Course Name : Marketing for Managers Assignment Task No : 2 Student’s name : Anki Reddy Allu Student ID : 12028793 Course Coordinator : Parves Sultan Executive Summary The objective of this report is to discuss and analyse the market and competitive environment of Griffith university. The report discusses SWOT, PESTLE analysis, value chain analysis for Griffith university. The report concludes that Griffith university is one of the finest university in Australia and It is expected that it would continue to do well in the market. The report highlights that it is important that university should work on its internal weaknesses. At the same time, Griffith university should keep a close watch on the external factors and macro-economic variables. 1.0 Introduction & Background Educational institutes are very critical in defining the progress of any nation. For instance, educational institutes are responsible for producing the engineers, managers, doctors, teachers, researchers, scientists of today. Well-being of any nation depends upon how the good the education is and thus there is government intervention also in designing the courses. Griffith University is also supported by Australian government and thus enjoys that status that many other institutes did not. This report will discuss the market and competitive environment of Griffith University and what are the unique propositions of this university. It also provides what are the target markets for the university and how does it create value for its members both student and staff (Richardson & Abraham, 2012). The objective of this report is to discuss and analyse the market and competitive environment of Griffith university. The paper would discuss various internal and external parameters of Griffith university. A brief organizational background can be discussed as: 1.1 Organizational background: Griffith university is a public university in Australia. The university was established in the year 1971. The Griffith university is the first university in the country to offer courses like environmental studies and Asian studies. Opening initially with the one campus at Nathan and 451 students, the University now has five campuses spanning three cities, the largest of which are the Gold Coast campus at Southport and the Nathan campus in Brisbane. 2.0 Market summary and demand assessment There is a huge market for the education sector in Australia. Due to its attractiveness in terms of schools’ fees as compared to other world class universities in US and Europe, Australia is a very good bet for students in terms of their return on investments i.e. attractive compensation packages as compared to amount they spent on the fees. Not only this, students are getting very good globalized environment and research opportunities comparable to some of the top universities of the World in Australian universities. As a result, students across the world began to prefer Australia for education. 3.0 Segmentation and target market The target market for Griffith University are the students that wish to get the quality education. It includes not only the students in the domestic market but also the students in the international market. Every year a large number of international students from the neighbour countries take admission in the Griffith university. Over a period of time, it has evolved to a large number of courses and attract students from all parts of the world. It is also marketing itself as a globalized university and very active in participation in education fares across the world. Scholarships are also another way to attract people (Lowe & Laffey, 2011). Also, it has very good placements of students in the corporations through its partnership with organizations. 4.0 Marketing mix analysis The marketing mix is a powerful tool to assess the capability of firms. The four elements of marketing mix for Griffith University can be discussed as: Product: The product element is one of the core elements of marketing mix of Griffith University. The product would include the various tangible aspects of universities. It would include the professors, the infrastructure, etc. The product elements would also include the intangible elements like course curriculum, legacy of the university, etc. It would be correct to say that Griffith university has very strong product elements in place. Price: The Griffith university is a public university and the objective of university is much more than profit making. The university charges reasonable fee for its various courses. At the same time, university also runs various scholarship programs. Therefore, it can be said that Griffith university has very powerful price element. Place: Griffith university has five campuses in the country. All the campuses of Griffith university are strategically placed in good locations. All the campuses of Griffith university are accessible by private transports. Therefore, it can be said that Griffith university has very powerful place element (Coetzer & Roxas, 2012). Promotion: The Promotional elements for Griffith university includes both offline and online promotions. The university is more dependent on online sources of promotion as compared to the offline sources. The Griffith university has a strong Facebook page that is used to connect with prospective students. Therefore, it can be said that Griffith university has very powerful promotional element. 5.0 PESTEL analysis The analysis of various parameters under PESTEL analysis for universities in Australia can be discussed as: Political & Legal: The political factors include government regulations and strategies. The government of Australia is supportive of educational institutions in the country. The government strategies and policies are designated to aid the universities in the country. The political and legal factors can be termed as favourable for educational universities in the country. Economical: The economic factors are the macroeconomic factors that affects the industry at large. The economic factors can be termed as positive for universities and educational institutions (Poropat, 2009). Social factors: The social factors are very positive for educational institutions and universities. The Australia citizens and families always want more and more universities to be set up in the country as it would be a platform for Australians to get the best education. Technological: The technological factors are positive for organizations in educational institutions. Today, most of the large universities in Australia offer online courses. This has been possible only with the support of computer systems and Information systems. With technological advancements, more jobs are also getting created boosting education sector. Thus, Technological factors are also quite favourable for the growth of education sector in Australia (Coetzer & Roxas, 2012). Environmental: The environmental factors demand that universities should use the clean form of energy to run the campuses. The environmental factors are mostly positive for universities as most of the universities and educational institutions have clean and green campuses. 6.0 Competitor analysis There are number of universities in Australia and all these universities possess some competition to others. University of Melbourne in Victoria is one of the top competitor of Griffith University. Melbourne is as old as 1853 and more percentage of post graduate students as compared to Griffith. Starting salaries are almost similar in both. Griffith university is bit expensive as compared to Melbourne but it is quite a huge percentage of overseas students as compared to Melbourne and also has higher ranking in research front. 7.0 SWOT analysis SWOT analysis include the analysis of internal and external factors. Strengths and Weaknesses are internal for any organization and Opportunities and Threats are external (Coetzer & Roxas, 2012). Opportunities and threats would generally exist at the industry level. The SWOT matrix for Griffith university can be discussed as: STRENGTHS The brand name of the university Thousands of intelligent students The great alumni network of Griffith university (Chatterjee & Sherwin, 2013) The good physical infrastructure of the university WEAKNESSES The Griffith university has 5 campuses in the country. The university does not have any international presence Limited internal courses in the universities THREATS The threat from competition is the biggest threat for Griffith university There exists some threats from the market forces and factors like legal guidelines, political interventions, macro-economic factors, etc. OPPORTUNITIES Opportunity to expand the operation of the university in the Australian market The university has the opportunity to run more online courses for students that can’t attend the courses in person 8.0 Value and brand positioning analysis The brand positioning of Griffith university is the strong education that university provides to its students. The positioning of Griffith university is done in a way to attract students who want quality education. In fact, the brand equity of the university advocates the quality education as the core competency of Griffith University. 9.0 Conclusion The above paper discusses the internal and external environment of Griffith university. With the above discussion, it can be said that Griffith university is one of the finest university in Australia. It is expected that it would continue to do well in the market. It is important that university should work on its internal weaknesses. At the same time, Griffith university should keep a close watch on the external factors and macro-economic variables. References Arambewela, R., & Hall, J. (2013). The interactional effects of the internal and external university environment, and the influence of personal values, on satisfaction among international postgraduate students. Studies in higher education, 38(7), 972-988. Chatterjee, K., Sherwin, H., & Jain, J. (2013). 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