Abstract
This paper offers market plan recommendations for a college consultancy provider, advising students and their families on overseas higher education choices. The recommendations are designed keeping in mind the value of the trust; credibility and relationship building required for success. The paper makes use of multiple sources to establish its case and identify market dynamics such as case studies, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Ministry of National Education (Republic of Turkey), and other sources from the internet to assess the competitive climate and design an effective marketing plan.
Keywords: NAICS 61171, Education Support Services, College Counselling, Market Plan
Market Plan
Market Overview
International student travel increased by 7 percent per year from 2005 to 2011. Nearly 4.3 Million students selected overseas education in 2011, and around 8 million are expected to do so in 2025. Multiple factors drive this growth. Rising middle-class income, globalization and availability of highly rewarding international jobs, as well as the prestige associated with select universities. According to OECD, the US has 16.5 percent market share in overseas education. Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, together with the US attract 50 percent of foreign students. Germany attracts the largest number of students from Turkey, mainly due to the presence of a large Turkish diaspora. In 2011, over 31 thousand Turks were registered in German educational institutions, followed by the US with nearly 12 thousand, and the UK with little over 3000 students. The Company (for which this marketing plan is prepared) will be focused mainly on facilitating college selection in the US and in UK.
The aim of the company is to help students meet their overseas educational aspirations.
Education in Turkey. Students need to pass the national University Entrance Examination (YGS) to gain admission in one of the publicly funded universities. In 2013, of the 1.8 million students who sat through the exams, only 530,000 gained places at domestic institutions of higher studies. Whilst there are 71 private universities, their tuition fees often exceed the cost of education in the UK and in US.
A member of OECD, the country has experienced rapid economic growth over the past decade. With the exception of a sharp recession during the global financial crisis in 2008/09, the economy grew strongly. It is among the most developed economies of the world and has robust economic fundamentals. The government enhanced its expenditure towards the education sector to over 11.8 percent of its budget in 2013, which is 3 percent of the GDP. However, Turkey scores poorly in public spending on education relative to its OECD peers. This is one of the reasons why many students wish to study overseas. A British Council Education Intelligence survey (2013, September) found that 95 percent of responders wanted to study overseas, with the UK and the US emerging as top preferred destinations.
A combination of healthy economic indicators, a substantial middle and upper middle-income population, and a strongly aspirational youth make Turkey an attractive market for college consultancy service providers. Turkey’s demographics is also favorable; about 43 percent of its population is below the age of 25. The rise in demand for education has followed Turkey’s economic growth path as demonstrated by the growth in the number of private educational institutions.
Source: National Education Statistics 2012/13, Ministry of Education, page 17
The Firm
Applying for international secondary and higher education can be a stressful process for both students and their families. While there is a lot of information available on the internet, making the right selection and dealing with the complexities of the process can be taxing. The firm will aim to satisfy the customer’s need to select the right college that is best suited to their career or educational aspirations.
Istanbul. The firm will be based in Istanbul. This choice is driven by the fact that the city has a large number of prominent educational institutions; it is the financial capital of Turkey and home to a large middle-class population. Istanbul contributed to over a quarter of Turkey’s GDP and were home to 20 percent of its labor force in 2008. According to statistics provided by the Ministry of Education, in 2012/13 over 56,600 students graduated from Vocational & Technical Secondary education, and there were over 115,000 new entrants. This is a large pool of consumers for the service provider.
Product proposition. The firm will use its ability to research opportunities mainly in the US and in UK to provide a wide selection of opportunities for students based on factors including the student’s abilities, budget, choice of subjects and career aspirations. The firm will help students in resume and application writing process, and prepare students for the interview. Overseas education is costly and an important decision to make, the firm intends to deliver outstanding service to our clients, and establish credibility and a relationship of trust with the clients and their family.
Why use this service? As many students use it already, the internet is an effective tool for information gathering. However, this is often fraught with the danger of incomplete information. A study conducted by Australia-based Griffith University found that among other factors, a lack of fit between the institution and student expectation often led to disappointment. The firm will play an important role in creating an appropriate fit and set realistic student expectations.
The two main customer for the firm is the students and their family as well as universities and colleges attracting international students. Whilst the primary concern of students is to get the best education given their preferences, colleges also seek students who best fit the course on offer.
Competitor Profile. Given the growing size of the education consultancy industry, there are several education consulting firms of varying sizes. ASBA International Education Consulting (asba.com.tr) is one of the smaller firms. The company offer broadly similar services as this firm. ASBA International helps to “identify the best-fit institutions for our students based on their educational background, test results, budget and future career goals and to guide them from the application through graduation”.
ASBA International follows the NAFSA (Turkey Association of International Educators) code of ethics and is a founding member of UED in Turkey (Association of International Education Consultants). These are strong credentials. However, a look at the website reveals lack of comprehensive information. Another firm, Atlas Private Educational Consulting (Atlasedu.com) is a relatively larger firm and also provides similar services. Its consulting services are free, and the firm also helps students with their visa application. Meanwhile, United Towers Educational Consulting (unitedtowers.com) is a much larger firm in the educational consulting space.
As with this industries’ dynamics elsewhere, firms in this industry compete on the level of service provided and reliability. Educational consultants in Turkey stand to benefit by distinguishing their service proposition and communicating that message to the client. Reputation is highly valued and acts as a hindrance to the prospects of a new entrant in the industry.
Main message of marketing. The firm’s marketing efforts would be focused on communicating the effectiveness of its advice to the client. The firm will be delivering a service that meets the customer’s latent demand for comprehensive, reliable and focused college selection advice.
Trust and Credibility. College consultancy services can be an expensive proposition for anxious parents. A problem in this space is education consultants not working in the best interest of the client but as recruiting agents for foreign universities. Building trust and credibility requires that all of the firm’s research material should be diligently researched and well documented. This research will be based on college visits, gaining a deep understanding of issues. Client’s trust would be central to the firms business, and the marketing strategy is designed to communicate this message.
Pull over push marketing. Initial product offering needs to be communicated effectively to the client. In the case of education consulting, a consumer is already aware of her need and the most effective strategy would be to help the customer find the consultant. In addition, the firm’s online presence must stand out, as an essential feature of building credibility.
Online. A customer of college consultancy services would typically be on the lookout for help but may not fully be aware of the effectiveness of a consultant’s services. Consumers normally start with an online search for information, and this is likely to be the first contact point. An online consumer would have multiple choices to select from. Therefore, it is important that this point leads to a customer contact. Internet search engine optimization and online advertising would be used as cost effective tools to open a conversation with the customer.
An aware customer is most likely to be interested in high-quality information snapshot, presented attractively. At this stage, instead of an information overload, the firm would look for interest generation. Customer contact details, an invitation to call, as well as information packets with insights on international education can help a customer choose the services of the firm.
Social media. Proliferation of social media tools such as Facebook has dramatically transformed the way businesses connect with their consumers. However, for a start-up business managing social media content and relevance is a time-consuming process. The lack of control over the content can also impact the brands image.
On the other hand, LinkedIn is a highly effective tool of sharing the firm’s message due to a network effect. As a site designed for professionals, it is easier to reach out to a large number of potential clients and gain effective feedback. Twitter is also an effective media site to connect with an interested audience.
Relationship marketing. High schools can be an effective distribution venue for college counselling services. Given limited budgets, schools in Turkey are not well-equipped to provide career counselling services. This opens the opportunity for face-to-face contacts with potential future clients.
Advertising. Given the costs involved, print and other media advertising would be limited to target consumer groups. Events such as education fairs, and trade magazine advertising during peak interest times can generate consumer response.
Pricing strategy. Pricing can be a tool to communicate a brand image depending on the type of consumer targeted and the nature of business. Education services in normally a full demand service. This means that the consumer buys the entire package of services on offer. Given the social and cultural factors which drive student demand for overseas education, a premium pricing strategy is an effective tool to communicate the brand image. Such pricing would convey the value of advice offered. Furthermore, the consumer group is relatively small, and premium pricing would be required to sustain profitability given the cost of research involved.
Marketing Plan
It is essential for a firm to develop a sound marketing plan that is capable of promiting the business among the target consumers. Marketing plan is an outline of the various marketing activities that are involved in the process of marketing of a product or a service for an organization.
Target Customers
The target customers for the business shall be students based in Turkey that are looking for international institutions for their higher studies. The target customers can be segmented on the basis of demography, geography, psychography, benefits and usage rate segmentation.
Market Segmentation
Geographic Segmentation: The geographic segmentation for the current business shall be the cities and areas based in Turkey, Instanbul. The business shall cater to the customers (students) based in the region of Turkey.
Demographic Segmentation: Demographic segmentation is done on the basis of demographic factors such as age, income, family life cycle stage, gender and occupation. The age segmentation for the educational service shall be students in the age group of 18-30 years that want to undergo higher education in the US regions. On the basis of life cycle stage, the target customers shall be students that are unmarried and may live alone or with family in Turkey and are studying in schools or colleges or have completed their education and are looking for higher education opportunities outside Turkey in the US.
Psychographic Segmentation: The target market segment on the basis of psychographic segmentation shall include students that are not satisfied with the education system in Turkey or are enthusiastic about learning higher education in the regions of US so that they are better trained in the area of higher education so as to guarantee them good jobs and salary in the future.
Benefits Segmentation: The benefits segmentation for the target market segment is the benefit from the service that provides guidance to students in the area of higher education in the foreign university and also helps them in the various stages of the admission procedure.
Positioning
Positioning is defined as the impression about the service that exists in the minds of the target customers. It is important for an organization to position the product or service correctly in the minds of the target customers. The positioning statement for the current business service is to provide students with timely and efficient service to fulfil their dreams of overseas higher education.
Product Strategy
The core product shall be the educational service that guides students based in Turkey for overseas education. The augmented product shall include the services that shall be provided by the organization such as information of overseas university, their fees, course curriculum, admission forms, travel arrangements and interview preparation.
Pricing Strategy
Education services are usually priced keeping in mind the affordability of the student community and the type of services offered. Variable pricing strategy shall be used as the education service is a customized service that guides each customer (student) according to his needs and requirements. A part of the educational service shall be fixed that would be the standard components and the final price of the product shall vary with the services chosen.
Distribution Strategy
The distribution strategy shal involve the various channels through which the service shall reach the target consumers. For the purpose of educational service, the following distribution channels shall be used:
Direct Distribution Channel through company website and social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. The students shall be able to directly access the company website through internet, access information, make payments and enroll for the service. The students shall also be able to access the information and request enrolment through social media channels run by the business owners on social media websites such as Facebook and Linkedin.
Indirect distribution channels include collaboration with universities, schools and colleges based in Turkey through which students can access information about the service. Remote centers shall be set up near universities and colleges to provide the services to the students.
Promotions
The promotions shall include the various channels that shall be used to create awareness about the service among the target consumers. The traditional channels of promotions such as print media (newspapers and magazines) and television and radio shall not be used due to their higher costs. The modern methods of promotion such as social media, email marketing, website marketing and search engine optimization (seo) shall be used for the promotions.
Performance Measurement
The performance of the marketing activities shall be measured through the number of students enrolled in the services, the number of likes on social media websites and the number of website hits.
Management and Operational Plan
The management and operations plan shall include a range of management and operational activities that shall be conducted to run the business.
Employee Functions
The following organizational functions shall be included:
Service Executives: They shall be involved in direct interaction with the students and shall provide required information to the students regarding the admission to foreign universities and the various procedures and services of the company.
Education Counsellors: They shall counsel the students in the various fields of education, assess their capabilities and guide them for interview preparation and other formalities.
Finance and Accounts Officer: The financial officer shall be involved in the collection of the fees from students and arranging funds for students in collaboration with the financial institutions in Turkey. The finance officer shall also analyze the cost and profit losss statements of the company.
Human Resource Executive: The human resource executive shall be responsible for the management and hiring of human resources for the organization.
Technical Officer: The technical officer shall be responsible for the management of the company website and the technical procedures for the company that require software and hardware support.
Marketing Executives: The marketing executives shall be responsible for bringing leads to the organization for student enrolments and also conduct the promotional and branding activities for the organization.
Administrative Officer: The adminstrateive officer shall handle the administrative functions such as office supplies and utilities for the employees.
Organizational head:In the initial stages, the organization shall be headed by one individual who is the founder and ceo of the organization.
The expenditues for the organization shall be in the following areas:
Financial Plan
The financial planning of the services include an analysis of the costs against the sales made by the organization represented by the number of students enrolled and the services chosen by them. The difference of the sales and the costs shall provide the necessary profits and the break even analysis shall provide the number of years to achieve the breakeven for the business.
It is assumed that 10,000 students enroll for standard information, 7500 for admission guidance, 4500 for travel assistance and 6000 for interview preparation in the first year and the figures increase by 25 percent each year.
For the ease of calculations, the expenses have been assumed to increase by 15 percent each year. The business has successfully achieved its breakeven in the first year of its operations.
References
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OECD (2013), Education at a Glance 2013: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2013-en (342-361)
De Aenlle, C. (2010, September 13), How to Choose the Right University, The New York Times, retrieved from http://www.iecaonline.com/news.html
Filice, K. (2010, April 10), The business of educational consulting, Hürriyet Daily News, retrieved from http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/
Grove, J. (2014, September 13), Turkey: the next prime location for overseas recruitment?, Times Higher Education, retrieved from http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/
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