ASSIGNMENT COVER PAGE

STUDENT

NAME AND SURNAME STUDENT NUMBER

MODULE MODE OF DELIVERY

MODULAR ONLINE FACE TO FACE

ASSIGNMENT LECTURER
BRIEF 1: INTERVIEW
DUE DATE 09/09/2022
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LECTURER
MARK AWARDED
COMMENT
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INTRODUCTION
For the purpose of this formative assessment, an interview was contacted with Me. Ansie
Barnard (Marketing directorate) at the University of the Free State (UFS), Centre for
Business Dynamics, to gain insight as to how they perceive marketing to be in the
academic environment, what objectives do they have in their Marketing Department, and
what factors do they consider when making decisions about the marketing mix.

QUESTION 1.
WHAT IS MARKETING?
Cant, (2021) defines Marketing as “a process whereby an organization centres its
activities on meeting the identified needs and wants of customers, by offering products
that customers want, at a price acceptable to both parties and a place suitable for both
the company and the customer, and by informing the customer via the correct
communication channels of these products and services.”
According to the marketing manager, Me. Ansie, Marketing is about transforming ideas
into products and services that are suitable and satisfying to the needs and wants of the
clients.
QUESTION 2.
WHAT ARE THE ROLE AND OBJECTIVES OF MARKETING?
The role of the school’s marketing department is to increase sales and create awareness
for the short-learning programmes, and executive programmes they offer. To advance
visibility and create awareness for their programme offerings and launch new courses.
QUESTION 3.
Marketing Mix is “a range of factors that are considered when marketing a product,
including what consumers want, how the product or service meets or fails to meet those
wants, how the product or service is perceived in the world, how it stands out from the
competition, and how the company that produces it interacts with its customers.” (Twin,
2022)
DECISIONS MADE BY UFS CENTRE FOR BUSINESS DYNAMICS IN TERMS OF
THE FOLLOWING ASPECTS
 Product
Cant, (2021) defines Product as “a physical good or service which aims to satisfy
the needs of the consumer as a result of the product’s direct value. This also
includes perceptions the consumer may have such as the product’s usefulness,
desirability or convenience.”
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The business school provides, speciality product (Accredited knowledge

qualification), this is a product that can only be purchased once, that possesses
great value to the student and the student pays total cost to obtain the
qualification. Their product is Customer orientated as the focus is about meeting
their customer’s needs.
The Centre for business Dynamics is an extension of the UFS Business School, it
offers Short Learning Programmes as one of the product line for the Business
School. The product mix for the Short-learning programmes (SLP) are namely:
 Entrepreneurship development programmes
 Functional development programmes
 Leadership development programmes
 Management development programmes
When making decisions about their product mix, firstly, they consider,
expectations about what a business school should have, it would be expected that
a business school should have courses like Management Leadership, etc.
Secondly, what is currently being offered in the market by other institutions, in
order to be relevant, they consider what the gap is in the market.
Thirdly, general enquiries that will be made by a significant number of people, or
from companies, inform them which courses to launch.
 Price
Price is the value expressed in terms of Rand and cent. It is the value which is
connected to products and services. The amount of money needed to obtain a
product and the benefit or utility that goes with it.
The business school uses Going-rate pricing “is when an organisation primarily
bases its price on competitors’ prices and less on its own costs or on demand.”
(Cant, 2021). Because in the Academic environment, there is no price leader,
therefore their pricing objective is to meet the competition by deliberately pricing
its products to meet the competition. They also implement a zero based budgeting
for each programme offered, however they do consider the pricing about similar
products in the market, in order to be competitive and make price adjustments to
be just below their competitors.
She further explained that they calculate their sales price for each course in the
following manner:
 Establish the actual costs of all direct expenses, e.g. books, cost of certificates,
hourly facilitator fees, courier fees, travel and accommodation where needed.
Thus, each project needs to cover its own expenses.
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 Add a profit margin to cover variable costs.

 Then do price comparison with other training courses available in the market.
It is also evident that the business school uses Value Orientation pricing, which
means the pricing is based on the following:
 Price is an integral part of their pricing
 They consider costs to be incurred to arrive at the prevailing market price
and make a profit
 They determine the values of the product for their students
 Communicate the values that justifies the price
 Customer Service levels
Cant, (2021) highlights that “Quality is the company’s performance in delivering
customer satisfaction. Service quality therefore depends on expectations and
perceived performance.”
Cant, (2021) further states that “managers determine what level of service will fit
the buyers’ needs and what prices are acceptable to them.”
According to the Business School policy, their response to enquiries made by
consumers, they are to respond within 48 hours, but it is their goal to respond with
a day to speed up the service offered to satisfy the client. With regard to the
duration of the courses offered, there is a timeframe for completion of the SLP, it
is incumbent for the student to work hard to pass within the stipulated time.
There is a relevance and variety of programmes offered to suit the needs of the
business environment.
They also offer after sale support to students to help them cope with their studies,
an example, will also be the opportunity given to students for a second due date
for assignment submissions, and resubmission for students that performed
between a mark of 45 to 48 points. Information support that is reliable, safe,
functional on the BlackBoard system. Delivery performance is convenient for
students from all walks of life, and flexible enough to be able to produce a wide
range of SLP and have different intakes at a time the need arises, for instance: for
more affordable SLP’s, the demand is more and it requires an intake of once
every two months; for expensive SLP’s is offered once a year.
They also make use of a Questionnaire survey to get feedback from students after
each program. They survey includes questions about the content of the module,
can they use what they learned in their working environment, how do they find the
facilitators method of teaching, how was the learning environment. This is to
enable the business school to know of the problem areas where improvement is
needed.
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 Distribution
Cant, (2021) states that “A distribution channel is a series of firms or individuals
who participate in the flow of goods and services from producer to final user or
consumer.” Because the school sell education/knowledge, the intermediary
between the school and students are lecturers who facilitate learning.

Centre for Intermediaries Consumer

business dynamics (Lectures) (Students)

The method of service delivery and service channel used, is combining physical
contact with distance learning approach as the offer classes’ online or face to face
attendance. Material in a form of study guide, lecturer slides, articles and
additional information is made available on Blackboard (BB). The frequency of the
course offering depends on the demand for that particular short-course.
 Advertising and any digital marketing efforts
Previously, the school would advertise on Radio and print brochures, due to
funding constraints they ceased using those methods. They have a link on the
University of Free State page, with information about the courses they offer and
contact person etc.
They make use of Digital Marketing on Social Media, advertising on Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram and regularly post relevant content, the aim is to
redirect customers to the social media and web site. They make use of marketing
collateral such as: eBooks, Blogposts, Branded Content, Corporate brochures and
corporate gifts. This means, they make use of Business to Consumer (B2C)
marketing. They further make use of E-mail shots, to attract new customers, and
keep the communication ongoing with existing clients. The business school uses
“Call to action” campaigns.
Another form of advertising activity is to take part in Career Expos by setting up
stalls for exhibitions, during the COVID-19 pandemic, because of lockdown
restrictions, they had to move to Virtual Expos. As part of Brand awareness, they
also invite guest Lecturers (e.g. CFO’s, Project Managers) from the relevant
industry and accept invitations to be guest Speakers.
 Sale promotion
Cant, (2021) explains sales promotion “is a marketing activity offering incentive to
consumers in order to achieve short-term objectives.” There are no sales
promotions being offered currently.
 The sales force
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Due to budget constraints, there is only one person dealings with sales, and one
person dealing with marketing. There are people who are hired on contract,
earning sales commission.
 Segmentation
The only variable of demographic segmentation used by the business school is
Age segmentation, where one of the requirement to be able to enrol in the
programmes, a client has to be over the age of 21 years of age. Occupation?
Educational level?
Another segmentation used is Behavioural segmentation, because the clients
would like to increase their knowledge in a particular field, career advancement
which means the variable in use is the benefit sought.
 Consumer behaviour
Cant, (2021) explains Consumer Behaviour “is the decision-making process used
in selecting, evaluating, and using and disposing of products and services.”
Clients are driven by individual factors to want to study. The self-actualisation
needs that arises when they evaluate the current level of their education, and
where they would like to be, and then trey to close the gap in-between by adding a
SLP to satisfy that need. They could be motivated by career development, or the
need to be hired in a better position that requires a certificate in Leadership.

QUESTION 4.
THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN MARKETING AND SELLING
For Centre of Business Dynamics, Marketing is about activities we plan for and use to
promote the short learning programmes they offer, whereas Selling is the actual student
enrolments and the monetary transaction the student makes to the school.

Reference List
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Cant, M.C. (editor), 2021. Marketing Management: A South African Perspective. 4 th

edition. Juta and Company Ltd. Chapter 1-4: The Marketing world
Twin, A. (2022). The 4 P’s of Marketing and how to use them in your strategy.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/four-ps.asp. Access on [09/09/2022]