Student Target Marketing Strategies for Universities

Journal of College Admission, Summer 2007 by Lewison, Dale M, Hawes, Jon M

Target Marketing

A target marketing approach requires a focus on one or more selected market segments, and the development of separate marketing programs for each segment. Research shows (e.g., Cavanagh 2002; Rindfeish 2003; Selingo 1999; Thomas 2004) that various segments of the market vary in their response tendencies for educational services. Depending on the type and number of market segments to be targeted, the university could pursue one or more target marketing alternatives: 1) differentiated marketing, 2) concentrated marketing or 3) orchestrated marketing. (See Figure 1).

Differentiated marketing involves the decision to operate in two or more segments of the market. A university might decide to select a limited number of clustered or scattered target markets. For example, four chosen segments are shown on the left side of Figure Ha]. When this is done, the university has decided to pursue a "selected differentiated marketing approach." On the other hand and as shown on the right side of Figure 1 [a], strategists at a university may elect to target each market segment, thereby following a "complete differentiated marketing approach." In either case, a distinct marketing program will be required for each individual market segment.

A high degree of focused effort characterizes concentrated marketing. This strategy takes one of two forms: "exclusive concentrated marketing" (see left side of Figure 1[b]) or "integrative concentrated marketing" (see right side of Figure 1 [b]). In exclusive concentrated marketing, a university focuses all attention on a single segment of the educational consumer market in hopes of dominating that market through total market penetration, Integrative concentrated marketing is simply an extension of the exclusive strategy. This approach involves expanding a single market segment to encompass other similar segments. Employment of integrative concentrated marketing entails using a developed exclusive market segment as a staging area for expansion into contiguous segments. Market knowledge and marketing experiences gained in serving the original market segment enhance the chances for successful expansion.

The strategy of orchestrated marketing consists of developing a selective marketing program designed to meet the common needs of a range ("horizontal" or "vertical") of market segments (see Figure 1 [c]). While the individual needs of each segment within a market segment range may vary somewhat, the orchestrated marketer finds a key commonality, basic characteristic or persuasive need that several otherwise different groups share. It is this commonality, characteristic or need that serves as the foundation for the development of a distinctive yet collective marketing program suitable for a set of dimensional market segments. Market orchestration is a mid-range choice between the extreme strategies of differentiated versus concentrated marketing.

Selecting a Strategy

Like all other organizations, universities face a classic dilemma when developing marketing strategy. On the one hand, operational cost efficiencies arise from providing a single, undifferentiated offering to all served. With the other, when the market served is heterogeneous (and it usually is) and higher costs accrue from a variety of offerings targeted to the unique needs of the various targeted segments, comes greater student satisfaction and enhanced market success. Consequently, a university must select a marketing strategy that maintains an appropriate balance between its ability to effectively meet the needs of specifically targeted students and its ability to operate efficiently.