Recommendations on New Marketing Plan

The higher education industry in the United States is very competitive. Merrimack College is one of the major participants in the American higher education sector. In America, higher education illustrates the formal learning process after secondary education. The post secondary education is offered through the approximately 4,600 degree-offering institutions. These institutions are either colleges or universities in America; that offer internationally accredited higher education programs. The American higher education program comprises; public and private university institutions, the liberal arts colleges, and the community colleges. Presently, the American higher education experiences continuing visibility. This is through; enhanced usage of the internet, increased development of the online courses, competency based programs, reduction in the state funding of public institutions, increasing rise of the higher education tuitions costs, and increasing levels of the student loans (Simon, 2011).
Effective research and adequate funding have ensured that the American higher education institutions are the most prestigious internationally. This ensures adequate attractiveness to the worldwide students, professors, and also the scholars and researcher who aim at ensuring academic excellence. The higher education sector in United States has several categories of colleges and universities. The categories are; community colleges, liberal arts colleges, and universities. Community colleges are mainly two year term colleges. They mostly have lower tuition rates than other colleges. The college also uses open admissions. Graduates mainly get associate degrees such as the associate of Arts degree. The liberal arts college mainly concentrates on liberal arts. They mostly focus on interactive interactions and research. They are usually residential, with higher teacher-student proportion. The universities are higher education institutions which are mainly research oriented. The offer graduate and undergraduate degree programs. Some universities retain the college title; for instance, Merrimack College, and Boston College (Pfeffer, 2008).
Competitor Analysis
Professional studies are used to illustrate education programs that are interdisciplinary in nature, and applied. The term is also applicable to non-academic training in certain professions. Professional studies integrate theory with practice centered professional learning. The main focus of professional learning entails collection of knowledge. The students are developed to maintain appropriate standards and effective service delivery, for superior practice in a given profession. The Merrimack College provides professional studies. The university experiences stiff competition by other institutions of higher learning in America which provides professional studies qualification. The colleges and i=universities in the higher education sector; provide professional academic degrees; for instance, Bachelor of Professional Studies, Master of Professional studies, and finally Doctor of professional studies. The academic professional provides more emphasis on practical and technical knowledge. At post graduate academic levels, the professional studies concentrate more on research aspects (Simon, 2011).
The competitors of Merrimack College consists of all universities in the United States and internationally; that are reputable and aim at providing the best education, research, publication and extension education services. This is the main reason why Merrick College should embrace competitive advantage strategies, so as to enhance its relevance in the global higher education sector. One of the competitive strategies that Merrimack College has adopted entails wide range of professional education programs. The range includes; management, engineering, law, education, and business. Merrimack also implement the flexible academic programs; for instance, evening academic programs. The flexible academic program enables it to attract high numbers of student population. This is because the needs of the students are personalized; hence ensuring adequate satisfaction.
Recommendations on New Marketing Plan
The new marketing plan of Merrimack College should focus on attracting international students. The international students comprise the foreign students who study in America. The new marketing plan should take into consideration the SWOT analysis of the learning institution. The Merrimack College experiences strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the international education sector. The major strength of the learning institution entails the competent workforce it has. The university has competent professors who have published hundreds of literary materials. The professors continuously engage in research studies to add into the existing body of knowledge. The professors also participate in publishing more literary materials in academic journals, articles and books. The main weakness of the university is limited facilities. The university has insufficient lecture halls and accommodation to cater for the student population. The administration of the university aims to solve the weakness through adopting the e-learning academic program. E-learning entails learning through telecommunication devices and software (Pfeffer, 2008).
The opportunities that the college experience are immense. The e-learning platform has the ability of increasing the student population immensely. The platform can be used by students from several countries at the same time. The e-learning platform especially applies the internet technology to share academic materials. E-books can be easily accessed via internet sites such as amazon.com. Online chats also exist between the instructors and students. The online chats can act as avenues of academic discussions among the students, and between the lecturers and the students. Academic resources such as instructions can also be easily distributed through the online platform; for instance the website of the university. The university experiences threats in the education sector. One of the threats entails the establishment of new universities on a yearly basis. The new universities enhance the competition in the admission of students. The new universities also enhance the competition for competent workforce. Several cases of resignation for greener pastures have been experienced in the university. The new establishment always aims at embracing modern technologies in the higher education sector. This increases the pressure of the university in upgrading it technological infrastructure; hence, increased threat (Simon, 2011).
Recommended Marketing Programs
The most effective marketing program for the university entails international exchange programs. The exchange programs increase the international presence of the university. The exchange program is used by both the lecturers and the student. The participants are sent to foreign universities to pursue academic activities. The education activities include; research, literature publishing, university administration, and participating in the learning and teaching process. Participants in the exchange program illustrated the approaches of the Merrimack College in the learning process. The exchange program enables the institutions of higher learning to exchange appropriate education knowledge, experience and concepts (Simon, 2011).
Another marketing program embraced by the Merrimack College involves articles in respected scholarly journals. The articles are aimed at ensuring publicity of the education process at the Merrimack College. The journal articles are also aimed at attracting the attention of respected scholars; who desire to work with the university in research, teaching and extension services. Prospective university students, who analyze journal articles, also get to understand the programs offered by the university. The scholarly articles enhance effective marketing program because they have a worldwide audience.
References
Pfeffer, J. (2008). The External Control of Organizations. NY: Wiley.
Simon, H. (2011). “Rational decision making in business organizations,” American Economic Review.