Service Industry Marketing: Factors, Objectives, and Promotion Plan

This report, prepared for a marketing communication director role at a higher education institute, examines the factors that influence the quality and delivery of higher education services, specifically focusing on the University of Sydney. The report identifies key factors such as faculty experience and qualifications, course design and relevance, the university environment, infrastructure, and placement opportunities. It then outlines a comprehensive marketing communication plan for 2020, including specific marketing communication objectives designed to address these factors and improve the university's services. The plan details promotional mix elements such as direct marketing, advertising, sales promotion, and personal selling, along with criteria for measuring the objectives' success, such as increased student enrollment and positive feedback. The report also provides a detailed budget and timeline for the proposed marketing activities. The report aims to guide the university in effectively promoting its services and enhancing its reputation.

Service industry marketing
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Executive Summary
In the present era, education is considered as one of the essential part of the life as the amount of
education that an individual gets leads to the major influence on the personal development and
jobs. The report is prepared in order to find the factors that can influence the quality as well as
the delivery of the services for the higher education that is supported with the help of the
University of Sydney. The marketing communication objective related to the promotion has been
prepared related to the plan. Further, it includes the promotional mix variables that should be
consider by the University of Sydney so that they can achieve their communication objective.
Further, the findings related to the criteria for measuring, budget, and the timeline related to the
marketing communication plan.

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Factors that influence the quality and delivery of higher education services..................................4
Marketing promotion plan...............................................................................................................6
Marketing communication objectives..........................................................................................6
Promotional Mix..........................................................................................................................6
Direct Marketing......................................................................................................................7
Advertisement..........................................................................................................................7
Sales promotion.......................................................................................................................8
Personal selling........................................................................................................................8
Criteria for measuring the objectives...........................................................................................8
Budget and timeline.....................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
The educational service industry consists of different types of institutions that offer the academic
education, technical instruction as well as the career. In the educational sector, this has been
found that several factors that influence the quality as well as delivery of the higher education
services. The educational service provider always wants to deliver the best from their end
because of the tough competition in the market. The educational institute that has been focused
in this report is University of Sydney. Considering the current scenario, I being the marketing
communication director of higher educational institute prepare the marketing communication
plan for the year 2020. The report will include the marketing communication objective that
contributes in achieving the components. Further, it include the elements of the promotional mix
that helps educational service provider in generating the awareness among the market about the
services that are offered by University of Sydney.

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Factors that influence the quality and delivery of higher education
services
In the present scenario, the services provided by the higher educational institutes are more in
demand due to which it have several factors that can influence the quality and delivery of the
University of Sydney while performing the operations. Some of the factors that affect the
working are given below -
Faculty: - The students who pursue for the higher education always remain concern about the
faculty of the higher education service because they are the one who can effectively contribute in
success in the career of the student. This is the reason due to which the higher education institute
always tries to hire the lecturers with the experience of at least 10 years because they will not
only have the teaching experience but they will be equipped with the high qualification (Cardona
& Bravo, 2012). I believe that experiences and educated faculty helps the university to offer the
high quality work with the effective delivery of the services.
Design of course: - The design of the course is one of the factors that will influence the quality
as well as the delivery of the products to the student. Every student has different preferences for
the courses from the university. The design of the course influences the delivery of the services
because if there is lack of any of the courses that mean university is not able to offer the
appropriate courses to the student present in the market (Ruben, 2018). Further, the university
with the diverse range of the course is offering to meet the needs of the diverse people even from
the overseas market. Thus, it is essential for the University of Sydney to consider the fact that
course are important factor through which they can offer the quality and deliver to the students.

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Environment of university: - The students who enrol with the well-known university always
look towards the environment of the university. The environment of the higher education service
provider is one of the factors that majorly influence the quality and delivery (Lisch, 2016). Some
of the students who do part time work along with their study due to which they want the
environment in the university where the faculty remain available in the morning as well as the
evening times. This will influence the delivery of the services in the university that is one of the
major factors to be considered by the company (Gruber, Fuß, Voss & Gläser-Zikuda, 2010). I
think that intercultural environment is must which makes the student feel safe and to work in the
effective manner.
Infrastructure: - University are preferred by the students when they are able to offer the
infrastructure facilities. Some of the students prefer the distant learning so that they can gain the
maximum knowledge from their courses. Thus, the learning through the electronic modes
includes the online lectures, offering them the videos to students for the learning and many other
modes are available in the electronic form (Chui & bin Ahmad, 2016). This will add the value to
the quality as well as the delivery services. Moreover, the infrastructure at the class is also
important factor because this helps them in concentrating on study that is essential for improving
it.
Placements: - The quality and deliver of service get affected due to the placement opportunities
available with the University of Sydney. The university offers the internship as well as
placements that are offered to the student are one of the factor due to which they select that
university. I believe that delivery of the services that is majorly wanted by the students includes
the placement as this is related to their future career opportunities (Stephenson & Yorke, 2013).

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Marketing promotion plan
The education services need to make the plan for promoting their services, as this will help them
to make the existing students aware about the services and to convert the potential students.
Being the Marketing Communication Director, the promotional plan for the year 2020 is
presented below –
Marketing communication objectives
The promotional plan initially includes the objectives for generating the awareness among the
market for services.
 It generates the awareness about their courses and accepts the changes that are required in
the syllabus according to the needs of the customers.
 To attracts faculty with experience and communicates about faculty that they have within
institute to students.
 The objective in the next one year is to improve and promote the infrastructure with the
support of the new kinds of investment.
 To encourage the student to take activity part in the activities that contributes in
improving the environment (Uppal, Ali & Gulliver, 2018).
 To promote the number of students placed by university and attract more companies so
that they can come and offer the placement opportunities to the student.
Promotional Mix
The promotion mix is considered as the blend of the different types of the promotional variables
that are selected by the markets in order to help the firm so that they can reach and achieve their

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goals related to the communication. The different promotional mix elements include Direct
Marketing, advertising, sales promotion, and personal selling (Waterman, 2014).
Direct Marketing
The direct marketing includes generating the awareness in the market directly towards the
customers without any intermediaries or any paid medium. The direct marketing is done by
university through e-mail, text message, online mode, and many others (Cardona & Bravo,
2012). The university will make use of the e-mails and social media networking channels
through which they can promote the service offering in the market. The social media tools that
are majorly used by the university include Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Advertisement
The advertisement is one of the ways to generate the awareness related to the services in the
market to make the others aware about the services. The higher institutions needs to consider the
proper care related to the advertisement. It is considered as one of the way through which the
communication can be done effectively (Wilson, Zeithaml, Bitner & Gremler 2012). University
of the Sydney will make use of the advertisement through which they can generate the awareness
about services. In addition to this, the advertisement can be done by the university in different
forms that include the traditional as well as the online mode. In the traditional mode, the
educational service provider will print magazines, newspaper, and other forms. This will include
the description about the placements offer by the university and the facilities that are offered by
the educational service provider.

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Sales promotion
Sales promotion is considered as one of the essential tool for the promotional mix in which the
university generates the awareness which include giveaways, contests, coupons free samples and
many others (Hill, 2014). The university will offer the different benefits that can be in the form
of the coupons that reduces their admission course for any fee. In addition, they can promote by
giving the offer in terms of the combos collective of the courses that can be opted by the students
in less amount.
Personal selling
The selling of the services through the personnel is one of the effective way through which the
influence on the customers increases. In the personal selling, there is face-to-face interaction
among the university and students who want to get enrol in university for courses (Brown &
Carasso, 2013). This interaction is possible with the seminars related to the career opportunities
at the different places. This personal selling helps the university in understanding the student
expectation from the university so that they can accomplish the same.
Criteria for measuring the objectives
It is essential for the University of the Sydney to set the criteria that are essential for them in
order to measure the promotion objectives for the year 2020.
Increase in conversation rate of student: - The increase in the conversation rate of the students
helps the university in measures that their objective of generating the awareness about the faculty
and activities of the environment.
Rating and reviews for placement: - The rating and reviews for the placement by the students
is one of the effective way through which the university of Sydney can measure that are able to

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meet their objective for promoting the customers to retain and for attracting the companies
(Levit, Balogh, Nass & Ganz, 2013). The high rating and good reviews for the university related
to the placement is one of the effective elements that show that they are able to meet their
objectives or not.
Positive feedbacks for courses: - Other criteria for measuring the objectives include positive
feedbacks for the courses from the student. The positive feedback given by the students related to
the course will show that they are aware.
Student involved in improving infrastructure and environment: - The criteria for measuring
the objective include the student involved in enhancing environment and infrastructure. The
student gets involved in enhancing the infrastructure and environment as this helps in improving
the objective (Bringle, Hatcher & Jones, 2012).
Government opinions for the faculty: - The criteria of university measuring the objectives that
include government opinions for the faculty. The faculty of the university are experienced due to
which they can offer the effective quality and deliver the best service to the students. The
opinions of the government related to the faculty shows that the objective is accomplished or not.
Budget and timeline
Digital Communication Budget Timeline
Method Amount
1. Direct Marketing 4 months
Online media
Twitter $700.00 1 month
Facebook $1,400.00 1 month
LinkedIn $1,200.00 1 month
E-mail Marketing $900.00 1 month

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Total Amount of Online Media through Direct
marketing $4,200.00
2. Advertisement 2 months
Print Media
Journals $1,500.00 1 month
Newspaper $1,600.00 1 month
Total amount of Advertisement $3,100.00
3. Personal selling 4 months
Conducting Seminar and training $2,500.00 4 month
Total amount of Personal selling $2,500.00
4. Sales promotion 2 months
Discount Coupons $10,000.00 1 month
Combos of courses $50,000.00 1 month
Total amount of sales promotion $60,000.00
Total amount $69,800.00

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Conclusion
In the end, it can be concluded that educational service industry is booming and their operations
are increasing in the market. The report is prepared on University of Sydney for analysing the
factors that can influence the quality and delivery of the services. The factors that major
influence the services include faculty, design of the course, and environment of the university,
infrastructure, and placement. It is essential for the university to promote the services keeping the
communication objectives for the year 2020. The report includes the detailed promotional mix
that includes the different variables that can be used by the University of Sydney while
promoting the products. Further, it include the criteria that is used for measuring the objectives
are completed or not. In the end, it includes the detailed budget with the timeline on which the
work will be completed by the company.

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References
Bringle, R. G., Hatcher, J. A., & Jones, S. G. (Eds.). (2012). International service learning:
Conceptual frameworks and research. Stylus Publishing, LLC..
Brown, R., & Carasso, H. (2013). Everything for sale? The marketisation of UK higher
education. Routledge.
Cardona, M. M., & Bravo, J. J. (2012). Service quality perceptions in higher education
institutions: the case of a colombian university. Estudios gerenciales, 28(125), 23-29.
Cardona, M. M., & Bravo, J. J. (2012). Service quality perceptions in higher education
institutions: the case of a colombian university. Estudios gerenciales, 28(125), 23-29.
Chui, T. B., & bin Ahmad, M. S. (2016). Evaluation of service quality of private higher
education using service improvement matrix. Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 224, 132-140.
Gruber, T., Fuß, S., Voss, R., & Gläser-Zikuda, M. (2010). Examining student satisfaction with
higher education services: Using a new measurement tool. International Journal of
Public Sector Management, 23(2), 105-123.
Hill, P. (2014). Online educational delivery models: A descriptive view.
Levit, L. A., Balogh, E., Nass, S. J., & Ganz, P. (Eds.). (2013). Delivering high-quality cancer
care: charting a new course for a system in crisis (pp. 7-8). Washington, DC: National
Academies Press.

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Lisch, R. (2016). Measuring service performance: Practical research for better quality.
Routledge.
Ruben, B. D. (2018). Quality in higher education. Routledge.
Stephenson, J., & Yorke, M. (2013). Capability and quality in higher education. Routledge.
Uppal, M. A., Ali, S., & Gulliver, S. R. (2018). Factors determining e‐learning service
quality. British Journal of Educational Technology, 49(3), 412-426.
Waterman, A. S. (Ed.). (2014). Service-learning: Applications from the research. Routledge.
Wilson, A., Zeithaml, V. A., Bitner, M. J., & Gremler, D. D. (2012). Services marketing:
Integrating customer focus across the firm (No. 2nd Eu). McGraw Hill.