Marketing strategy analysis of USC Marshall

Résumé du document

The Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California was founded in 1920 and is the oldest AACSB accredited school of business in California (www.marshall.usc.edu). Marshall has been ranked as the 26th best full-time MBA business school in the United States (www.businessweek.com). The school has achieved this reputation through the quality standards and requirements of students, staff, and the academic curriculum. Our goal through this report is to educate about the reasons why the Marshall School of Business is one of the top business schools in the United States, and inform about the prestigious education and experiences that Marshall has to offer.

To achieve this goal, we have analyzed the Marshall School of Business through a SWOT analysis to understand the school's strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities. This analysis allowed us to apply a growth strategy that is best suited to Marshall to optimize potential and growth. Our promotion plan focuses on educating the individual about the quality of education and opportunities that a graduate student receives during their studies at Marshall.

Our SWOT analysis of the Marshall School of Business will make it clear how Marshall can convert their opportunities into strengths, and create new opportunities after addressing their weaknesses. Recognizing threats will give Marshall the opportunity to create ways to neutralize these threats by making adjustments to gain a competitive advantage.

Extraits

[...] For students, studying abroad is a valuable opportunity to understand and improve their knowledge of international business, become educated about other cultures and different business practices, which allow them to learn about globalization. According to the Institute of International Education, USC hosted the largest number of international students in USA, and business and management is the most popular field amongst international students (www.iie.org). The location of the Marshall Schools of Business is strength for the university. Los Angeles is one of the most well-known, cultured cities in the world. It allows easy access to new business industries such as: biotechnology, life sciences, media, entertainment and communications. [...]

[...] In 1880, USC opened its doors, but the College of Commerce and Business Administration, didn't exist until 1920. It became the first business school in Southern California. The name was changed in 1997, after a $35 million donation from alumnus Gordon S. Marshall, and since then, the name has been the Marshall School of Business (http://www.marshall.usc.edu/about). The business school has programs designed to provide a complete business education to their students. The undergraduate program in Business Administration includes training in areas like accounting, finance, micro and macro economics, marketing, statistics, and management. [...]

[...] The program generally lasts four to five years with up to two years of dissertation. Along working with notable faculty, doctoral students also receive substantial financial aid, such as graduate assistantship and a living stipend, during the time of their studies. The Marshall School of Business has over 75,000 alumni worldwide in forty-four countries. USC has the largest population of foreign alumni of any university in the United States. Its members often refer to themselves as part of the Trojan Family, and this is seen as an advantage because of the common connection between current students and alumni. [...]

[...] Moreover, the national market penetration strategy can strengthen Marshall's national image and market shares. It's important to have a clear strategy which must be well-defined and understood by your customers. Applying two growth strategies simultaneously must be well managed to ensure that Marshall School of Business' reputation and high quality education continue. Promotional Before creating a promotion, our group had to analyze all the sides of our future communication mix. We focused mainly on our customers and target market. The idea is to communicate to the same market, and try to convince more customers and prove to those that are not convinced, why they belong at the Marshall School of Business. [...]

[...] We created a new promotional mix which considers all of these factors and creates an added value for the business school. We were able to decide on an appropriate growth and communication strategy for Marshall after successfully completing a SWOT analysis to determine our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and a Perceptual Map to aid in realizing our competition and how we can improve to gain a competitive advantage. Our results have shown that Marshall can continue to offer excellent education on a national level with a Market Penetration strategy, while choosing a Product Development strategy for expanding on an international level. [...]