Market Research for Universities

Market Research for Universities Andrea Costa, Market Research and Development Università Bocconi 2008 EUPRIO Conference, Stavanger

Outline • Market research for universities. Why? • Target groups & methodologies • Research areas: • Employment & careers • Buying process • Customer satisfaction • Brand image • Communication & advertising • An innovative project • What next?

1. Market Research for Universities. Why? Especially in certain countries, universities are still far from a market-oriented approach. The very term “marketing” was frowned upon until recently. In many cases, universities do what they think the public wants, or even what they think the public should want. That is not wrong in itself, but nonetheless it dodges the question about what does the public actually want.

1. Market Research for Universities. Why? This lack of market-oriented mentality is often reflected in the two reasons most commonly cited when proposals are turned down: • “We don't have enough money” (but this is, if anything, a reason for better knowing where to invest what little there is)‏ • “We already know everything we need” (no comment…)‏

1. Market Research for Universities. Why? Market research is about knowing what your market is like. It calls for a reversal of perspective: not so much the world seen from the university, but the university seen from the outside world. But what does “market” mean for a university?

2. Some Examples of Questions (and Respondents) • Why should they choose my university? • How shall I communicate to them? • What do they know about my university? • What do they think about my university? • What do they want from my university? Undergraduate Prospective Students (and their families)‏ Graduate Further Education Employers Domestic International

2. Methodologies Methodologies are, admittedly, a boring subject. There can be more than one way to achieve your objective, so the real question is actually “What Do I Want To Know?”, and let the research company advise you on the methodologies. Broadly speaking, a qualitative approach is best when you know very little, and a quantitative one works when you want to keep track of something. But complex subjects will probably require a mix of the two.

3. Research Areas:(i) Employment & Careers This area is probably the most obvious application of market research to universities: universities want to know (indeed sometimes they are required to) where do their graduates work, how much do they earn, what positions they are offered and so on.

3. Research Areas:(i) Employment & Careers But this is just the beginning. Graduates are a real minefield of information. They can provide valuable insight on a number of topics: • Did you feel better prepared than recent graduates from other universities? • Did you experience any unexpected difficulty in the first months/years? • How do you judge the abilities and competences that you have acquired at university in relation to your current job? • How do you judge the quality of your university’s Careers Service?

3. Research Areas:(ii) Buying Process “Buying Process” is a term borrowed from consumer research. A company selling branded goods may want to know why and how their products are chosen, a university should know the same about its prospective students. This is trickier than it seems.

3. Research Areas:(ii) Buying Process We can surely ask our current students about why they chose our university. But this would tell us nothing about why were we not chosen by so many others. And don’t forget that the answer is probably different between Bachelor and Master courses.

3. Research Areas:(ii) Buying Process The buying process is a very complex issue. A good knowledge of how it works is an essential tool for university communication. • How long does it take? • What are its stages? • When is the final decision taken? • Which information channels are considered, and which ones are decisive? • What degree programmes are most appealing, and why? • Is there any difference between brighter students and average ones, or from different family backgrounds?

3. Research Areas:(iii) Customer Satisfaction Our “customers” are (primarily) our students. We need to know if they are happy with their choice. As was the case with graduate employment, there may be regulations to comply with, but even then it is advisable to go further than what is strictly required. The fact is that the degree of “satisfaction” is what the students will show when they talk with their friends and families. And word-of-mouth is one of the strongest drivers in the choice of a university. In other words, it is another communication issue.

3. Research Areas:(iii) Customer Satisfaction When universities want to measure their students’ satisfaction, they usually check each individual item of student life: • Courses • Teachers • Services • Facilities This is correct, but if we stop at that we only look at the “hard” part. There is a “soft” part too, which we can’t afford to ignore.

3. Research Areas:(iii) Customer Satisfaction This “soft” part is what makes your university unique: • Competitiveness among students • Evaluation methods • Stressful deadlines • Bureaucracy • Organization Remember that “there can be too much of a good thing”, meaning that something positive can become negative beyond a certain limit. Are you close to that limit?

3. Research Areas:(iv) Brand Image A university’s name is, for all intents and purposes, a brand. And very often a powerful one too. One of the features of a strong brand is that it works as a guarantee when information is incomplete or difficult to understand. Universities seldom consciously decide their brand’s positioning, but this has two unintended consequences: • That the public may judge using what elements they have. • That most universities are indistinguishable.

3. Research Areas:(iv) Brand Image Source: CRA-Nielsen 2001

3. Research Areas:(v) Communication & Advertising This is a more tactical area of research, aiming at checking whether university communication (including but not limited to advertising) is coherent and consistent with the brand’s positioning.

3. Research Areas:(v) Communication & Advertising A possible project might be testing this ad on a small number of people belonging to the target audience. Is it clear enough? Does it say what we want it to say?

4. An Innovative Project In 2006, Bocconi decided to gather systematic information about the “buying process” in other European countries. This was a consequence of the strong push for internationalization contained in the university’s new strategic plan. We wanted to know the decision processes of European students wishing to continue their studies outside their own countries.

4. An Innovative Project For a number of reasons, particularly the fact that it was a completely new area, a qualitative approach was selected. A limited number of students in 8 European countries, who had already decided to go abroad for their Masters programmes, were asked to take part in a week-long forum on the Internet, and some of them in a 2-hour chat.

4. An Innovative Project In other words, not only the subject of the survey was novel, but the methodology too. As well as allowing all the possibility of in-depth analysis of qualitative research, an Internet-based work has at least two substantial advantages: • It is very cost-effective • Its data can be processed much better

5. What Next? It is quite possible that European universities will do more market research in the coming years, as the need for more sophisticated information increases together with a push for a more market-oriented strategy. I will propose two ideas, one about what to do and the other about how to do it.

5. What Next? Clusters The first idea is to define “clusters” of people (e.g. among successful students) that share certain characteristics, so that it may become possible to devise a more targeted communication strategy. That is, we can use our existing data about graduates to trace what elements some of them have in common, and use the outcome to predict what is likely to happen.

5. What Next? We may find that a disproportionately high number of graduates who have reached a good position within 5 years of graduating had a similar academic history, came from certain schools and were particularly good at certain subjects. In this case we may target a specific communication to such schools/groups, attracting more promising students who might choose another university instead.

5. What Next? Pooled research The second idea is that by pooling a number of universities together, the cost of obtaining information is effectively cut. The underlying principle is that information is a commodity, and that the real competitive edge comes from using it better than others. Do you have any idea? Would you want to take part?

Thank You Any questions? andrea.costa@unibocconi.it

Market Research for Universities