2001 STUDYABROAD.COM CHALLENGE #1
With an annual budget of $100,000, develop a marketing
plan for Studyabroad.com that will effectively reach America's high school
student population, with the goal of driving traffic to our web site that
contains information about international education. This plan should reflect
direct expenditures (printing, mailing, purchasing advertising) as well
as personnel costs. Do include estimates of time spent by the following
job titles: Management ($125/hr.), Advertising Services (Media/Service
Buying, Content creation) ($65/hr.) and Support (mailing, telemarketing,
etc.) ($30/hr.)
Background:
Studyabroad.com is an online resource for those seeking an international
educational experience. It includes a wealth of information about academic
programs and their destinations. These programs range from high school
through graduate school and offer students both inter-session and full-term
options. Study abroad can be for academic credit or for life experience;
both options can be explored through Studyabroad.com.
The study abroad experience is becoming more prevalent in colleges today.
Many students are considering study abroad options as part of their college
selection process. Studyabroad.com has answers to many of the questions
a prospective study abroad student would have. It contains a wealth of
information about how the process works, where a student can go and who
offers programs. Its program directories are the most comprehensive and
most current of any resource.
Details of the Challenge:
Marketing a product or service has many options. Generally marketing
efforts are organized into a campaign; outreach designed to reach an audience
over a specific time frame. You are designing a campaign from scratch,
one that will be annual and recurring.
Marketing is not just advertising, it is delivery of a message and development
of a "brand" identity. Sometimes marketing involves sweepstakes, competitions
or other contests to draw attention to a product or service. Media coverage
often is a goal of a marketing campaign. Viral-marketing is a new trend,
passing the word on from person to person.
Success of the campaign will be determined by increased traffic to the
Studyabroad.com web site. The target audience is high school students.
You will need to determine how best to reach them. Will you use advisor/faculty
resources to spread your message or will your message be directly targeted
at students? What will convey the message to the student, something pre-printed
on paper (postcard, brochure, etc.) or something relayed by computer or
other media?
Slogans, graphics and creative work are important pieces of a successful
marketing campaign. This challenge is open to general ideas, but you should
not spend much time on the specifics of the message. You will budget this
under the personnel cost of Advertising Services. Your Advertising Services
costs will vary depending on the media. Simpler is cheaper!
Expectations:
We are looking for cost effective means to deliver a message to as many
high school students as possible. The presentation should be an outline
of what the message is, how the message is to be presented, how it is to
be delivered and how its response is to be monitored. You should also present
a line item budget that includes all aspects of the process except those
that you are doing (creation of the campaign, creation of a budget and
initial management review). You should estimate management's involvement
as 10% of the hours budgeted.
Suggested Approaches to the Challenge:
A resolution to any "problem" involves investigating multiple ideas
with elimination necessary to reach the eventual recommendation. All elements
of the evaluation process should be presented that assisted in reaching
the proposed recommendation.
Additionally, specific elements of the recommended marketing plan associated
to the utilization of the $100K are necessary with an explanation of the
cost benefit and associated expectation. For example, define which vehicle/vehicles
you will use to "market" studyabroad.com to high school students. Investigate
the expense and associated traffic expectations from the selected vehicle(s)
in addition to predicting the eventual increase to revenue & market
share. Provide your expectations of the use and cost of internal staffing
to implement your vehicle (if any) and evaluate the lost productivity of
personnel with your recommended vehicle. Considering Studyabroad.com is
an educational site, what social considerations were made to arrive at
your recommendation? Personnel cost, administrative time and cost benefit
analysis considerations should be provided to assist your recommendation.
Oral Presentation:
If you are selected to give an oral presentation for this problem, the
presentation will be held at StudyAbroad.com headquarters in Chester, Pa.
You will be given directions and notified of the exact date and time later.
Please send any comments, additions, or suggestions about
this web site to
Dr. Dan Holt.
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