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Metropolia Business School Marketing

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Metropolia Business School

Metropolia Business School is part of Metropolia University of Applied Sciences and located in the capital area of Finland. Business School has three programs: European Business Administration, European Management and International Business and Logistics.

Here we present how Metropolia Business School has been marketed digitally and traditionally so far and how we would do it.

By Iiris Lehtinen and Anniina Virta (EM08)

Digital Marketing of Metropolia Business School

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Metropolia Business School2 by Lehtiiris

Traditional marketing

For the whole Metropolia University of Applied Sciences and mainly for the Finnish degree programs there is more non digital marketing. Mostly these marketing campaigns are carried out during the application period which is very understandable. The advertisement can be seen during this period in magazines, newspapers, television, busses, along the roads and of course in Studia fair and application guides.

For the Business school itself there is not much specific advertisement; only some newspaper ads which were for all the English degree programs. There is under construction own applicant's guide for the Business School which should be ready before the next application season. There are also posters which are more unofficial material but with their attractive look they should be considered as effective way to market the school. The students could be used more to market the school as many of them believe to the school, they could be sent to their old school to get people aware of the existence of the English degrees and they options that Metropolia Business School is offering.

Digital marketing

The current situation

At the moment Metropolia Business School has their own separate web page and also their own section at the official Metropolia pages. During the previous application period the school had advertisements at Facebook with a link to the official Metropolia pages. Besides that Metropolia Business School has had very little of its digital marketing potential in use.

For applying to Metropolia Business School there is a website where you fill the application form. This website is called Admissions and there you can find all the different degree programs taught in English that the Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences are offering. The information is sorted first school by school and after that with links to the descriptions about the programs with a link provided for more information. For Metropolia Business School degrees this link directs you to the new Business School site where the information about the programs and about the school is easily available.

Metropolia Internet Pages

The Official Metropolia: This link leads to the official Metropolia University of Applied Sciences web page where international programs are only a fraction of the whole selection.
Metropolia Business School: The web page for the Metropolia Business School is dedicated only to the three international degree programs and the information is easy to find and clearly marked unlike in the official Metropolia web pages.

Competition

Where does Metropolia stand?

In the spring 2009 there was a definite increase in the amount of applicants compared to the year before. In the spring 2009 there was 64 613 primary applications made for Bachelor's degree programs and 9 128 or 14,1% of them were to primary applications to Metropolia. The year before, in 2008 the same percentage was 13,9%.

Metropolia is a new university of applied sciences in a way that it was born as a merge of two schools EVTEK and Stadia and the academic year 2008-2009 was its first year in operation. Though both of the school involved in the merge were very well known in Finland, Metropolia very likely still has not become familiar as a new entity and it's name is still strange to some people.

Metropolia Business School is a small unit in a big institution since it only has three programs with a fairly low intake of students every year. Two of the programs being international double degree programs it does not have many if any direct competitors. It could be said that the greatest placement issue of Metropolia Business School is to stand out from all the other business and economics schools but also from all other lines offered in Metropolia University.

Banners

We have drafted an ad and a banner that could be used to advertise Metropolia Business School in different websites and as advertisements on blogs especially during the application period. Possible sites for this kind of advertisement would be for example community applications like Facebook or IRC-galleria and possible blogs of students and teacher of Metropolia Business School or anyone who is willing to advertise for it. The blog ads could even be constant and at least these could be directed to the Business School pages instead of the official Metropolia pages when the more official advertisements on Facebook and IRC-galleria would be directed to the official pages. During the latest application period in 2009 there was an advertisement campaign on the Facebook that lead the interested to Metropolia's home page.

The Communities

Facebook community: In the Facebook we created a group where everyone interested can ask questions about the Metropolia Business School and find contact information. There are different discussion chains for different kind of questions, for example one for questions to teachers and one for questions to students and also possibility for general discussion about Metropolia or studying business.
Irc-galleria channel: The channel in Irc-galleria is similar to the group in Facebook and for the same purpose. The only major difference is that in Irc-galleria people do not use their own names when communicating with others as in Facebook.

Something for everyone from possible to applicants to alumni

A newsletter that anyone interested could order could be a good way to reach anyone who is interested in life inside Metropolia Business School. It could be ordered by leaving your e-mail address at the fairs, in Facebook, Irc-galleria or through the web pages. Other option would be publishing the newsletter as a web magazine without any specific subscriber lists. At the same time the newsletter would be informative to possible future students and also interesting for the existing ones to read so it would be a news media and advertisement at the same time. Besides being an advertisement letter to lure new applicants it would also work as a "letter from home" to the students in exchange. It could come out once a month but since it covers only the business school, it would probably be better to be published only once is two months or 4-6 times a year.

One way of publishing this would be making it as a course project. It could be an optional course or a part of an obligatory communication course. In a one semester there would come out 2-3 newsletters and most of the parts on the letter would not be written by the maker-ups and the layout would remain almost the same all the time.

Other choice of method of publishing this type of information could be a blog kept by students or teachers or both on a daily basis. The content could be similar to the newsletter but on more easy to approach way. The problem of a blog as an information source is that the info would be scattered but it could provide guidance to the web pages and bring Metropolia Business School more visibility.

Newsletter in large

The front page

The mid section

The back

The Metropolia Game

Adventure around the school

For further advertising we have decided to introduce a simple game which could be Facebook based as we consider it as a good source of new applicants. In this game the player would be a new student of Metropolia Business School and going to school for the first day. He/she will be walking in a school looking like he/she is carrying a camera with them and meeting the staff and some students around school who give them tasks and tell about themselves and can help you find places that you need to go to. As it otherwise might be too boring for the target market, the game should be filled with a good humor.

With this kind of game we could put together fun and advertising as it is not a traditional way of advertising and would bring attention from people who are interested in games and don't pay any kind of attention to adds or other kind of advertisement. And this would definitely different from other schools and would bring different kind of attention and would show that an educational institution.

The Quiz

Which international program would you fit in the best?

We would like to setup a quiz where as result you would get to which of the three degrees you would fit best and why. This is to make new applicants decide or at least guide them to the right direction if they are not sure. The answers of the quiz are meant to bring up the biggest differences between these programs as it can be hard to see for applicant, especially the difference between European Business Administration and European Management.

This quiz application could be web based and positioned to the Metropolia Business School website where it could be spotted by the people who are for sure interested in the school. Another option is to make this an application to Facebook where it could reach wider audience. Both options can of course be chosen as well and in this way can be ensured the best possible result.

Digital marketing of Lincoln University

As a comparison we looked into digital marketing of Lincoln University in United Kingdom. The university still relies heavily on traditional marketing with an advertisement campagin on television and printed materials but they do have some digital marketing in use too.

The main digital marketing tool that Lincoln has are the university's internet pages http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/ and pages for applicants http://studyatlincoln.com/ .
It is possible to order the prospectus online or read it straight from the web pages.

Lincoln University has social networks on Facebook and on YouTube. On Facebook the community page has current events, links to school related pages and links to YouTube videos. Besides the main community of the university also different faculties have their own communities on Facebook. In YouTube Lincoln has their television commercials and other video clips that are connected to the university. Some faculties also have their own blogs and other web publications connected to their own area. Lincoln has also a community radio Siren FM which can also be listened in internet. The radio is not really a marketing tool but it does bring more visibility to the university. (http://www.sirenonline.co.uk/)