Who's Your Competition?

It's always amazing to me to talk with managers and ask them who are their competitors. While the list typically includes institutions that the Admissions staff would give, managers normally have a rather lengthy list. Interestingly enough, they will include schools that are, in reality, not in any way competing for the same student market.

Your real competitors are those institutions that are recruiting the same students you are trying to attract. For instance, if your core student group are 19-25 year old, females who are either unemployed or underemployed with no previous college, your competitor is not probably the selective admission private university down the road.

So how do you identify your real competitors? It's always best to collect this from your customers...prospective students. If you are not already do this, include this question early in your admission process and compile that on a regular basis.

Understanding Your Competition Can Help

Knowing about your competitors can significantly help you develop strategies to further differentiate you from the rest of the market. Afterall, the goal is to increase your share of the market and increase enrollment. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways including program offerings, services and advertising messages. This information is also an important and effective sales tool for your admissions staff. The more familiar they are with the differences and similarities between your school and your competitors the more effective they will be in their recruiting efforts.

In short, knowing your competition helps you to more clearly stand out in the increasingly competitive market place.

Key Information

The type of information you decide to compile can vary and be tailored to your specific market and needs. Collecting the information can be done relative easily over the internet. Information not available on web sites or other public resources can usually be gathered with a phone call. It can be time consuming but if you have the staff, collecting this information internally is very doable. This is also a great short-term project to be outsourced if you don't have the existing time or staff.

Generally speaking, the appropriate key measure for comparison includes:

Programs Document a list of programs, and their length (e.g. diploma, associate, bachelor's degree, etc.) This will come in very handy in a couple ways. First, your admission staff can use this when they are talking with prospective students who may be interested in a particular program. If only two or three of your competitors offer a program like that, you have just significantly increased the chances of enrollment that student. Also, if you are considering a new program at your institution, knowing what is already offered, and at what level, will help determine if there is enough room in your market to support the enrollment. This is especially important if there are signicant expenses associated with offering that program.

Calendar/Class Scheduling Format This information is helpful to see how you compare and what the competitive advantages might be in convenience. Students, especially adult students, are looking for convenience in completing their education. The length of the program and availability of day, evening, weekend, online classes can be the factor that makes or breaks an enrollment.

Cost of Attendance Obviously, tuition is a clear decision-factor for students. When you are compiling information on cost, be sure to include all fees and other 'add on' expenses to students. At some institutions, the fees charged increase the total cost of attendance significantly. This data allows you to see how you compare to others in the market place and develop an appropriate pricing strategy.

On that note, Admissions people generally say that price is an issue. But I have seen many schools were they are in the middle or low end of the scale and this is still an issue. Cost is always related to value. All your employees should be able to articulate how your institution is worth the cost of attendance. A thorough competitive analysis will help to provide the information to convince both your employees and students.

"Analyzing market share tells you more than enrollment."

Total Enrollment Collecting the total enrollment for each competitive institution allows you to determine your market share. This can be used to measure the effectiveness of other initiatives such as advertising and other recruiting tactics. You may find, for instance, that decreasing your advetising doesn't impact your market share in which case you can divert those funds to other areas. You may also find the reverse...increasing your advertising and recruiting efforts will increase your market share. As competitors move in to your area, you may find that they are not 'hurting' you as much as everyone is tell you. Regardless, reviewing enrollment and market share is a helpful way to see what is really going on in your area.

Services and Other Differentiating Traits Other things you will want to document in your study include any other things that would differentiate your competitors from each other. These could be things like mandatory internships, well-known instructors...things that would attract students and add value to the educational experience (from the student's perspective). This is also where you will be able to determine how you are different. This area is one of the easiest and least expensive to help define your niche in the market--but you need to know how you compare to the rest of the competition before it becomes a true selling point for you.

How Do You Compare? Once you have collected all this information, you should spend some time analyzing it in detail to determine how you rate in each category. From the student's perspective, who is the most attractive option and why? How does your institution stack up against the list? What can you do that would truly differentiate you in the market place?

You may determine, for instance, that you are one of the most expensive options. It is not likely that you will reduce your tuition. So what things can you add that increase the value and attractiveness of your institution? As stated earlier, these are not always expensive to implement. Identify and implement some 'value-added' things that your competitors are not offering, then make sure these are included in your advertising and recruiting strategies. Competitive Analysis should be done on a regular basis...at minimum annually to collect any changes in programming and costs. You will also want to add or delete competitors as your market changes. Remember, don't assume just because there is a new school in town that they are competing. Let your market tell you who else they are considering and work from that.

Help is Available! IES has a variety of staff and partners who are experienced enrollment professionals who are available for consultations as well as presentations. Contact us today for more details!

Sean Leffingwell has been employed in higher education for eight years specializing primarily in Admissions and Recruiting. He has extensive experience in sales management, staff selection and training as well as enrollment management and strategic enrollment management development. Sean has been employed with short-term career schools and non-profit master-level universities. Sean holds a Masters degree in Student Personnel Services. He is currently transitioning positions and will serve as the Director of Admissions for a nationally known, multi-campus institution.