Introduction
Armstrong and Michael define marketing as “the process of performing market research, selling products and/or services to customers and promoting them via advertising to further enhance sells” (23). It is aimed at increasing sells, enhancing business communication and promoting business developments. It is also the process through which businesses develop and strengthen their relationship with customers. A proper marketing plan must be able to identify the target market and understand how to satisfy their needs. Online marketing has offered the best avenue so far for businesses to reach bigger masses at a minimized cost. The avenue also offers a more timely exchange of information and feedback between businesses and its customers. There are five basic principles of online marketing. They are dead-ends, trust, niche marketing, giving and selling and push and pull.
The Hawaii Pacific University marketing plan
Hawaii Pacific University is a private non-profit university administering academic wealth to over 8,200 students. It has been accredited by different nationally recognized groups and has received several accolades for academic excellence. This marketing plan is aimed at helping Hawaii Pacific University to recruit more new students. The university’s mission is to anticipate the changing needs of the community and prepare its students to fit into the global societies as they live, work and offer their participation there. The university’s target market is anyone with intentions of furthering their education past the high school level. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs to students from all the 50 states of America and more than 100 countries.
SWOT analysis
The universities strengths and opportunities make it a favorable place for anyone intending to pursue their studies past the high school level. It was established in 1965, giving it more years of experience than many other colleges in the region. It has been accredited by the relevant authorities and has membership from internationally recognized groups (Hawaii Pacific University 1). The university’s curriculum is recognized globally allowing the university to admit students from different international destinations. The international recognition also means that its graduates are recognized globally and can work effectively in the global markets.
Other than the fact that the university has too many options to choose from, the university has been able to eliminate most of the challenges that other academic institutions face. Foreign students who don’t speak English may take long to learn the language and adapt to the English culture. The school has many opportunities to utilize even as they work towards enrolling more students. The diverse cultural background of different students offers an opportunity for it to attract more students from different global regions. Threats facing the university include competition and tough regulations put in place by the Accrediting Commission for senior colleges.
Positioning strategy
Since the University is accredited by the relevant authorities and has much other accreditation and membership from internationally recognized academic groups, students who enroll for a degree there are confident of getting a quality education. The university’s marketing strategy must highlight what it offers academically and in other extra curriculum activities. For example, it is a member of the intercollegiate sports, allowing its students to participate in different sports that they may be talented in. Through sporting activities, the university offers scholarships to its students’ athletes. Many of its sporting groups such as Softball have received national championship titles. Such factors make education in HPU a good product.
Pricing in HPU is much favorable than it is in many private universities. It is a non-profit university allowing it to offer much lower prices. “Its tuition fees for undergraduate and graduate courses is almost half the U.S average for private universities” (Hawaii Pacific University 1). This ensures that students get a high-quality education at a much cheaper price. The product is well distributed through different campuses and facilities. The main campus is in Honolulu while there are other campuses in Kaneohe. The university is also affiliated with other institutes such as the Oceanic institute and is present on seven campuses on the O’ahu island’s military installations, offering the U.S.D.O.D personnel much-needed educational opportunities. This makes the product more available to people in the military.
The university’s target market, which is young and old learned people, makes it easier to market it online. Its website is the biggest avenue to offer information to all interested parties and sell its good product. However, the website needs to be available in other languages to allow the university to reach more global markets. It will also give interested parties a reason to look further and take action. The website offers online shopping since applicants can go through the application process and can pay fees online. Attractive content pulls more people to it regularly. The university can still utilize other online marketing options such as social networks and email marketing to further grow their clientele.
Conclusion
Online marketing is a good option for marketing a product such as Hawaii Pacific University. The fact that all the applicants are past the high school level means they can read and write. It is, therefore, easier to reach them online through the website, social groups, online videos, and email marketing. The product is strong, has good pricing, and is well distributed to ensure access. The university, therefore, stands to gain much from a marketing strategy since the product is already well developed. By highlighting the strong points of the product, it will be easier to attract more clientele and enroll more students.
Work cited
Armstrong, Gary and Michael Harker. Marketing: An Introduction. New York: Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.
Hawaii Pacific University. HPU at a Glance, 2011.