80/20 Marketing in International Education — is it a Good Strategy?
I have pursued 80/20 marketing like many marketers, but if you’re recruiting international students, you are warned to tread carefully.
Over the past few years, I’ve talked strategy with almost every university international student recruitment office in Australia (and many in the UK). One thing that always fascinates me is how the 80/20 rule is both embraced and intentionally ignored across institutions.
The 80/20 rule, better known as the Pareto Principle, states that 80% of the results will come from just 20% of the resources. The rule has been picked up and implemented by managers all over the world, as they try to increase profits with limited resources.
In international education, if you look for it you can see it everywhere. A few countries (China, India and Vietnam for example) may make up 80% of your international students, but they only represent 20% of the countries you target. Likewise, 20% of your marketing spend may result in 80% of enrolments. The key is working out what the 20% is, and then focussing your efforts on that.
But is it that simple in the international education game?
“what happens if China crashes like India did after the attacks in Melbourne?!”
A few years ago a country rep at a university told me a story about the appointment of their new International VC at a time when the university was struggling with budgets. At the time, this university had targeted multiple regions, including Asia, Middle East, Europe and South America. My friend told me the first thing the new VC did was request a report outlining the cost to recruit one student based on region. The report showed that the cost to acquire a student from South America was very expensive, while the cost of recruiting a student from China was relatively inexpensive. The VC determined that roughly 20% of the budget was being spent of China-based activities, yet it was bringing in 80% of the profit from international students.
So, like a true 80/20 manager, they declared a travel freeze on all South American markets and pulled funding for future events there. The funds were redirected to China-based activities.
However, when I mentioned this strategy to another VC of International, they said that kind of management is “short sighted.. what happens if China crashes like India did after the attacks in Melbourne?! If you haven’t invested in other markets then you’re dead in the water.”
Another I spoke to was also critical. “If we only brought in Chinese students, the faculties would kill me. It also doesn’t look great for the university’s image if one nationality dominates.”
This got me thinking about how different international education is from other industries. In many industries, managers don’t really mind where their customers come from and the 80/20 rule can be clearly pursued. For example, if a coffee shop owner realised that 20% of his customers were between 18–25, but they made up 80% of the profits, there would be very little risk to pursue 18–25 year olds with all their marketing resources. Why not?
But in this industry, if you don’t spread your resources and risk, you are particularly susceptible to wide range of external factors that can undermine your whole recruitment strategy, such as a strong currency, government funding of scholarships (Brazil), fears of safety (India), work rights (India), visa processing times and more.
While international education marketers must know which markets provide the best return, I can’t help agree with the fact that this industry changes all the time, and it’s important to hedge your bets. You never know when a market might turn for you or against you.
James Martin is the Managing Director of Insider Foundry, makers of the popular Insider Guides — International Student Guides for Australiaand the upcoming UK editions, distributed in 18 countries around the world with the help of British Council, IDP Education, Chinese Ministry of Education and Latino Australia Education. Feel free to email — james@insiderguides.com.au.
