Marketing

In the previous post we considered two products:

a. GCSEs
b. The IB Diploma

It's possible that the IB Diploma is not as widely respected as you may think - but, leaving that aside, there's also the possibility of offering A levels.

There is a lot of information about A levels here.

In 2009 A-level pass rate rose for the 27th year in a row to 97.5 per cent - up 0.3 per cent on last year. Of these, 26.7% gained A grades. more than one in four exam entries, 26.7 per cent, was awarded an A grade - up from 25.9 per cent last year.

250,000 students took A levels in 2009. That's a HUGE market that Bolitho has chosen to ignore. If it's worried about its reputation then it could just avoid the soft A levels...

So this looks like a 'missing product' that Bolitho is just not 'stocking'

Marketing - the product

Firstly we'll consider the products.

Two main products:

a. GCSEs
b. The IBO Diploma

GCSEs on offer:

According to a post by Alisa,

Subjects offered at GCSE are as follows:

• English language (compulsory)
• English Literature (compulsory)
• Maths (compulsory)
• Chemistry (compulsory)
• Physics (compulsory)
• Biology (compulsory)
• ICT (compulsory)
• Religious Studies (compulsory)
• French
• Spanish
• German
• Art
• Design Technology
• Music
• Geography
• Psychology
• Physical Education
• History

NB; other subjects that are made compulsory, though are not GCSE subjects, are PSHE, Theory of Knowledge, and sports.

There's a lot of information about GCSEs here... and here...

Let's look at the list again...

9% of the GCSEs taken in June 2009 (in the UK) were Science. Individually, Biology was 1.8%; Chemistry 1.5% and Physics 1.7%.

Nationally, popular subjects - but 1.5% nationally took Business Studies - not on offer at the school. 1.7% took Drama - also not on offer. 1.2% took Media/Film Studies.

Could these be subjects missed?
Could these be products for which there is a demand but Bolitho does not offer them?

The second major product is the IB Diploma. Bolitho pay £5480 a year to even offer the IB (that's £5480 more than they'd have to pay for A levels.)

According to the IB, candidates by nationality for May 2009 (Diploma) were:

• USA : 50,775
• Canada: 8,886
• UK: 4213
• Mexico : 2,586
• Netherlands : 2503
• India: 2054
• Germany: 1646
• Korea : 1321
• China : 1321
• Sweden: 1,129

Where did Bolitho go to promote their 'product'?

"The school continued to recruit new pupils from all areas of West Cornwall and full boarders from many countries overseas. The school attended recruitment fairs in Hong Kong, Germany and the Middle East. Locally the school has held open days in Hayle, St Ives and Falmouth and had a stand at the Culdrose Air Day."

(2008 Annual report)

So, if they're not specifically targetting China, Netherlands, Korea, Canada...that leaves their main method of reaching out to them, the website.