Middlesex University Business School recently took on re-branding by changing its logo and introducing a new advertising campaign. Our marketing research objective is to gauge the effectiveness of this re-branding in the London Borough of Barnet.

(5.2) Analysis of  Logo Change Awareness :

The table clearly reflects extremely low level of awareness among people about the logo change.  Nearly 80% of the people are not aware about the fact that Middlesex University (MU) has changed its logo. Thus, our client needs to work on increasing awareness regarding the change of logo.

(5.3) Analysis of  Advertisement Awareness :

Table-4: MU advert awareness

From the above table we can observe that almost 50% of the people had seen the advertisements of MUBS. We arrive at this conclusion by combining the first and the second criteria of ‘yes, certain’ and ‘yes, but not certain’. This shows that the advertisement locations were rightly selected as it adhered to the aim of being viewed by the required target people..

(5.4) Analysis of Radio listenership :

Figure-1: Commercial Radio Stations Listening Frequency Chart

The above graph shows the number of people, out of our sample who listen to each of the listed radio stations. We can observe from the chart that Kiss is the most widely listened to radio station, with 117 people (approximately 29%) closely followed by Capital by 106 people (26%). This information can be constructively used by our client to help him in his future marketing endeavours.

(5.5) Analysis of Newspaper readership:

Figure-2: National Newspaper Reading Frequency Chart

Figure-3: London and Local Newspapers Reading Frequency Chart

Figure-2 shows the number of people out of our sample who read each of the listed newspaper. We can observe from the chart that Sun with 106 people (26%) is the most widely read national newspaper closely followed by Times 98 people (24 %) . While figure-3 shows that Metro is the most widely read newspaper among the local and London category with 161 people (approximately 40%). This information can be constructively used by our client to help him in his future marketing endeavours.

(5.6) Analysis of  people’s perception of Middlesex University:

 

Figure-4: People’s Perception- Middlesex University

Figure-4 shows that 302 people (approximately 67%) think that Middlesex University is Culturally/Internationally diverse, while 248 people (approximately 49%) think Middlesex University is A Global University. This is a positive sign in terms of the image or the university. This information could be used by the client to identify the image of university in the market, which could become the base for future marketing endeavours.

(5.7) Analysis of  the effectiveness of the Advertisements:

Tables-5 to 9 summarizes the effectiveness of the advertising undertaken by our client. Table-5 shows that around 25% of the people thought that the ads made them more likely to contact the university. This is a considerable percentage. But when we look further down, we realize that almost 37% thought the ads made them less likely to contact the university, while a massive 38% said the ads had no effect on them at all. This is a very alarming figure.

So our client needs to focus on the target groups and design the adverts in the future in a way that made them more likely to contact the university. On the other side only about 27% found the ads confusing and an impressive 82% found the ads clearly reflected that they were from MUBS. So that is a major success area for the client. But only 47% found the ads interesting and almost 43% found the ads dull. This is the place where client needs to work hard trying to make the ads more interesting, lively and attractive to catch attention.

(5.8) Analysis of awareness of various other University Advertisements  :

Figure-6: Awareness of University Advertisements

Figure-6 shows that Middlesex University advertisements share the highest awareness rate of 118 people (29%), in comparison to the universities like East London, Greenwich, Herefordshire, Kingston, Luton, South Bank, Surrey, Thames Valley Universities share very less awareness, while London Metropolitan University shares of  around 55 people (approximately 14 %) and Other Universities shares of  44 people (approximately 11 %). This shows that MU’s ads share high visibility and reachability in comparison to other universities. This is a major positive trend showing that the client’s efforts in projecting MU’s ads at strategic places and medias have been successful.

(5.9) Analysis of popularity of various Courses/Subjects  :

Figure-7: Popularity rate of various courses/subjects 

Figure-6 shows that Business Studies with 31 people (approximately 25%) and Other Subjects with 30 people  (approximately 25%) are the most popular subjects of choice.  Law is preferred by 18 people (approximately 14%), Finance/Accounting and Management are with 15 and 12 people (12% and 10% approximately). The popularity rate of the other subjects is fairly low in comparison.

(5.10) Crosstab Analysis of number of people having recently seen / heard any

           advertising for MUBS  by Age and Sex:

According to the SPSS data, we have 356 cases for this analysis from total 407 cases, as 51 cases were missing. So, our analysis is based on 356 cases.

Table-10: Recently seen/heard Uni advertising - Sex Cross tabulation

From above table we can say that there are total 175 males and 181 females, which comes 49% and 51% respectively. While total of 195 people including male and female have seen/heard University advertising, this comes to approximately 55%, while 161 people have not seen/heard University advertising, which comes to approximately 45%. This shows that both males and females almost equally have heard/seen the university advertising. So the adverts appeal to both the sexes equally and hence the client was successful in the same.

Table-11: Recently seen/heard Uni advertising - Age Cross tabulation

The above table shows the cross-tabulations of various age-groups with their occurrence of having recently seen / heard MUBS ads. Converting the numbers in to percentages, we found out the following :

               

We observe that the highest percentage of people who have seen or heard the ads come into the age group of 20-24 and 25-39 with 31% and 30% respectively. While the people in the age group of 40-49 and 60+ have the lowest percentages 7% and 8% respectively for the same. At the same time the percentage of people not having seen/heard about the ads is the highest in the 16-19 age group which is 27%.

Here the client still needs to work on increasing the reachability of the ads to the age group between 20-24 which is the prime age of people thinking about going to universities. The low percentage in age group above 60 having not seeing the ads is fine, as it does not matter much if they have seen/heard the ads or not as they are not the obvious group for influencing anyone’s university choice. However, the client would need to work hard in increasing reachability of the ads to the age group of 16-19 and 40-59. The former, because these age group have to plan for the future about which university they would select after school/college and the later because it consists of parents which could influence their children in to taking a particular university.  

This effectively shows to us that there is a very strong association between the age of people and them having seen/heard the ads. But the same is not true in case of sex. Hence we would not be investigating any associations with respect to sex any further.

(5.11) Crosstab Analysis of  people’s perception of  Middlesex University  by Age and Sex:

The respective tables of this analysis are shown in the appendices section. By converting the represented numbers in those tables into percentages we observed some interesting facts. We found out that 29% of the total interviewed people in the age group of 20-24 think about Middlesex University as a ‘Global University’ while only 10% people in the range 40-59 think the same. Almost 31% of the people in the age group of 20-24 think about Middlesex University as ‘Culturally and Internationally’ diverse while only 10% think the same in the age group of 40-59. Similarly 29% and 35% of the people in the age group of 20-24 think about Middlesex University as having ‘Challenging Careers ‘ and having ‘Innovative Research’ respectively. While the respective figures for the same in the age group of 40-59 is 6% and 8%.

All these figures would be helpful to the client in realizing what the main focus age groups think about the university. The client should effectively use this analysis to improve its image in the 40-59 influential group and to target its future advertising based on the set ideas that the 20-24 core age group have about the university to get the maximum productivity.

(5.12) Crosstab Analysis of number of people being aware about the recently

          changed logo of MUBS by Age :

The respective tables of this analysis are shown in the appendices section. By converting the represented numbers in those tables into percentages we observed that 36% and 32% of the total interviewed people in the age group of 20-24 and 25-39 respectively, knew about the logo change.

It seems that Middlesex University’s new logo is still not recognised by considerable number people within different age groups, as they had old logo still in their mind. So, we suggest that Middlesex University should change their old logo from every where, because still old logo is seen outside some Halls of Residence, some letter heads and so on. The client should henceforth emphasis on making the new logo as recognizable as the old one and make  sincere efforts in enabling people making a connection between the new logo and the university itself.

6) Conclusion and Recommendations:-

6.1 Recommendations :

1. About advertising locations:

With reference to advertising on buses and tubes, we recommend the client to concentrate more on buses rather than tubes. This is because, in the case of advertising on tubes or tube stations, the visibility of the ads is limited to only the commuters of tubes and not the general public. While, advertising on the buses (not inside) widens the visibility of the ads to a large extent as the general public can also view them while the buses are on the move.

Besides, efforts should also be made to place ads at strategic locations in the local area such as local clubs, pubs or any other favourite youth hangout places.

2. About advertising media:

As mentioned earlier, ‘Kiss’ and ‘Capital’ are the most widely listened to radio stations, thus we strongly recommend the client to use them, if advertising on radio is also a consideration.

Also, ‘Sun’ and ‘Times’ are the most widely read national newspapers, while ‘Metro’ is the most widely read London newspaper. So we recommend the client to use these newspapers to increase the visibility of the ads. One important aspect to consider here is the budget, as advertising on ‘Kiss’ radio and ‘Sun’ newspaper daily would be an expensive affair, yet it would prove to be a good investment.

3. About increasing the recognition of the new logo:

Recognition of the new logo of Middlesex University is still not at the required level. Hence, our client needs to work hard to make the new logo more famous amongst the people.

For this purpose, we recommend the client to ensure that the old logo is replaced by the new one on all public banners and boards to allow maximum visibility of the new logo.  There are quite a few places where one can still find the old logo. This creates confusion in the minds of the audience and hence should be taken care of at the earliest. Efforts should also me made to convey the message behind the new logo to the people, so that they can make a connection between the logo and the image of the university they have in mind.

4. About improving upon the effectiveness of advertisements:

As discussed earlier, effectiveness of advertisements is considerably low and client needs to work on it. The ads need to achieve their aim of spreading awareness among the targeted people regarding the University in order to be successful. The client should not take it as a failure but as a constructive step that would allow him to improve upon his future ad-campaigns that would generate a respectable level of positive effect on the general public.

We recommend the following for improving the effectiveness of the ads:

 (a) A definite punch line should be incorporated into the ads that make the

      people recall the ads easily. The punch line should be simple, in  

      the face, and should relate to the university’s image.

(b) Pictures of the university should be creatively used in the ads to make the

      ads more interesting, thus improving recalling ratios.

(c) Contact information, especially the web-address and email-id of the    University should be given more prominence in the ads looking at the present online cult where people like to find out more about the university through its website than relying on any other source.

5. About target groups:

The client should seriously think about revising its target group. This is because we think that 60+ years as an age group does not make much difference to the University image if this group has seen the ads or not and if they are aware of the university’s new logo. This age group may not have any particularly interest in Middlesex University, and hence the data collected from them can unnecessarily affect the overall analysis of data, which in turn negates the whole purpose of the survey itself. There are also chance of the client seeing their influence in the analysis might get distracted and hence deviate from his main objective. Also, from various cross-tabs we found out that the ‘core’ groups which possibly has the highest interest and influence in a university choosing decision are 20-24 & 40-59 where former being the most likely university students’ age groups and the later being the group which consists of their parents. Hence we strongly recommend that the client should divert most of his efforts in capturing the interests of this ‘core’ group for maximized results. At the same time other age groups should not be totally ignored, but given less importance.

6.2 Conclusion :

A look at the complete research material and analysis on the awareness of Middlesex University shows that changing a few aspects, as given in our recommendations, would help increase the awareness and image of the University. Our research concludes that  Middlesex University could gain more recognition by listening to its local resident. After an in depth research of the locals, we found that advertising on buses, particular newspapers and radio was the most effective medium of advertising. It does not mean that advertising in the tube and bill boards should be ignored, but more emphasis is to be given on buses, newspapers and the radio as this form of advertising has had more impact on the local residents.

Also, our research identifies that most locals feel marketing campaigns carried out by Middlesex university target certain age groups which is obvious. One very encouraging fact we found was that, out of all the well known universities in the UK, MUBS ads have one of the highest level of reachability. Thus, with our full detailed recommendations on the marketing strategy for Middlesex University, our client can soon reach his targeted level of awareness and recognition.

7) Limitations

1. Limitations of Survey Location:

We were assigned Colindale train station. During the two days of interviewing we were at a disadvantage due to the weather. As it was cold, windy and raining, interviewees were not interested or concerned with answering questions. Also a major part of interviewing was done on a weekend, which results into less number of people available at the station and hence it took us long hours to complete our survey. We believe this was a big disadvantage.

2. Limitations of Interviewers:

As an interviewer there are certain limitations on the kind of questions one can ask the interviewee without being offensive, with regards to important details like age, sex and daily habits. There may be also occurrences where interviewer’s own personal views and biases affect the survey. Because we were not fully trained to interview people we feel that more accurate and substantial information could have been gathered otherwise.

3. Limitations of Questionnaires:

As a group we believe that the questionnaire given to us had limitations. It had too many questions for a street interview which made it difficult retain the interest of interviewees till the last question and so a lot of them left the interview half way. We were given handouts of new and old logo of university and of the latest ads of MUBS which were all in black & white. We believe that if these handouts had been in colour, interviewees could have been able to identify them easily as people can easily connect the colour red with Middlesex University.  

4. Limitations of the Interviewing Method:

With face to face interviews we found that some interviewees were in a hurry to complete the questionnaires this could have caused some bias as they agreed to the first answer read to them in order to finish quicker. Other circumstances interviewees answered yes to questions but I can clearly see that they did not fully understand the question; as a result one cannot completely rely on the information obtained from this survey. As a group we feel that if a focus group was set up, more detailed and accurate answers could have been put forward by interviewees. As it is done in a controlled environment, the results of the survey through focus groups could be much more reliable.

5. Limitations of Reliability of Data Collected:

In the case of data reliability we feel that data was collected in best practice to avoid bias and inaccurate data collection. But because the final data was collected from various groups we cannot be certain that groups beside my own collected reliable data as we were not present when the data was collected and presented to the client. Possibilities of dummy interviewees cannot be ruled out which directly affects the reliability of data negatively. Hence the data collected cannot be trusted completely.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

6. Limitations of Interviewees:

Interviewees’ answers to the question might have been influenced by their own personal biases. For example, if someone’s son or daughter is studying in Middlesex University, he or she might be biased against other universities. Again, their moods, the time available to them, their personal attitude towards interviewers, the weather are just some to the factors that influence their responses. We also think that interviewing people above the age of 60 years was not needed and the data collected from them would certainly affect the final analysis which in-turn would provide inaccurate results.

All these limitations would have obviously inculcated some errors into our research. They would hence be reflected in our analysis . Therefore we can say that relying upon this data on its entirety would not be feasible.

8) Appendices

8.1 Bibliography

1. Internet:

• Welcome to my SPSS pages.(2004).[online].Available from http://pages.infinit.net/rlevesqu/.htm  [accessed 10/04/2004]
• Know What’s Next Now.(2004).[online].Available from http://www.spss.com/.htm [accessed 11/04/2004]
• SPSS for Windows, Version 9: A Brief Tutorial
  (Hypertext Version). (2003). [online].Available from http://www.csubak.edu/ssric/Modules/SPSS/SPSFirst.htm. [accessed 13/04/2004]
• SPSS. (2004). [online].available from http://www.utexas.edu/cc/stat/software/spss/.htm. [accessed 14/04/2004]
• Welcome to the SPSS Help Archive: (2003). [online]. Available from http://sobek.colorado.edu/LAB/STATS/SPSS/.htm. [accessed 14/04/2004]
• MARKETING RESEARCH ANALYST.(2004) [online].available at http://www.qctimes.com/marketplace/showjob.php?id=8201 [accessed 20/04/2004]
• Marketing research.com. (2004). [online]. Available at http://www.marketresearch.com. [accessed 14/04/2004]
• Market Research. (2004). [online]. Available at http://www.export.gov/marketresearch.html. [accessed on 16/04/2004]

• Welcome to QualPage: resources for qualitative research. (2004). [online]. Available from: http://www.qualitativeresearch.uga.edu/QualPage/. [accessed on 16/04/2004]

• Forum Qualitative Social Research. (2004). [online]. Available at: http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs/fqs-eng.htm. [accessed on 18/04/2004]

2. Books and Journals:

• Malhotra, Naresh K., and Birks, David F., (2003).

Marketing Research, An Applied Approach. Second European Edition.  Prentice Hall.

• Cooper, Donald and Schindler, Pamela (1998).

Business Research Methods.  London: McGraw Hill.

• Saunders, Mark; Lewis, Philip; Thornhill, Adrian, (1997).

Research Methods for Business Students.  Pitman.

• Chisnall, Peter, (1997).

Marketing Research (5th Ed.).  McGraw Hill

• Bryman, A; Cramer, D (1999) Quantitative Data Analysis With SPSS Release 8 For Windows. Psychology Press/Routledge.

• International Journal of Market Research (The Journal of the Market Research Society).
• Research (Magazine published by Market Research Society).

8.2 Group Project Log

Attendance Log

Meetings – Progress, Comments, Problems

8.3 SPSS Tables

• Analysis -5.1

   

 Table-1:  Recognition of Old Logo                        Table-2:  Recognition of New Logo

#

• Analysis -5.2

Table-3:  Awareness about logo change

        

• Analysis -5.7

Table-5: Likeliness of contacting MU

      Table-6: Are Ads confusing?                                                                 Table-7: Are Ads interesting?

             Table-8: Are Ads dull?                                                                     Table-9: Ads clearly from MU

        

• Analysis -5.11

        

Table-12: MU: a global university * Age Cross tabulation

Table-13: MU: culturally / internationally diverse * Age Cross tabulation

Table-14: MU: challenging academic programmes * Age Cross tabulation

Table-15: MU: innovative research * Age Cross tabulation

• Analysis -5.12

        Table-16: Aware MU recently changed logo * Age Cross tabulation