Australian TAFE Marketing Association Conference: Internet and Marketing

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Australian TAFE Marketing Association
ConferenceInternet and Marketing

• Joanne Jacobs
• Brisbane Graduate School of Business
• Queensland University of Technology

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Scope of content covered

• TAFE Online
• Who is online and why?
• The Australian Digital Citizen
• Marketing via the internet
• Changing consumer expectations
• Internet decision making
• Evolution of online marketing
• Market research online
• Strategic advantages and disadvantages of
  marketing TAFE via the internet

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TAFE Online

• Problems with existing iterations of online TAFE
  sites based on
• Poor design and navigation
• Low integration of online and offline marketing
  activities
• Misunderstanding the links between the TAFE
  market and the digital citizen
• Good news is
• Most other organisations have also missed the mark

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Web Attractors Inhibitors

• Attractors
• Financial / economic reasons
• Efficiency
• Broader (global) markets
• Promotional reasons
• Inhibitors
• Is there any point to online marketing?
• TAFE is education. This is a service and
  practically oriented. We dont think its suited
  to the Internet.
• Web sites not ready?

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Adoption profile of Internet users

• Innovation Adoption Overview
• Innovators Venturesome, (try anything once)
• Early Adopters Respectable (the Net is hip -
  adopt now to be a social leader
• Early Majority Deliberate (needs and wants)
• Late Majority Sceptical (ends up needing, not
  always wanting)
• Laggards Traditional (want not, adopt not)

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Barriers to Adoption

• cost time and money
• Internet literacy
• fear security, privacy, unwanted content
• lack of desire no perceived benefit
• expectation gap trialled and abandoned

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Internet Behaviour Factors

• Factors influencing Internet behaviour
• Time space independence
• Anonymity
• Internet culture and netiquette
• Not for profit information sharing influences
• Lack of central controlling authority
• TAFE sites need to be wary of these factors

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Main motivations to use the Net

• Convenience
• 24 / 7 , convenient access to banking retailing
• Information Motivation
• Curiosity or deliberate desire to learn or seek
  information
• Global access
• World wide resources, markets, communications
• Utility / necessity
• Work, education

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• Recreation
• many forms of entertainment (online games, chat
  groups)
• Anonymity
• Freedom, reduced risk
• Community
• Online communities, common interest experiences
• Communication Social Motivation
• Interaction with other
• chat rooms, news groups, discussions groups,
  mailing lists, e-mail
• Inherent merit
• Pleasure derived from surfing the net

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Cybercommuning

• communities based on shared interests, shared
  emotional and psychological support
• allows for clanning behaviour without the
  mediator of geographic constraint
• provides a more collaborative, networking-oriented
  experience for users
• These aspects should be accommodated in TAFE
  marketing practices

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The Australian Digital Citizen (1)

• Growth of internet access still rising in
  Australia.
• 52 Currently have home access.
• Australians spend an average of 655hrs online
  per month over 13 sessions

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The Australian Digital Citizen (2)

• 65 of 18-24 year olds access the internet
• 64 of 25-49 year olds access the internet
• 37 of users aged 50 access the internet
• (Source NOIE, eMarketer, 2001)
• TAFE key markets have internet access and are
  technologically literate

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Changing Consumer Expectations

• The modern consumer has become more demanding and
  wants to research opportunities before
  approaching the institution.
• time pressures
• customisation
• empowerment expectations

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Role of the Internet in Decision Making

• Online marketing assists decision to study TAFE

Information Search
Problem Recognition
Evaluate Alternatives
Purchase Decision
Post Purchase Behaviour
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Internet Advantages for Decision Making

• evaluation of alternatives
• formal informal sites add input
• EG Formal websites, Newsgroups, Blogs.
• purchase decision
• convenience, global access
• Can you enrol online?
• post purchase evaluation
• online communities, help info lines,
  relationship marketing
• Maintaining your relationship with TAFE students

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Evolution of Online Marketing

• Level 1 Information publishing
• Early TAFE sites, course listings, online
  brochureware
• Level 2 Transaction based systems
• Advanced TAFE sites, allowing enrolment online
• Level 3 Mass customisation
• Customised sites with student information
  services and suggestive marketing

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Online TAFE Marketing benefits

• economics of increasing returns
• need a critical mass use for value
• marginal returns improve for all users of an
  online TAFE system as online communities develop
• long term orientation
• provides capacity to sustain association with
  alumni through cybercommunities
• selling customers to customers
• word-of-mouth promotion

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Value of cybercommunity to TAFE

• Support networks
• for technical issues
• for teaching support materials
• Customer to customer communities
• can generate positive word of mouth
• C2C marketing
• discussions between current users, potential
  users and occasionally ex-users of the product
• Online research for existing and potential users
  of TAFE product

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Why the Internet as a Research tool?

• The largest storehouse of human knowledge in
  history
• A commercially active marketplace with highly
  competitive firms
• Broad reach at low cost
• Proactive customers who now have have opportunity
  to interact with content

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Functions of Online Marketing Research

• Scanning
• scan the environment for early detection of
  opportunities and threats
• Risk Assessment
• attempts to replace subjective opinions with
  objective results based on research
• Monitoring
• used to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing
  strategy

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Primary Data Collection

• Online surveys
• email or website surveys
• Low cost
• Access to larger survey group
• Faster response time
• Online focus groups
• chat technology, video conferencing
• Clicktracking, unobtrusive observation
  ethnography

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Internet Surveys-advantages

• Mail and phone rates declining- new channel
  needed
• higher response rates- novelty, customisation,
  instant feedback
• Response accuracy greater- digitisation of data
  reduced errors, no bias, uncompleted surveys can
  be checked
• More enjoyable and aesthetically pleasing (due to
  graphics, instant feedback and mouse clicks)

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Internet Surveys-advantages

• Less expensive- data tabulation, survey
  distribution
• Faster turnaround
• Great for new product testing
• Global reach
• Customisable
• Helps in finding certain highly specific research
  targets
• Can be made interactive (e.g. instant feedback)

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Internet surveys-disadvantages

• self-selection, interest driven
• internet population not representative anonymity
  of respondents truthfulness
• Cost of hardware, software data connection
• reluctance to divulge information
• short attention span on-line (sometimes only 25 -
  30 seconds)
• lack of interpersonal experience
• multiple polling

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Focus Groups - Advantages

• Cost - traditional focus groups-very costly
• Facilities, incentives, transportation, food,
  transcription of data
• Efficiency
• short period of time
• Group Diversity
• geographical, social, demographic
• anonymity may reduce negative stereotypes
• time-strapped consumers

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Focus Groups - Limitations

• screening problems
• technical/environmental limitations
• distractions
• no eye contact
• qualitative data - not what you say but how you
  say it (or even what you dont say)
• product limitations
• images and text okay
• no physical handling of goods

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Secondary Data Collection

• Quantity availability, storage
• Quality reliability quality of data
• Reach low cost access
• Competitor intelligence
• Self search

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Online Marketing Implications

• Changes to the retail value chain
• Changes to the nature of consumer behaviour and
  customisation capacity
• Segregation of the market (online/offline
  components, levels of ICT literacy)
• Increased capacity and need for credible market
  research
• Online marketing influences traditional markets
  on a global basis

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Contact details

• Joanne Jacobs
• Brisbane Graduate School of Business
• Queensland University of Technology
• Ph [phone]
• Fax [phone]
• Email joanne_at_joannejacobs.net