Harnessing the Power of Differentiation

Gone are the days when attracting quality students for admissions used to be a cake walk. Nowadays, the admission process particularly for business schools has become a herculean task as it incurs lot of challenges even for prestigious ones. Nevertheless, there are multiple factors likely to impact thought process of prospective candidates while choosing appropriate B-schools like placement track, infrastructure, and quality of faculty, accreditation, ranking, etc. This chapter reviews marketing drives adopted by business schools as an attempt to stand out and differentiate them in a crowded and volatile market and attract students worldwide. The chapter also deals with range of marketing initiatives undertaken by B schools in recent times to attract potential students. Considering the relevance of adapting to the changing market forces, the purpose of this chapter is to analyze innovative strategies adopted by business school in the Indian context. Methodology adopted in the paper is conceptual and analytical. Suggestions are proposed at the end of chapter.