Presentation from the 2013 York conference, given by Stephen Holmes PhD, Former Managing Partner, and Co-Founder, The Knowledge Partnership.

The presentation was entitled ‘Global or disconnected futures? The challenges of communicating and understanding in a segmented world.’, in which Holmes examined global markets in higher education. Specifically, this involved looking at the significance of culture in international education marketing, the strategic implications, and examples from marketing segmentation in action.

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York 2013 Conference Presentation: Global or Disconnected Futures - Stephen Holmes

The presentation looked at a sample difference between global markets, primarily Asian/Middle Eastern and Western culture, comparing differences in attitudes towards family ties, children, opinions, communications, and friendships and how these cultural differences altered the effectiveness of communication channels.

Examples of International HE Communications:

  1. Education fairs/talks –more opportunities for face-to-face interactions
  2. On-campus (schools/uni) visits
  3. Posters (must not be too long and wordy)
  4. Eye catching ads –must be real to audience, mean something to them rather than just another ad
  5. Word of mouth –hearing about others’ experience at universities very useful (first hand-trust factor)
  6. Presence of a local office/in-country staff
  7. Online channels:
  • Email campaigns good so long as not SPAM. Participants also prefer specific university contact that they can relate to, liaise with and respond to
  • Search engine results (Paid/Organic), many would click on results that feature highly in Google search. Few look at other pages beyond current search results page
  • Website –local language translation

8. Use of Mobile media: mobile apps, opt-in SMS notifications, QR Codes

  • Apps should be fun not serious –if not, will not reach intended audience. university
  • No SMS –participants feel an invasion of their privacy. It feels too ‘cheap’ for promotion –acceptable for current students if it is tuition fees payment reminder
  • Some markets are not familiar with the use of QR codes

If you want to find out more about attending this year’s conference please visit our conference page or get in touch via email.

2013 2013/2014 2014 Conference presentation York Conference