A frustrating moment in my HE career was being told by a Vice Principal (PVC) that “we [academics] will develop some exciting courses and then pass them to Marketing to sprinkle fairy dust on them to bring in lots of students”.
This statement encapsulates both how university leadership often views marketing only as a tactic and where universities have gone wrong in failing to consider their customers. At a time of financial crisis for many universities it’s more important than ever that universities get their marketing and recruitment right.
Marketing is about understanding and responding to customers’ needs, ambitions, preferences and behaviours. UK universities have multiple customers – in this piece I focus on students. Done properly marketing has a strategic contribution to make to university management; here’s why marketing should have a voice at the top table.
Product
Consider the shape of your institution. What programmes should you focus on to attract students, given the strengths of your university and market demand? Can you afford to continue to support disciplines that don’t attract sufficient numbers or quality of students? Marketers can add value here by providing market analysis and insight into what prospective students want to study and what employers are seeking, and therefore inform discussions about both growth and contraction.
At a more tactical level, given limited resources everywhere it makes sense to focus on what will deliver the greatest returns. That may mean some difficult conversations on why particular disciplines or programmes won’t be promoted, but it should also contribute to those wider strategic discussions on size and shape.
A data and market-driven approach to programme management also saves your academic departments time from developing courses that will not attract sufficient numbers of students. This needs to be an agile and iterative process – universities that adapt quickly to changes in markets and customer demand should do well.
Data and insight into future trends are also needed for international markets so that universities can plan. Marketers can provide this and help you shape your international strategy.
Brand
Much nonsense is spoken about brand but when you boil it down it’s what your stakeholders (including staff, students, alumni and partners – academic, civic and business) believe about your institution. So everyone in a university has a role in building and maintaining the institution’s reputation, because all their interactions contribute to the way an institution is perceived – everyone is a brand ambassador.
Marketers can distil that brand essence and find channels to articulate it to all your stakeholders in a credible way that both reinforces and deepens relationships and encourages stakeholders themselves to become brand advocates.
The essence of a marketing approach is to understand the needs of these different groups and develop a value proposition for each. This approach needs to be embedded in your university’s strategic plan so that it is clear to all staff what are your priorities.
Price
Pricing is an important part of the customer decision-making process. It’s particularly relevant to international students, whose assumptions on the quality of a university and programme can be influenced by price as well as tariff.
Fee-setting offers an opportunity to drive up margin without increasing volume. To do that properly requires input from:
- Marketing: fees should be appropriately benchmarked, nuanced and consider your university’s market position and the attractiveness of particular subjects. All these decisions need to be data-driven.
- Finance: what is the cost of running different types of programmes and are you making a margin. If not, can you afford to run that programme.
- Strategic planning: be realistic in number-setting rather than optimistic.
A voice for marketers
Universities are important to the economic, social and cultural health of the nation; we need them to succeed. Effective strategic marketing can help foster stakeholder loyalty and greater financial robustness, leading to a stronger university and ultimately a stronger sector.
The good news is that there are many excellent marketers working in HE, supported by organisations like CASE that promote good practice and innovation across the sector. And it’s encouraging that more universities (including those in the Russell Group) now include the Chief Marketing Officer or equivalent in the leadership team. Including that voice of the customer will strengthen your strategic decision-making.
Halpin Consulting Fellow Rebecca Trengrove works across Halpin’s Strategy & Transformation area which includes reviews of marketing, student recruitment and advisory to senior HE leadership. If you would like to find our how Halpin and our team of experts can support you with your marketing and student recruitment needs, get in touch.