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ArthPrabhand:AJournalofEconomicsandManagement Vol.1Issue9,December2012,ISSN22780629

TECHNICAL EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS AND BTL MARKETING STRATEGIES

ABSTRACT With ever increasing mushrooming growth in the number of higher and technical education institutions across the country, competitions between and among institutions for occupying and retaining biggest market share is indeed ferocious. Extensive use of latest information communication technologies (ICT) backed by strong professional expertise, supports and services of media and communication agencies have added new dimensions to marketing strategies. Academic institutions use diverse and judicious mix of marketing strategies including Below The Line (BTL) and Above The Line (ATL) marketing strategies to reach target audience and convert footfalls into admissions to various UG and PG academic verticals. Over the years, BTL marketing strategies have proved much beneficial especially to the small players in reaching to target audience. The present paper is a modest attempt to critically examine the prevailing marketing scenario and the importance of BTL marketing strategies in higher and technical education sector due to their impact generating potential viz a viz cost effectiveness. Authors have made certain suggestions for increasing efficacy of BTL marketing strategies for various academic verticals of academic institutions. KEYWORDS: Academic Institutions, Marketing Scenario, Information and Communication Technologies, Below The Line (BTL) Marketing Strategies, Above The Lime (ATL) Marketing Strategies, Target Groups/Target Audience. _____________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Marketing, one of the social and managerial functions has been defined as a societal process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating, offering, and

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exchanging products and services of values freely with others. Marketing has been defined as an art of selling products. Peter Drucker, a leading management theorist, says that the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. Its aim is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself. Therefore, ideally marketing should result in a customer, who is ready to buy a product or service. It has also been defined as the process of planning and executing of the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals. Marketing management is therefore an art as well as science of applying core marketing concepts to choose target markets and get, keep, and grow customers through creating, delivering, and communicating superior customer values. With recent mushrooming growth in the number of higher and technical education institutions all over the country and especially in private sector and the growing demand for quality and value added education among all stakeholders have necessitated use of different permutations and combinations of marketing strategies by academic institutions to attract and retain the maximum number of students in their folds. Till recently institutions were employing all sorts of traditional strategies to market themselves but now the marketing scenario stands dramatically transformed. In order to supplement and complement the on-going marketing efforts of the academic institutions and provide them professional communication and media supports and services, a fairly large numbers of service provider agencies have stepped into the arena. Their entrance on the scene has drastically changed the marketing scenario. With rapid expansion in education sector, today providing professional communication and media supports and services to academic institutions is a roaring but much competitive business. Latest information communication technologies are being pressed into services to score extra mileage over competitors in the business. Education business sector, one of the fast expanding sectors, and listed under the concurrent list of the Indian Constitution, is unfortunately now being seen as a quick buck business. Media communications, market research and other professional agencies by joining hands with educational institutions for mutual benefits are playing a pivotal role in establishing their client institutions as brands. A judicious mix of many marketing strategies including Above The Line (ATL) and Below The Line (BTL) marketing strategies are currently in use. Undisputedly quality education is the need of the hour and now with each passing day students are becoming more conscious and enlightened about their career as everybody demands best quality and is also willing to pay for it. Further, the students have many options to choose from. For acquiring industry ready employability potential, need for quality education is being recognized by all stakeholders and so is the proportion to pay for it. Since today more and more customers are selective on the quality of the products and services with highest degree of professional touch, therefore most of the companies now hiring engineers or doctors with managerial qualifications, knowledge and skills. This growing concern has made business management education a lucrative venture. Today business education market in India is about Rs.30 billion and has grown at a rate of12% CAGR in last three years. What is paradoxical the while expansion in the higher education sector is registering multifold increase with establishment of a fairly large number of higher and technical education institutions across the country but on the other hand around 250 B-Schools have pulled down their shutters during the

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ArthPrabhand:AJournalofEconomicsandManagement Vol.1Issue9,December2012,ISSN22780629

last two years for want of requisite number of students necessary to ensure their bare minimal survival. This is a serious alarm for those institutions, which perhaps work on factory model, have consistently failed to deliver quality and thus in turn have produced unemployable management graduates. Moreover, such challenges in education sector will perhaps be of a little more different nature and magnitude with each successive year. BELOW THE LINE (BTL) MARKETING Below-the-line activities in marketing generally refer to those marketing practices which use such measures for promotion of products and services that do not involve use of mass media i.e. a firm using an advertising agency, where usually no commission is charged by advertising agency and thus the expenses incurred typically appears below-the-line on the ad agencys bill to the firm. In above-the-line marketing activity, an ad agency charges commission from the firm based on the number, duration and frequency of the advertisements placed in mass media e.g. television, newspapers, and radio. Through-the-line marketing makes use of both of these forms of marketing i.e. above-the-line marketing and below-the-line marketing strategies. Below-the-line advertising can involve use of any form of non-mass media promotions including sales promotions (e.g. premiums, price reductions, displays, and related point-of-sale activity), direct marketing, public relations activity, sponsorship, etc. Below-the-line marketing activities are also often used to encounter a less cluttered communications environment to communicate with target audience. Organizations may therefore use below-the-line marketing activities for variety of reasons. Marketers are therefore required to understand carefully their competitive and regulatory environments in addition to consumer buying behaviour so as to be in a position to evaluate the potential benefits and costs of BTL marketing approaches. In a marketplace filled with advertising clutter, BTL marketing efforts may be potentially more cost effective and provide marketer with opportunities to use more sophisticated marketing approaches in comparison to mass media-based approaches. It has often been reported that BTL marketing companies are registering an unprecedented boom in their business, which has resulted into putting greater emphasis on direct consumer contact than ever before. Therefore, in the current scenario, it often makes more sense to engage a BTL promotion company rather than an ad agency. Below The Line (BTL) marketing strategies are used when for the particular products and services, the target audience is limited and one needs to reach them directly for sales. Therefore, BTL marketing is used for products and services that have a limited and specific target audience. There is an old proverb that a sharper nail and not a big hammer is what create an impact. Below The Line (BTL) marketing works as that sharper nail. Under this concept, one market his products and services using unconventional methods like road shows, events, product sampling, village fair, weekly markets/haats, direct mails, public relations, telemarketing and sales promotions etc. BTL marketing gives customers the firsthand experience of products and services and thus creates live brand experiences for customers to have a feel of the product. BTL marketing thus comprises activities that traditionally are commission free or charged at a fixed fee by advertising agencies which mainly excludes mass and media advertising and thus are more appropriate to small business enterprises/players.

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BTL AND SMALL BUSINESS ENTERPRISES BTL marketing is one of the most appropriate tools for small business enterprises because of the following reasons: i). events and public relations are important for small business enterprises as advertising has become extremely competitive and innovative and the methods of BTL marketing help create a larger recall value and recognition amongst people; innovative ideas used in BTL marketing are more cost effective as they involve direct interface with the end customers. It includes cheaper activities like flyers in newspapers, distributing pamphlets, brochures, newspaper inserts; the impact of BTL marketing is more measurable as compared to other modes of marketing as the emphasis is more on selling units rather than building brand; and as BTL promotions are targeted at groups having unique needs, they create a bigger impact in terms of customer satisfaction and the number of units sold. It is generally said that a BTL activity gives 10 times the results achieved using conventional marketing methods.

ii).

iii).

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BTL marketing activities need to be used consciously since here the emphasis is primarily on selling units rather than building brands, therefore BTL marketing strategies be used along with the conventional methods so that the product becomes a recognized brand. Further, BTL marketing be aimed in the right direction and to the right people otherwise it would be a futile exercise resulting into unnecessary wastage of resources. PLANNING AND ORGANIZING BTL MARKETING ACTIVITIES - PRE-REQUISITES PinnacleResearchJournals62 http://www.pinnaclejournals.com In order to successfully plan and organize BTL marketing activities campaigns, academic institutions need to first identify Target Audience (TA) and understand their requirements and then generate an urge in TA to understand and learn more about the institution preferably by visiting the institution. Once the TA seems to be inclined, to grab the TAs attention the institution needs to Increase visibility of its brand by tapping TA in his own environment by differentiating its brand from others players in that category. This would be possible only through consistent communications from the institution. Offering hospitality and patiently handling queries of the prospective admission seekers and their accompanying parents/guardians especially by the well trained, groomed and presentable faculty and students volunteers the goodwill ambassadors of the institution - will prove a great boon in bringing the fence-sitter prospective admission seekers into the leap of the institution as word of mouth is the best form of making others to understand and appreciate your points of view. A well drafted set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) with their standard replies would be quite handy for education marketing/business development teams in persuading prospective admission seekers. Here the basic focus must be to convince the prospective admission seekers rather than to get convinced by them and later repent for an easy catch dropped.

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ArthPrabhand:AJournalofEconomicsandManagement Vol.1Issue9,December2012,ISSN22780629

Academic institution at this junction needs to understand clearly that TA is at the start of his career life, has competition in his own life, wish to stay ahead from others by improvising self confidence, and thus wish to grow in professional life. Since according to the psychology of individual differences, each and every TA has his own individual personality i.e. he is active, creative, assertive, independent in his outlook, has aspirations, and attach importance of being happening/cool a peer group or social driven factor; therefore it is important to appeal across Target Group (TG) psychographics and create an emotional connect/bond. In order to attain this, academic institution needs to create a distance positioning for itself i.e. a definition of who am I, what are my core strengths (establishing differentiation viz-a-viz competition about where does the institution stands for in TG mind space), and finally what role the institution would play in educational landscape over the coming years? Academic institution is therefore required to work hard to create an impression in the mind of TA that this is the only place where their dreams will take shape as institution will nurture their dreams and mould their aspiring careers. This strategy should be unlike other institutes who inspire students to dream big, but do not empower them to realize those big dreams. MINDSET OF TARGET AUDIENCE (TA) AND BTL ACTIVITIES Conducting BTL marketing activities is not the one-time affair. It need to be an on-going activity throughout the year but certainly with more focused concentration during admission season with more attentiveness to develop the mindset of the feeder cadre potential admission seekers i.e. students, who are studying in the same institution. Identifying potential admission seekers and keeping their interest in the institution alive is a very painstaking and persuasive exercise. Once identified with aroused interest, TA needs to be tracked very carefully by the marketing/business development teams for sure convertibility into admissions through the conduct of different sets of programs and activities as suggested below: Establish Counseling Centers in Schools/Colleges to conduct workshops by educationists from various fields, organize interschool academic/sports competitions - make it an annual event and sponsor it; offer a scholarship program for winners; place kiosks/standees inside the schools/colleges with social messages; organize seminars/workshops/conferences/dialogues on themes of topical interests and help students in managing their examination related stress; distribute leaflets/pump lets/information brochures/prospectus etc. at 10+2, AIEEE, MAT, CAT and other examination centers located in the probable geographical catchment areas along with promotional gifts like pen, pen stands, note books, pocket diary, calendar (wall/desk/table), visiting card size calendars with god/goddess photographs, badges, caps, shirts etc. by putting a canopy at prominent locations outside the examination centers; place banners/posters/display boards/hoardings etc. at appropriate identified locations; and developing tie up with Counseling Centers in order to increase footfalls/enquiry calls. Cinema halls, fast food joints/Tiffin services, social networking sites and buzz may be other platforms for conducting such activities. Conduct of BTL outdoor marketing activities are also necessary as outdoor advertising is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year which generates incessantly repeated exposure to potential customers; captures consumers on their way to work/buy/visit; perfect for reaching mass audiences and great for targeting specific groups and ages; and provide

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best return on advertising expenditure. In nutshell, outdoor adverting is second to none and with new digital billboards and technologies, it is only getting better with each passing day. EFFECTIVE USE OF CREATIVE ROUTES AND PUNCH LINES Academic institutions adopt many creative routes as well as punch lines to communicate distinctly and thus attempt to reach target audience. Creative routes highlighting USP e.g. campus size, geographical presence, physical infrastructure, student enrollment and faculty strength, faculty- students ratio, hi-tech campus with smart card entry, separate hostels for boys and girls, round the clock water/power/medical/security, intellectual capital research focused repudiated faculty, personalized attention, institute-industry interface, foreign collaborations, twinning academic programs, international faculty, international placements etc. need to be continuously reflected in all BTL activities including leaflets, pump lets, information brochures etc. so that target audience may well correlate all such messages and slowly but steadily built their mindset about a particular institution and its programs. Changing creative routes frequently may often result the message lost in environment. However, at regular intervals some innovative refreshing changes in creative routes are necessary to remove monotony and keep interest of audience alive in the institution. Audience will certainly respond positively to such refreshing initiatives. Further, use of Punch Lines in BTL marketing activities along with the creative routes also help in communicating with target audience as it touches the very psyche of the target audience, which finds their aspirations reflected in such punch lines and thus continuously feel motivated to achieve their set goals. USP - THE BIGGEST STRENGTHS All academic institutions have one or the other sets of USP, which they might have rigorously built over the years through sincere and painstaking efforts and regularly highlight the same every year for attracting admissions. Location accessibility, infrastructure and student support facilities, institutions promoter(s) background, strong corporate backings, faculty profile, faculty attrition rate, examination results and merits/positions secured, highest placements in monetary terms, recognitions and ranking/rating/awards achieved/received by faculty and the institution from affiliating University/recognized rating agency, social auditing etc. could be some of the parameters on which the particular institution might have fared well. Such set of USPs do invariable find place in all the promotional materials being distributed by institutions to reach to target audience and may be found prominently displayed/reflected at their main entrance, different academic departments, popular hang around in the campus premises, library and as well as near the reception counters for immediate attention of all the prospective admission seekers and their accompanying parents/guardians. However, there may be the possibilities of over exaggerations in all such claimed USPs by institutions primarily to attract prospective admission seekers and therefore one need to carefully check authenticity of all such claimed USPs personally from the appropriate authorities well prior to taking admissions so as to avoid any repentance in future. There have been instances of befooling students by certain institutions and/or by fake universities on flimsy grounds, which hold no water whatsoever. Such institutions/universities not only rob hard earned money of parents but simultaneously ruin academic and professional careers of students.

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ArthPrabhand:AJournalofEconomicsandManagement Vol.1Issue9,December2012,ISSN22780629

Over the years marketing strategies being adopted by academic institutions to market their various UG, PG and other academic verticals of professional nature have witnessed dramatic changes. Today marketing agencies extensively using latest information communication technologies (ICT) to communicate with target audience are helping academic institutions for establishing supremacy of their clients over competitors. With the introduction of internet, ecommerce and now mobile commerce; marketing scenario has witnessed great dynamism, competitiveness, creativity and challenges. Intensified competitions for differentiation and developing their own brands have propelled competing institutions to adopt aggressive marketing strategies to the unprecedented heights. This trend has become more visible since mid 1980 as organizations across the world have starting paying considerable attention towards value creation of their products, processes and services. In the given scenario, aggressive marketing below the line (BTL) and above the line (ATL) - by the institutions through electronic and print media etc. to showcase their superiority over competitors on various rating parameters has become the order of the day. Thus marketing landscape has seen significant transformation as the concept of communication and the use of communication has changed drastically resulting into brutal competition, even using unfair means, to continue to remain on top position in business, be it education business. Academic institutions, therefore, use different set of permutations and combinations of mixed and penetrating marketing strategies to reach target audience/groups and garner optimal benefits each successive academic year. BTL MARKETING SUGGESTED STRATEGIES Following suggested strategies may help institutions to establish their credentials in market and built on the same for focused marketing of their academic verticals. Suggested strategies may include: instituting Student of the Year Award/Scholarship for Best Students, conducting Corporate Quiz and Corporate Cricket Tournaments on campus; work for securing good rank/rating for institution; sharing information/tips on corporate responsibilities, management leadership etc. through education supplements in leading newspapers; conduct specialized tailor made capability building executive excellence residential courses for corporate on subsidized rates and use this opportunity for an interface with students; conduct Education/Engineering/Management/Pharmacy workshops annually by inviting experts/celebrities and advertise such events in electronic media; and publish a quarterly newsletter to connect with corporate, students and the alumni. Newsletter may also be promoted as a revenue generation modal for the institution. REFERENCES Aaker DA (1992). The value of brand equity. Journal of Business Strategy, 13 (4) JulAug, pp.27-32. Dhruv Samata, Kalpana Vedmitra & Ravindra Kumar (2012), Bunking among Management Graduates: Students Perspective, Radix International Journal of Research in Economics and Business Management (ISSN: 22771018), Volume 1, Issue 9, September, pp.99-116.

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Dhruv Samata, Kalpana Vedmitra & Ravindra Kumar (2012), Menace of Class Bunking Behaviour and Educational Wastage: Points to Ponder, International Journal of Business and Management Tomorrow ISSN: 2249-9962, Volume 2, Issue 10, October (communicated). Hoyer WD & Brown, SP (1990).Effects of brand awareness on choice for a common, repeat- purchase product. Journal of Consumer Research, 17, pp.141-148. Keller KL (1993). Conceptualizing, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity. Journal of Marketing, 57, pp.1-22. Kotler, Philip (1973), "The Major Tasks of Marketing Management," Journal of Marketing, 37 (October), pp.42-49. Kotler Philip, Kevin Lane Keller, Abraham Koshy & Mithileshwar Jha (2007), Marketing Management: A South Asian Perspective, Pearson India, Delhi Kumar, Ravindra (2003), Excellence in Higher Education: Points to Ponder, University News, A Weekly Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 41, No. 41, October, pp.8-11. Kumar, Ravindra (2004), Privatization of Higher Education and Regulatory Mechanisms, University News, A Weekly Journal of Higher Education, Special Issue, Vol. 42, No. 07, February, pp.98-101. Kumar, Ravindra and Kalpana Vedmitra (2004), Improving Quality of Higher Education: Autonomy to Colleges, What Next?, University News, A Weekly Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 42, No. 18, May, pp.5-10. Kumar, Ravindra, Kalpana Vedmitra and Samata Dhruv (2006), Indian Higher Education: Need for a Paradigm Shift, The Journal of Indian Management & Strategy (JIMS 8M), Vol. 11, No. 3, July- September, pp.41-45. Shama, Avraham (1978), "Management and Consumers in an Era of Stagflation," Journal of Marketing (July), pp.43-52. Vedmitra Kalpana, Samata Dhruv, & Ravindra Kumar (2012), B-Schools: The Paradox of Rating Systems, Radix International Journal of Research in Marketing (ISSN: 2250 3986), Volume 1, Issue 10, October, pp.41-57.

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