistic development of the students. At the same time
effective syllabus allows teachers to explain everything in detail (Diaconu & Pandelicã,
2011). The amount of things covered in specified period of time plays a critical role in the
success of the syllabus which is again an effective parameter for improving the quality and
delivery of the education.
Marketing promotion plan
For any organisation, it is critical to design the promotional plan so as to reach to maximum
possible consumers. The promotional plan for the year 2020 for Australian Institute of Higher
Education is as follows.
Marketing communication objectives
Communication objectives for this promotional plan are:
 Design syllabus that is universally acceptable by understanding the requirements of
the people by the end of year 2019.
 To communicate with investors for enhancing the infrastructure development by the
end of March 2020.
 Hiring new faculties with higher amount of educational qualification who are having
experience of more than 5 years by the end of January 2020.
 To reduce the communicational barrier among the staffs and students so that better
educational environment can be provided to the students.

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 To increase the numbers of research activities in the organisation by 50% by the end
of 2020.
Promotional Mix
Advertising
In the marketing communication the role of advertisements is larger. Company needs to
advertise the syllabus so that they can increase the visibility of the syllabus among the larger
part of the population. More use of technology can help the company to reach to larger
section of the society which is crucial for the success of any promotional plan. The
advertisements must be able to portray the positive points about the organisation. If the
advertisements show the environment that is present in any organisation, then they will be
able to achieve the objective like bringing harmony at the workplace and they will also be
able inculcate an environment where everyone can learn as a group (Simões & Soares, 2010).
Organisation must portray the ways in which educations are provided. Some profiles of their
professors needs to be showcased at the same time ensure that it has a message where more
professors are invited to join the institution.
It is effective to add more numbers of photos and videos for their campaign highlighting the
different aspects of their business. This will help in making the promotional campaign more
of the nature of the modern day students. For local market they can do advertisements on the
platforms such as newspapers, televisions and radios (Williams, Page, Petrosky &
Hernandez, 2010). This is highly effective in attracting students from the rural areas.
Public relations
In any promotional mix the role public relations is very much essential. A company has to
improve the ways in which they deal with their stakeholder. They need to regularly
communicate with their investors so that they can have capital investments at regular basis. In
this also selecting the best model for the development is necessary. The institute must provide
scholarships to the students so that they can attract maximum numbers of students for
admissions. In this they can also give fee concession to the people that are coming from other
parts of the world. This will help in improving the inter-cultural environment at the university
(Sánchez-Fernández, INIESTA-BONILLO, Schlesinger-Díaz & Rivera-Torres, 2010). This
will also help a company to gain better image among the people from that community. They
must also portray the numbers of students who has got scholarships in previous years. Clear

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mentioning of the amount of discounts given at the time of admissions is necessary. For
improving the public relations, a company take use of the platforms such as social media
where the groups of the people who are actually the part of the organisation can be helpful.
Personal selling
It is an important promotional mix that a company can utilise for directly communicating
with their stakeholders. Through the help of technology an institution will be able to reach to
each of their stakeholders especially their customers and professors. This will ensure that they
can personally interact with the consumers and investors so that they can work as a team and
will be able to achieve all the objectives in the desired time frame (Sferle, Gârdan, Gudei &
Geangu, 2012). The more the details are provided by the institution the higher is their chance
to gain success. This firm must give focus towards personalised marketing so as to ensure
that they can individually target all the consumers. They must also interact with the investors
so as to take their views regarding the investment projects and the benefits that it will provide
to them. Personal selling needs to be done with proper attention as even a small mistake can
affect the image of the firm.
Direct marketing
It is one of the best ways to promote among the community. This can be understood by the
fact that with the help of direct marketing, a company will be able to understand the needs of
the people. With the help of E-mails, SMS and other social media sites a company will reach
to the people that they want to target. The projects that are going on in the institution need to
be highlighted along with the research projects for the future. This will enable them to attract
not only more number of students but it will also allow the institution to add new researchers
and investors in their pool. An open invitation can be given to scholar to re-design their
syllabus in such a manner that organisation automatically in-built a research attitude
(Moogan, 2011). This is also an innovative marketing where people would think that the
syllabus is made by the top scholars from all across the globe hence would have things that
will surely be better than normal institutions.
Criteria that can be employed to measure the objectives
For any organisation, it is crucial to employee the best of strategies to understand the success
of their marketing campaign. Some of the criteria that can be used are:

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Return on Investment: The amount of return that a company can gain from their
investments is an important measure through which they can check the success of their
campaign. Financial returns allows a company to know that whether their investments in
particular kind of marketing is successful or not (Judson & Taylor, 2014). Return on
investments must be calculated different operations wise. This is because it will help the
company to know the areas in which they need to improve.
Numbers of students: If the numbers of students at the workplace increases then it can be
said that company’s promotional campaign has been successful. This is one of the most
appropriate measures to check the success as it is the ultimate goal that an institution aims to
achieve. If he numbers of foreign students increases then it can be easily said that there is
successful implementation of the promotional mix (Gibbs, 2010). The decrease in the
numbers of students that gets retained within the organisation also plays a critical role in
evaluating the success of the firm. If the numbers of students that actually got converted into
the purchaser is higher than the ones that did not purchased then the success of the
promotional mix will be understood to be higher.
Improvement in the student’s educational growth: This is again an important strategy
used by the organisations to measure the success of the syllabus. If the organisation is able to
enhance the research skills in the students which are again showcased by the numbers of
research paper published then it would be understood that the new syllabus has worked
(Constantinides & Stagno, 2012). Numbers of patents that students have gained till the end of
the 2020 is an effective measure that describes the success of promotional plan and hence
achieving the objectives.
Ratings by different magazines and governments: The rating that they have got in terms of
infrastructure and other things will help the company to showcase the success of the
promotional plan. If the ratings and reviews are according to the ranks given by the
companies then it can be said that promotional plan is successful (Oplatka & Hemsley-
Brown, 2012). Higher the rating, greater is the success. There are many governments also that
gives the exact ratings to the organisations and their data are most of time very much
authenticated hence people also believe on them. So if the ranking is good in the
government’s data then the promotions are considered to be effective.
Budget
The budget for this whole marketing plan is as follows:

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Digital Communication Budget
Method Amount
1. Direct Marketing
Online media
Facebook $900.00
Twitter $1,100.00
LinkedIn $1,300.00
E-mail Marketing $600.00
Total Amount of Online Media through Direct
marketing $3,900.00
2. Advertisement
Print Media
Newspaper $700.00
Journals $1,300.00
Online advertisement $700.00
Total amount of Advertisement $2,700.00
3. Personal selling
Conducting Seminar and training $1,100.00
Funding $800.00
Total amount of Personal selling $1,900.00
4. Sales promotion
Discount Coupons $7,000.00
Gift coupons $1,000.00
Total amount of sales promotion $8,000.00
Total amount $16,500.00
Timeline
Actions Starting date End date
Setting objectives 1/1/2020 15/1/2020
Market research 15/1/2020 15/2/2020
Allocation of roles and 15/2/2020 28/2/2020

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responsibilities
Hiring (Marketing agency
and employees)
1/3/2020 1/4/2020
Execution of Promotion
strategies
2/4/2020 31/12/2020
Evaluation and monitoring 2/6/2020 31/12/2020
Changes according to the
evaluation
1/8/2020 31/12/2020
Conclusion
From the above sections of the report, it can be concluded that an organisation needs to have
proper promotional plan to improve their marketing. Amount of research, educational
infrastructure, faculties, environment for education and Syllabus are some of the factors that
affects the quality and delivery of the educational services. Company needs to apply all the
promotional mix with the help of all their stakeholders and focus must be given on enhancing
the use of the technology in these activities. Return on Investment, numbers of students,
improvement in the student’s educational growth and ratings by different magazines and
governments are some of the criteria that help in measuring the success of the promotional
plan. The budget of the promotions must be concentrated towards digital marketing, i.e.
digital marketing should be given higher preference in terms of allocating budgets. The
timeline must be designed and should be strictly followed.

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