Developing a marketing plan requires understanding both internal and external business environment in order to outline the firm’s marketing and advertising efforts. It explains the activities of the businesses which are involved in attaining the specific marketing objectives within a time frame (Kotler and Keller, 2015). In this current study, marketing plan would be developed for the university, La Trobe University which has recently launched a newly Master of Management online for the students. Therefore, in the study, company, customer and competitors’ analysis would be performed so that a strong market could be created for the new product. Moreover, critical issues in the launch of new product along with targeting and positioning shall be discussed to gain better insight of the market.
La Trobe University is an Australian based multi-campus public research university. It is situated in Bundoora, Victoria. The university has nearly 36278 students from across the regions (La Latrobe, 2016). It offers various higher education programs so that the students can fulfil its desire or dreams in particular field. The university has strong name in the educational industry in Australia which helps them to attract more number of students under their campus. However, the university has launched a new Master of Management online for the students from all over the world so that number of students can study online and could gain master degree. Currently, the university has 13th ranking in Australia and is listed in 100 top universities worldwide. Therefore, in order to further improve its ranking, the university have launched an online higher education program. Moreover, launching this program would be useful for the university as it can list them in top list as the most preferred university by the students.
The education industry in Australia plays a crucial role in both the social life and economic of the nation. Australian’ education industry is well regarded for offering high quality national and international education and attracts number of students across the borders. It has been reported that each year more than 450000 students from 200 nations enrols for studying in Australian Universities. Behind tourism, education industry has become second largest services export sector in Australia which significantly contributes in the economic development of the country (Insightgroup, 2013). On the other hand, there has been growing demand for online education programs from the students that cannot attend the universities due to their personal or financial constraints. It has been observed that online education has significantly grown in Australia and is expected that it will further grow strongly. Further, it has been reported that demand for Australian international higher education would grow to 290848 in 2025 and also online education has grown 25.1% per annum over the past five years (Investinaustralia, 2016).
It relates with the collection of methods that organisations employ for analysing their internal and external environment for understanding the capabilities, customers and business environment (McDonald, Payne and Frow, 2012).
Strength: La Trobe University is well known among national and international students. The new product, Masters of Management online would provide affordable education to the students across the borders. Moreover, by enrolling for Master of Management online, the students would be able to seek master’s degree similar like other regular students attending classes (Jamelske, 2009). On the other hand, the new online education programs will include number of degree courses which would be easy for the students to decide among.
Weakness: One of the weaknesses is that lack of professional teachers and professors who can provide online education and tutorial to the students. On the other hand, the new online higher education program is in initial phase of launch due to which it could be difficult to create awareness among the students and enrol for the same.
Opportunities: The growing online scale worldwide is a better opportunity for La Trobe University to attract the students for its Masters of Management online program. Furthermore, the university has an opportunity to form an undergraduate experience by exercising the best education practices from throughout the nation. Moreover, university could become a leader in integrated and interdisciplinary learning. The university can also partner with other top class universities to provide online higher education programs to large number of students.
Threats: The major threats could be the presence of competitors in the market which can create hindrance. The competitors like Charles Darwin University, Murdoch University and University of Western Australia could be problem for La Trobe University in promoting its new consumer product. These competitors have a good stand in providing higher education programs to large number of students.
It is a public university which is based in Australia and has more than 22,083 students across the globe. It offers many courses online different fields such as Arts & Humanities, Business, Education, Health, Information Technology, Law & Justice and Science & Engineering (Cdu, 2016). On the other hand, the university offers VET courses (Vocational Education and Training) and Higher Education postgraduate and undergraduate degrees. Moreover, the university also offers part-time, external and online study to the students. However, the university has no great exposure in providing online higher education programs as major portion of their earnings are generated from the regular students (Cdu, 2015).
It is also a public university which has campuses in Dubai and Singapore apart from Western Australia. It has less number of students in comparison to Charles Darwin University and La Trobe University. As on 2015, the university has 16,606 students majorly from Australia only.
