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Service Marketing

Saujanya Acharya

When KUSOM has to make a decision on the marketing communication mixes for the MBA 2014 program, the management team should consider the following items: 1. Publish a classified advertisement on National Daily newspaper, such as Kantipur and Republica. As per our class discussion, in Nepal, public Universities (debate could be made whether KUSOM is a public institution or not) are required to publish a advertisement on a national daily newspaper for the admission notice. I would personally recommend Republica, since it would attract a more globally aware as per its content than that of Kantipur daily, as it would match the characteristic of the target market for the KUSOM. However, I would not recommend such advertisement method as it does not guarantee effective outcome. KUSOM needs to get the message of MBA program to the right candidate. In addition, it is integral for branding of KUSOM not to publish, as they are the leader in the market in business education they should act differently from other competitors. 2. Establish an admission department with team of college ambassadors. This would be part of the direct marketing activities of KUSOM. College ambassadors can visit some of the best undergraduate institutions, first within Nepal, then gradually move toward India and other countries in South Asia and may be in the near future go global. These ambassadors, who will be on a full time position, will be able to inform the target market of KUSOMs choice by having a presentation in from of the students and faculties at the host institutions. The admission team can collect email addresses of prospective students and regularly send KUSOM news letter as well. This will increase awareness of KUSOMs newly restructured MBA program, and students will get a chance to understand in detail much more than what a newspaper coverage would provide. Secondly, it would allow KUSOM to establish more relations with the undergraduate colleges around the world. With this, KUSOM can attract the right student, and the students would be well informed as well. The only downside of this is that it could become costly. 3. Make the KUSOMs website more active, and informative. Since it is an MBA program that we are promoting, it is important to put ourselves in a shoe of a prospective MBA student. Obviously, they are not going to be joining KUSOM for its state of the art basketball court or the amazing dal-bhaat in the canteen: they are joining for the quality management education that follows a case study methodology. Hence, they want to know what the academic life is going to be like. Hence, website should contain the information such as faculty profile not just a brief background, but with their resume, list of publications, and the list of classes they teach, as well as their email address. In addition, students should be able to view the syllabus of the courses they will be studying. It would be even better, if some assignments and tests are available just like the Open Course Ware movement that has started in some of the elite institutions around the world. The perceived

Service Marketing

Saujanya Acharya

risk or disadvantage of this would be that, private colleges can easily gain access to the materials we use and use it on their own benefit. Personally, I believe that if private colleges have the capacity to out-do KUSOM by just gaining access to our teaching materials, then there would be a serious question mark on the brand value of KUSOM. 4. Establish a strong relation with the media groups in Nepal have some sort of an understanding. Long story short, KUSOM student activities should be worthwhile to be highlighted by the media. Whether it is KAF, talKusom, job fair, or any other events, they should reflect the output of truly the best management students in this country and they should present in such a way that there is an incentive for the media groups to cover such events. This is a good public relation for KUSOM, as the college will be highlighted across media without paying a dime to them. Our target market could understand what the student life in KUSOM is like. In addition, such coverage will distinguish KUSOM from its competitors; hence it adds value to KUSOM MBA program over, say, ACE MBA program. On the other hand, one disadvantage of PR activities is that we cannot control what kind of message such media highlights could propagate to the target market. There is a chance that we could ward off genuine prospective student for he sees KUSOM to be of a less academic orientation and more of events. 5. Partner with the business houses and organize a Marketing/Finance/Economics//HR Summit by inviting industry from all over Asia. This would represent bit of Public Relation, and the event sponsorship, which has been considered by some experts1 to be the way to be in touch with the customer base. By giving a non-monetary sponsorship to this event, organizing and expert advices from an academic perspective, KUSOM can enhance its brand, as well as attract the MBA students by providing them the opportunity to participate in such summits. It is the way in which KUSOM can establish itself as an institute that is on top of the market dynamics, and boast the network it has to the prospective students. At the end of the day, part of value of MBA is the richness of the network that exists in the university network which becomes integral during the placement period for the students. However, too much network with the private sector could brand the institution to be highly commercialized. Hence it is important to maintain the right balance of such activities.

According to the document released by the FAO, titled Agriculture and food marketing management (2007).

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