A co-educational day and boarding school educating 670 students in Hampshire, Lord Wandsworth College has increased its numbers steadily over the last few years. This meant that they were already in a strong position to face the challenges of the future. However, Director of Marketing Pete German wanted to have a deeper understanding of where they sat within their market, and a 3-60 market analysis is the ideal tool to achieve this.
15%
growth identified in potential missed catchment areas
The project
To inform the school’s strategy for the future, Pete wanted insight and analysis on the markets currently served by the College and how they will change up to 2031. MTM was commissioned to undertake a 3-60 analysis to understand the current families, catchment area and pockets of untapped potential. We then looked at the change in markets to 2031, combined with competitor rolls since 2013.
The project included:
Understanding the locations and travel times of current families
Understanding the lifestyles of current families
Defining realistic catchment areas
Detailing the market size for target age children within the catchments in the relevant age groups
Estimating the market size of target children within each neighbourhood (c130 households) and postcode sector (c2000 households) within each market
Projecting the population change of each target market, within each catchment to 2031
Analysing the roll trends of competitors
Detailing educational and residential construction plans
Mapping current bus route provisions and suggesting amendments
Results
As a result of this analysis, we were able to demonstrate that while Lord Wandsworth College had an excellent market share within much of the catchment area, they were missing certain key areas where the market is projected to grow by between 13.1 and 15.4% to 2031.
We were also able to supply details of many planned residential developments, along with a number of school projects within their catchment area, potentially increasing competition and feeder opportunities.
Three extra bus routes were also highlighted to access potential markets on which the school may have missed out.
Next steps for Lord Wandsworth College
The information that our research provided the marketing team at Lord Wandsworth College has been used to inform the marketing strategy moving forward. Understanding that a market contraction is on the horizon means that the team will be able to take steps to ensure they concentrate their efforts in the right areas to maximise the growth opportunities that have been identified in this project, including new housing developments and ensuring adequate access to these markets through new bus routes.
MTM’s unique insight and analysis demonstrated that, whilst we have outperformed the market over the last decade, the contraction of the market for ages 11-12 means that increasing our market share will be important in the next few years. They were able to highlight realistic geographic areas for growth, which is hugely helpful when planning our strategy moving forwards
Pete German - Lord Wandsworth College