Digital Marketing at Metropolia Business School

Digital Marketing means promoting Brands using the Internet, Mobile and other interactive channels. It has many unique benefits to marketing, one of which being lower costs for the distribution of information and media to a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing, both in terms of providing instant response and eliciting responses, is a unique quality of the medium.

EVTEK University of Applied Sciences and Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia merged into Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences which began operations on 1 August 2008. The Metropolia has four fields of study: technology, health care and social services, economics and business administration, and culture, all of which will provide teaching also in English.

I will mostly concentrate on the digital marketing of Metropolia Business School, ie the field of economics and business administration, which is situated in Vantaa, in the Helsinki region.

According to the yearly research on the images of Finnish universities and UAS's, performed this spring (2009) by Taloustutkimus, Metropolia lies only 25th on "informativeness of website". Kemi-Tornio came 1st, Lahti 2nd ,Hamk 5th, Laurea 16th and Haaga-Helia 18th. Only Laurea and Haaga-Helia lie in the Helsinki region, as does Metropolia.

Kemi-Tornios website:
http://www.tokem.fi/?deptid=11590

Here is some additional information about how well Metropolia did on other issues:
(Author did the translation from Finnish)

How modern the school is
1. (Haaga-Helia 2., Laurea 8., Lahti 12., Hamk 18.)

Visibility of marketing
2. (Poliisiamk 1.; Haaga-Helia 3., Hamk 4., Laurea 7., Lahti 22.)

Diversification of fields of study
3. (Turku 1.; Hamk 4., Lahti 7., Laurea 8., Haaga-Helia 10.)

Internationality
4. (Tampere 1., Haaga-Helia 2., Laurea 8., Hamk 10., Lahti 12.)

Reputation as a study place
5. (Poliisiamk 1.; Haaga-Helia 7., Lahti 9., Hamk 11., Laurea 12.)

Appreciation in the labour market
6. (Jyväskylä 1.; Haaga-Helia 7., Lahti 8., Hamk 13., Laurea 14.)

Attractiveness of location of UAS
7. (Tampere 1.; Haaga-Helia 5., Laurea 11., Lahti 12., Hamk 19.)

Quality of education and research
14. (Poliisiamk 1.; Lahti 3., Laurea 9., Hamk 10. Haaga-Helia 21.)

Informativeness of website
25. (Kemi-Tornio 1.; Lahti 2., Hamk 5., Laurea 16., Haaga-Helia 18.)

Loyal to the marketing principles of Phillip Kotler, we kan apply the 4Ps to the marketing of Metropolia. 4 Ps according to Kotler being Product, Price, Place and Promotion.
Brian Featherstonhaugh, global CEO of OgilvyOne, har "translated" the principles of the 4P:s for the digiage, and calls them Experiance, Exchange, Everyplace and Evangelism. If you´re not famillar with them, you can watch his Youtube video below.

Here I will analyse the present digital marketing of Metropolia according to these principles and give some suggestions as to how I think it could ne improved.

Product /Experience

I think we should first of all think about what do we really offer? What is the product that we want people to see through our website? The answer is of course education, superior education, but we should think about how we can sent that message to our target group.
Speaking of target groups, which are they? The present main page clearly aims at youth mainly Finnish students but as lifelong learning and flexible studies are very much words of today, we shouldn´t forget our adult students.

Metropolia currently has two different websites, the national (which you partly can see translated to English) and the international, which is only in English.

www.metropolia.fi
Metropolia Business School international site

Exchange
None of the sites says anything about the price for foreign students of studying in Metrpolia. Also we could use permission marketing to get to know our target customers a little better. For instance: Tell us what kind of education/courses you want and need (poll?) and include your e-mail address and some information so that we can tell you about new courses. Perhaps there could even be a free sample lecture at the site that you get to see and here if you register?

Place /Everyplace
Again: lifelong learning and flexibility. Presently there is no mention whatsoever of webstudies or possibilities of studying at a distance.

Promotion /Evangelism
How do we make people talk about us and with us? What are the values of Metropolia UAS and is the website consequent with them? How do we feel about green values and recycling?

Finally, here are some suggestions for Metropolias marketing to be a little more "digital" and interactive. First some idées concerning the "official" marketing.

First concentrate on Metropolia brand! Do we need a separate brand for Business School?

We could have certain hours online interactive chat during the times that you can apply to Metropolia. That are the times of year that potential customers have the most questions. Compare to IKEAs Ask Anna service. Or possibility to ask questions and get answers by SMS.

We should absolutely have some interacting on the web all the time. Maybe a poll? What were you looking for from our website? And at the same time ask permission to send e-mail information.

Order application forms (e-forms) online. A test exam would give applicants an idée about the entrance exam and you could get to test your knowledge in advance...?

Maybe a link to online order of books(course)? Links to some of the books used in the courses? Would communicate about what kind of education we offer but also give a chance to students to get books in advance.

A blog? One of the competing UAS:s had a "headmasters blog" but the others are a lot like Metropolias. The site of the Police Academy in Tampere has a freshman student blogging about her first year. I think that would be an idée worth stealing!

"Not-so-official"marketing
Facebook. Official page and a fun application: "Which kind of Metropolia-student are YOU"? Or "Which would be the Metropolia training program that suits your personality best?"

Some people will remember Elfyourself, an application that was popular a couple of years ago to send Christmas greetings to your friends. Your were able to switch your head (photo) for that of a funny elf that performed a dance in the greetingmessage. E-mail/chainletter or fun tv-commercials will also make people mail them to each other.
A computer (short) game from a Metropolia surrounding, compare to Sakarin villapaitapeli, which is a really silly game!

Humour always works!