Insight-driven improvements to competitive positioning

The University of Kent, offering around 20,000 undergraduate placements annually, sought to understand why students accept or decline their offers. Turquoise was tasked with uncovering insights to refine the university’s brand proposition, improve its competitive positioning, and enhance the overall student experience.

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Working with Turquoise was a great experience and the insight into different comms styles also added real value to the project.

Simone Davies, Director of Future Students & Brand

Methodology

We started by conducting tele-depth interviews with key stakeholders at the University of Kent to explore various audience attitudes and inform the design of an online survey. This was followed by a comprehensive online study targeting both acceptors and decliners, aiming to discover the reasons behind their decisions and assess the university’s overall appeal.

Our approach provided a 360-degree view of the student decision-making process, covering key touchpoints like communication, website interactions, and campus experiences, with recommendations backed by actionable insights.

Outcome

The research delivered valuable insights into the university’s brand performance, from the strengths of its location and campuses to the quality of its communication and information packs. We identified key areas where Kent excelled, as well as opportunities for improvement, particularly regarding competitive positioning and the student application journey.

Based on these findings, Turquoise recommended strategies to increase applications and conversions, including leveraging the unique appeal of Kent’s teaching and student well-being initiatives.

Our unique approach

The Triple Nexus Model

Whether we are helping universities understand and predict customer behaviour, powering smarter data-driven strategy, or driving organisational change, our unique model helps deliver scientifically superior results for the whole sector.

Know

Know what individuals think, better than they know themselves. Our model uniquely unearths subconscious psychological factors that influence customer feelings and behaviours.

Validate

Our model validates deeper methodological and contextual factors behind the data, not just the data itself, which helps uncover truly relevant insight while minimising noise.

Predict

Our unique model allows organisations to accurately predict market and customer behaviour, helping to power genuinely forward-thinking strategy and decision making.

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Our work, your success

Powering breakthrough decision-making

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