You will create a tutoring service that will assist first-year university students as they transition in to their higher degree studies. Overall, the aims of the business are to increase academic results and personal wellbeing of first year university students across Australia. The tutoring service can be specific to one geographical area or all of Australia, can be offered online or face-to-face or a combination, can be specific to one type of student (eg. Mature age or international students) and you have a great degree of flexibility of how the service will be offered.

You have great scope here to choose:

• The business name, values, mission, branding, logo, slogan etc
• Exactly who their target market will be (first-year university students is your starting point, but this is quite broad. We will narrow this down in Assessment 2)
• What the new marketing mix for the business will look like (focus on the 4 P’s: product, price, place, promotion). We will write the marketing mix in Assessment 2. Further hints will be given in online classes and in seminars.

While this may sound like a large, overwhelming task, we will discuss the marketing process in online classrooms, and apply the course learnings in your assessment.

Importantly, I will take you through each section of the marketing plan step-by-step in the online classes and seminars, and break it down for you in manageable chunks that you can complete each week.

Step 1: Opportunity Analysis (A1)

First you need to better understand the macro and micro issues affecting the marketplace. You will undertake research to find out what main issues students face when beginning university, which will assist you to develop the marketing mix that will provide the solution (value) to these students.

Don’t worry too much in this assignment about knowing what you will write for the marketing mix (4 P’s) – that’s assignment 2. Instead, make the focus of this task understanding the marketplace and your customer, so that you develop a solution that best suits their needs and wants.

You will undertake research using a variety of sources to identify the specific opportunity you will pursue in Assessment 2. There is no right or wrong answer here; every student will narrow the scope of focus down differently. For example, you may find during your research that Chinese students comprise the largest cohort of international students in Australia. You may choose to focus on assisting international students from China to better settle into their first year of Australian studies. Others may choose to focus on helping the specific issues mature age students face.

The research you undertake will largely be online research on websites and databases. This may include using Euromonitor (demonstration given in week 2 online classroom), reading Government reports on the education industry, and research on similar tutoring services (your competitors).

You can submit a draft of your assignment to the tutoring on demand service multiple times for feedback (please allow 24 hours. You can also ask questions during the online classes, email your tutor, and book in a telephone chat with your tutor.

You will submit your opportunity in your assignment by the due date, and you will receive feedback on how to improve your idea for Assignment 2 (A2).

Step 2: Marketing Mix Plan (A2)

You are then to identify a specific target market (as mentioned previously) and develop a marketing mix campaign that can be used to launch your new service.

This is a real world case study requiring you to apply the knowledge you obtain through this course to your new service. We would like to see you learn from and, importantly add value to your “client” in the context of marketing.

Assistance Provided to you

• Discussion of the assessment task will occur in the online classroom sessions. You should orient yourself with the template and criteria before attending the first online class.
• A template to guide you on the structure and content required
• Week 2 librarian led class to show you how to research information
• Help guides in the A1 and A2 sections of the course site, including templates
• Previous student assignments
• Referencing guide
• Marketing criteria rubrics for both A1 and A2