Unique Selling Points and Value Proposition - Assignment Example

Name: Tutor: Course: Date: Unique Selling Points/Value Proposition The technology management degree at Bradford University is unique and different from that offered in other universities. Although the university offers other courses as well, the technology degree is strictly modified to meet the interests and ambitions of the student. The entry requirements are also unique for this degree. One is required to have a second-class Honors degree in a relevant field and possess English proficiency up to the IELTS level. Compared to the same degree in other universities, the Bradford University’s is very comprehensive and detailed. Some of the unique courses included in the degree include networks and protocols, security, privacy and data protection and cryptography and network security. The course is relatively cheap considering the detailed nature of the degree. Local students are required to pay £4,160 while the international students are required to pay £11,500. The university offers full time study plan as well as the e-learning arrangement to ensure that it takes a leading position in terms of marketing the course. Target market and competitors The course targets holders of second class honors degree from recognized institutions of learning. It is mainly intended to equip the learners with Internet management skills so that they can become relevant in today’s business world which has become Internet-Controlled. The course is open for both local and international students. The main competitors of Bradford University include Staffordshire University and the universities of Hertfordshire and Chichester as well as other universities in the world offering similar courses. All these universities offer the general management courses which are not as specialized as the degree at Bradford University The detailed nature of Bradford University’s courses places it higher than its competitors. The ability of the university to offer distance learning services for the course ensures that the university maintains a lion share of the customers taking the course. Marketing mix Marketing has been made easier and faster with the use of internet technology. Marketing is simply the utilization of marketing mix to enhance the exchange of goods, services and ideas. Marketing mix of the technology management degree at Bradford University has been influenced by the use of Internet in marketing the degree course. Marketing mix describes the basic, strategies of the marketing plan used by the university. This has greatly been influenced by Internet technology. Below is the marketing mix of the course. Product With the aid of internet technology, the determination of a product that will sell or fail to sell among the consumers has been made easier. Customers are able to check the details of the degree from the internet. Bradford University has made available all the details of the course in the Internet. The customers will check the details from the Internet and the means of enrolling for the course. Pricing Pricing is a very important factor of marketing. The marketing strategy of Bradford University includes the specific and proper pricing of the degree course. The pricing of the course is reasonable and affordable so that it can attract the attention of potential customers from the target group. Place Internet technology has greatly influenced the marketing and selling of the degree courses offered by many universities including those at Bradford University. Selling of the degree is no longer restricted to taking the course at the universities. Students can take the course at the places of their convenience through e-learning and distance learning. Internet has made the transfer of information faster and more convenient. Promotion Bradford University is reaching most of its target customers through the Internet. A larger proportion of the audience is reached via the Internet promotions. There are no restrictions in regard to the number of customers that are reached through the Internet promotion conducted by the university. Advertising/Promotions Many enterprises are advertising and promoting their goods and services through internet marketing. One of the ways of achieving this successfully is through the use of web promotion. Web advertisement has made advertising very easy and convenient. May marketers are currently depending on the World Wide Web for marketing their goods. Electronic correspondence or e-mails is one of the ways that many firms are using to advertise their wares. Other ways that organizations are using to market their products include marketing through social networking web-sites (Peterson 55). Both the marketer and the customer are comfortable with internet market and most of them consider it as the most effective and efficient way of trading. Customers are able to search successfully for the products that they intend to purchase while the marketers are able to expose all their wares to the customers through the internet. A few customers are comfortable with electronic correspondence as a means of advertisement because they find it limiting (Peterson 65). The customers like visiting social netting web-sites in search of products as opposed to electronic correspondence. Techniques to market the degree course There are various techniques that can be used to market the technology management degree offered by Bradford University. One of the techniques that would be used is e-mail marketing. This will be an effective technique because it will reach a significant range of the intended customers. The online promotion is another technique that would be applicable in this context. This is because the course is offered both at the university and through e-learning (Johnson & Staddon 39). Online promotion would thus serve the customer interested in the e-learning or the distance leaning in taking the course. Web Design Online The advertisement of the technology management degree can be improved through a numbers of ways. One of the ways is through article marketing. Article marketing is very effective in increasing the web traffic for a particular advertisement. The university can introduce this system to its advertisement plan in order to reach more customers. In order to succeed in this process, the university will have to create keyword rich articles or review the details of the degree course (Davis 50). Another strategy to improve the marketing is through pay per click advertisement. This is intended to reach a specific target group. SEO and Web Analytic Web Analytic and SEO software deliver precise website statistics that assist webmasters and marketers in enhancing website performance and boost marketing initiatives for individuals or firms with single website. The information provided by the software is used by the marketers to assess the efficiency of their search engines in order to improve their performance (Clifton, 30). Examples of software that collect web traffic data Software to collect web traffic data is classified into two classes. The first class is the on server applications. This is where the software directly installed in the server through pre-installed programs. Examples of these are Webalizer and Awstas. Webalizer and Awstas are some applications that can be used to collect web traffic data directly on the server. These programs normally read server logs, compile data and provide reports depending on the information. The other category is the off server applications. This involves installing programs to run off the web server. Google Analytics is another program that can be used for this purpose. This software is normally run off the web server. The benefit of this type of application is that it can serve large organizations or institutions operating with large equipments, high manpower, money and data. Another advantage of the off server programs is that they boost the chances of getting accurate referral data in cases where the referral link was from a similar system (Clifton 35). How cookies can be used for marketing purposes A cookie is a file that has been created by an Internet site to store information on a PC. For instance when one inquires about a flight schedule from a service provider through its web site, the site may create a cookie containing the details. Cookies are used for advertisement purposes because they identify their user’s web surfing habits and profile with the intention of marketing. They for example identify the type of products a particular user is interested in and send the information to the relevant advertisements. Cookies can store information distinct to a particular person including the identity or contact information (Davis 45). This information is critical in determining a customer’s preference for goods to aid the marketing process. Tracking technology Many organizations are using technology to help them get closer to the customers and establish an effective relationship with the customers. The ability to gather customer data profiles has been made easier through the use of Internet technology. There is no problem in tracking and storing customer data profiles because many customers trust companies with personal details. Lack of trust can lead to serious issues in regard to privacy. Customers have no issues with the companies maintaining their personal information provided that the companies exhibit confidentiality (Stead & Gilbert, 78). Confidentiality is thus a significant element of successful relationship marketing. Successful relationship marketing depends largely on consumer perceptions of a company. Companies will definitely spoil the customer-company relationship if their expose, manipulate or misuse in any way the information they have about their customers. The Internet as a successful tool for marketing and advertisement has raised significant issues that have relevant implications on privacy (Stead & Gilbert, 80). Many customers are however comfortable with advertisements and marketing through the Internet provided that the companies maintain confidentiality of any personal information concerning the customers that they may be holding. Works cited Clifton, Brian. Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics, 2nd edition, New York: Sybex, 2010, print. Davis, John. ‘Marketing Metrics: How to create Accountable Marketing plans that really work’ London: John Wiley & Sons, 2006, print. Johnson, R. & Staddon, J. "Deflation-secure web metering". International Journal of Information and Computer Security, 2007 1: 39. Peterson Eric. Web Analytics Demystified: A Marketer’s Guide to Understanding How Your Web Site Affects Your Business. London: Celilo Group Media, 2004, Print Stead, Bett & Gilbert, Jackie. Ethical Issues in electronic commerce, Journal of Business ethics, Vol. 34, No. 2: 75-85, 2000. Print. Bradley Noar. Marketing Research. Tools and Techniques. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007, Print. Read More