Southern Cross University Lismore, Australia

Electronic Marketing Plan for the International Office, SCU

by

Gisela Schneider

Table of Contents

Executive Summary 1

1. Introduction 5

2. Situational Analysis 6

2.1. Situational environs 6
2.2. Neutral environs 8
2.3. Competitor environs 9
2.4. The company environs 9

3. The Target Market 10

4. Problems and Opportunities 10

5. Marketing Goals and Objectives 13

6. Marketing Strategy 13

7. Implementation and Control 14

8. Summary 14

References 0

Appendix 1

1. INTRODUCTION

Australia has become a popular study abroad destination for many international students. The witness of organizations such as IDP Education Australia Limited (IDP) (www.idp.edu.au), a non-profit organisation owned by Australia′s Universities, have realized this fact. IDP is the world leader in the international education and development services industry, with a global network of 35 countries assisting students online in the quest of international study in Australia. Southern Cross University (SCU) is one of 300 partner institutions listed by IDP. IDP will be discussed later in this document when investigating the marketing environment of the International Office at SCU, as they are a large contributing factor in obtaining overseas students.

The International Office at SCU currently employs several different marketing tools to put themselves in contact with prospective international students and to display their services and study programs. One of those is marketing via the Internet by their website, which we will concentrate on in this Marketing Plan. There are many possible designs for websites that include the use of colour, pictures, sound and motion, which are more or less used by the International Office to reach their target market. This one is dispersed all over the world with students in the average age bracket of 18 to 39. Prospective international students are direct information seekers, who use the Internet to obtain a wealth of information regarding universities throughout the world. This fact illustrates that the use of the World Wide Web (WWW) is an excellent marketing tool to circulate information about SCU.

The current website (http://www.scu.edu.au/intoff/) was been created four years ago and has been updated randomly throughout its existence. The most recent updates occurred during a six-month interim. It is made of tables with two bars with a green coloured background with lighter characters (displaying the words Southern Cross University) and a purple confining line enclosing the main body over a white background. The left hand bar is considered as a navigational menu with six language flags on the top (translating the introduction of the SCU), three purple buttons with the "General Information", "Courses and Fees", "Application & Admission" and three further links underneath to the International Office homepage, Contact details and the SCU homepage. The main body is, under the header "International Office" with the SCU sign, dedicated to information about the services and programs offered by the International Office with further links to already displayed information in the navigational bar and new links which make it easy to miss information, as the website is longer than two pages. On the bottom of the site is indicated the year 2001 with the copyright form of the SCU. Furthermore, there are displayed the links "Copyright and Disclaimer" and "Feedback". Underneath is the information that the web page has been updated last time in December 2001. The effort to give a good overall view with a well structured content and easy to navigate links fail, as the websites menu does not show the whole content at the first sight. Many links are in the main body or reachable trough clicking through different links, which are hard to find. Unfortunately there is no search function, which would make it easier to find the required information. One of the most important criteria for an international student is to have detailed and updated information about courses and units of the different departments, which is not provided. Links to the several departments are completely missing. Furthermore the information showed is not updated, especially concerning accommodation prices what is an important selection criteria for internationals. A further problem occurs by downloading the application files, as they are not complete. Also problematic is the use of new browsers, as the code is not updated and the website asks the user to debug (Illustration 2: Website of the International Office).

As a website′s objective is to reflect their services and the programs offered in the best way possible, the purpose of this Internet Marketing Plan is to improve the existing website of the International Office, Southern Cross University (SCU), Lismore, New South Wales, Australia by several strategies.

2. SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

2.1. SITUATIONAL ENVIRONS

The demand for studying in Australia seems to be on a rise. This is confirmed by the growth and conception of companies such as IDP Australia used by international students and Universities and also recently by the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST). According to figures for 2001 enrolments for students rose 4.4 per cent of which non-overseas students rose 2.4 per cent compared to last year where most of the rise is made among overseas students who made 17.5 per cent of enrolments (see Table 1).

Gary Osmond, Manager of International Development and Marketing at SCU indicated that IDP is an excellent marketing vehicle that assists the communication between prospective students and Australian Universities. Gary indicated that the international office′s website attracts approximately 30 inquires per day. The comment was also made that the website is an excellent time saving resource in response to inquiries. SCU, like many other Universities with international programs seems to have recognized the importance of having a marketing presence on the Internet. However, the fact that the market is experiencing growth means that the competition between Universities has become quite intense. The website of the International Office is being "pitched" to students seeking information, who have a great deal available to them using the WWW (i.e. IDP currently lists 300 Australian Institutions). In order for SCU to ensure success, they must engineer a website that shows the University and the International Office in the best possible light. The website of the International Office in comparison to the main homepage of SCU shows that this not happening.

The growing popularity of the Internet itself is affecting the social and cultural environs of the International Office Site. There is no doubt the Internet is experiencing massive growth. The number of users, host, and domain names alike are steadily increasing. Many of these users fall into the demographic of the International Office, as Universities nowadays are embracing the Internet through education as well as Marketing. The chart produced by Robert Hobbes Zakon illustrates this growth. (Illustration 1: Hobbes timeline).

The fate of the SCU′s International office depends on several different decision makers employed with the university. The website has no "webmaster" per say, but it is looked after by Gary Osmond, Manager of International Development and Marketing. Gary simply checks the site periodically and asks the University′s Information Technologies (IT) section to make updates. To improve the whole Marketing situation, SCU has recently hired Elizabeth Fleming, Manager of Admissions and Marketing, who will manage independent faculty′s as well as the International Office′s marketing affairs. However, the responsibility of the international website will remain part of Gary Osmond′s duties, although it is not properly listed in his job description.

All in all, the SCU is doing a good job of using the Internet to eliminate language and distance barriers. The site currently offers translation of sections of the site in a variety of languages. Although the information that is offered is limited, it shows an effort of a multicultural embracing organization.

2.2. NEUTRAL ENVIRONS

[...]