University of East Anglia UK Marketing Strategy

Critical Discussion of the Value Curve and Other Strategic Management and Marketing Theories/Models

Value curve is basically a very effective tool used to create new market space for a particular company or industry. It is a graphical representation that provides an overview of the present performance in a market place which is a known one. It also helps to understand the main focus of competition regarding investment, role of various factors in the competition and different offerings to the customers. In the horizontal axis of a value curve represents various factors which determine the competition and investment, whereas the vertical axis represents the level of offering which is received by the customers (Yang, B. n.d.). Apart from value curve there are other strategic management and marketing theories like porter’s five forces analysis, SWOT analysis which would be effective tool in strategic decision making process. Porter’s five forces model is an useful strategic model that analyze the nature of competitiveness of a particular industry. Model provides an insight of the threat of new entrants and substitutes, bargaining power of buyers and suppliers and finally rivalry within the industry (The College of St, Scholastica, n.d.). On the other hand SWOT analysis would provide an extensive analysis of organization’s external and internal environment. Internal analysis provides an insight of organization’s strengths and weaknesses, whereas external analysis focuses on upcoming threats and opportunities (New Mexico State University, n.d.).

Analysis of Future Market

University of East Anglia is operating in such a system which is large and competitive in nature.  It has been found that almost 3,25,000 international students choose UK universities and colleges to study. The value of total annual export of education and skills of UK is around 12 billion euro. It is a proven fact that the UK education sector has played a leading role in making e-learning and distance learning programs popular. So from these facts it can be predicted that there would be a significant increase in as well as the number of international students domestic students and there would be more demand of advanced industry oriented training and development programs and e-learning programs. This increase in demand is quite natural because there would be more and more economic development within the next decade or so, around the world. As a result there would be lot of opportunities for University of East Anglia in the future. 

Recommendations

There could be various strategies that would be effective for University of East Anglia in stay ahead in the competition up to 2018. These strategies include developing more effective training programs for other industry. University should focus on developing more and more industry oriented training programs. Presently university of East Anglia is one of the most renowned institute that provide effective teacher training program. In future to stay ahead in the competition university should develop advanced online teacher training program. It is important to increase the market coverage in order to gain competitive advantage in the long run. East Anglia should also focus on increasing its market coverage by increasing the number of study center all over the Europe. It is possible to do this by forming alliances with some of the renowned universities of other European countries. University can provide training and funding aid to some of the growing universities inside and outside of UK. 

In case of education industry in England factors that would be presented in the horizontal axis of the value curve are courses offered, course fee, infrastructure, online programs. These factors would determine the amount of infrastructure and competition. On the other hand in the vertical axis there would be the level (high or low) of different services offered by the university. Analyzing this value curve it can be said that the University of East Anglia should focus on the enhancement of various advanced industry oriented courses as well as various e-learning programs. 

Conclusion

University of East Anglia is one of the most renowned universities in England. University is offering various educational programs since 1963. University is also engaged in various training and development programs and some funding assistance. University operates in a competitive market and to to stay ahead in the competition for a long time it needs adopt certain strategy. These strategies could be adopted by using value curve analysis and other strategic model like porter’s five forces and SWOT analysis.

References:

• New Mexico State University, No Date, SWOT, [online] Available at: http://cbae.nmsu.edu/~dboje/sbc/pages/page3.html [Accessed on October 30, 2009]
• Study Abroad Office, No Date, University of East Anglia, Norwich, [online] Available at: http://www.umsl.edu/services/abroad/universities/eastanglia.html [Accessed on October 30, 2009]
• The College of St, Scholastica, No Date, Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model, [online] Available at: http://faculty.css.edu/dswenson/web/525ARTIC/porter5forces.html [Accessed on October 30, 2009]
• The British Institute for Learning & Development, No Date, International overview of the UK Education & Training Sector, [online] Available at: http://www.thebild.org/Events/1644/1648 [Accessed on November 3, 2009]
• University of Miami, No Date, University of East Anglia, A-M Semester Programs in English, [online] Available at: http://www6.miami.edu/UMH/CDA/UMH_Main/0,1770,6371-1;5347-2;5624-2;5641-3,00.html#University_of_East_Anglia__Norwich_ [Accessed on November 3, 2009]
• University of East Anglia, No Date, Business, Enterprise & Commercialisation, [online] Available at: http://www.uea.ac.uk/business [Accessed on November 3, 2009]
• University of East Anglia, No Date, History, [online] Available at: http://www.uea.ac.uk/about/History  [Accessed on November 3, 2009]
• University of East Anglia, No Date, Courses, [online] Available at: http://www.uea.ac.uk/courses [Accessed on November 3, 2009]
• Yang, B. No date, Creative VE activity using Value Curve, [online] Available at: http://www.value-eng.org/knowledge_bank/attachments/T10511.pdf [Accessed on November 3, 2009]

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