Strategic Positioning in Higher Education

INTRODUCTION For many years, colleges have enjoyed a seller's market (Absher & Crawford, 1996). The baby boomers of the late 1940's through the early 1960's provided a large population from which to draw (Absher & Crawford, 1996). The shrinking supply of first-year college students, coupled with increased competition, led to a buyer's market in the 1990's (Lovelock & Weinberg, 1989). Since the 1990s, the situation has worsened. Addressing the University Board of Regents in August 2003 (Patton, 2003), outgoing University of Houston President Art Smith conceded, "There is a shift ongoing at this institution, in Texas, and across the nation concerning who pays for higher education. The move is away from taxpayers and state legislators to users. " It is widely acknowledged that today's environment is becoming more and more intensely competitive (Richardson, Nwankwo, & Richardson, 1995). Industries, like higher education, once considered safe from competitive forces are now finding themselves subjected to competition for the resources they once took for granted (Richardson, Nwankwo, & Richardson, 1995). Competition among academic institutions for students, faculty, and financial support is increasing (Karapetrovic, Rajamani, & Willborn, 1999). Furthermore, new non-university competitors in the form of industry and non-university educators have entered the higher education market (Friga, Bettis & Sullivan, 2003). As competition has increased, so has the application of marketing in the field of higher education (Kotler, 1994; Kotler & Andreasen, 1991; Kotler & Fox, 1985). One critical application of marketing that is all too often neglected, misunderstood, and mismanaged is positioning. As noted by Kotler and Fox (1994, p.229): Many schools and institutions of higher education are fundamentally good and worthy, but they have done little to forge strong, individual identities for themselves. The institutions should strive to have a clear, positive image and a distinctive memorable identity. The purpose of this paper is to enrich the marketing practices of academic institutions as they face increasing competition for students, faculty and funding by presenting a discussion of strategic positioning. Specifically, this paper defines the concept of positioning, explains its importance, distinguishes positioning from the similar psychological constructs of image and reputation, and discusses the application of positioning strategy as it pertains to institutions of higher education. The six-step process introduced by Aaker and Shansby (1982) is used to illustrate how universities should go about developing an effective positioning strategy to help them compete more successfully over the long term in an increasingly competitive marketplace. POSITIONING AND ITS IMPORTANCE Positioning has long been acknowledged as a core branding activity (Ries & Trout, 1981; Aaker & Shansby, 1982; DiMingo, 1988). Positioning is the act of designing an organization's offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the target market's mind (Kotler, 2000). For example, Charmin is positioned as the soft bathroom tissue. Excedrin is positioned as the headache medicine. Nyquil is positioned as the nighttime cold medicine. MaltoMeal is positioned as the economy cereal brand. Grey Poupon is positioned as the expensive, top of the line mustard. Each of these brands holds a distinct position in its product category and the organization's product, promotion, distribution and pricing strategies are designed to communicate and support the brand's unique position. The positioning decision is often the crucial strategic decision for a company or a brand because the position can be central to customers' perception and choice decisions. Further, since all the elements of the marketing program can potentially affect the position, it is usually necessary to use a positioning strategy as a focus for development of the marketing program. …