Samenvatting

Study-Globe is a young International travel agency situated in the city of Breda, the Netherlands. The company works closely with school institutions abroad and is therefore able to offer different study and language programmes in more than 39 countries and 100 cities worldwide.
The theme of internationalization is an important part of the higher education system in the Netherlands. As this theme is also becoming an important element of the Dutch MBO ( Senior secondary vocational education) school curriculum (epnuffic, 2016), the company wants to start attracting more MBO pupils in Breda and surrounding area’s (Province of Noord-Brabant) and act as a liaison between them and their partner school institutions abroad.
Therefore, the central research question is formulated as followed: ‘’How can Study-Globe increase the number of Dutch MBO pupils in their portfolio?’’
The aim of this paper is to:
- gain insight into which MBO pupils are suitable for Study-Globe.
- analyze in which sectors and trainings the pupils are interested.
- analyze which marketing communication strategy is necessary to attract MBO pupils.
In order to answer the central question, desk research was conducted. Internal database documents, books, journals, articles, letters of parliaments and reports have been used. This research report consist of different marketing models like; The Canvas model, Abell and Hammond model, the DESTEP-model and the Five Forces of Porter. Furthermore, field research was conducted in a form of a survey distributed among 104 MBO pupils in Breda and surrounding areas (Noord-Brabant).
This research showed that the most suitable MBO customer groups for Study-Globe’s portfolio are pupils in the age category of 16-25 years old with an MBO level 3 or 4 diploma. A large number of these pupils are international orientated, speak the English language and have shown interest in studying abroad. These pupils want an educational travel agency that can cater to their needs by providing them with good and useful information, personal involvement and many European school offerings for affordable prices. The majority of these pupils showed interest in the following three sectors: Economy, Engineering and Health & Welfare. In terms of communications, a large majority would like to receive information via email, during various international fairs and information sessions at their school institutions. This reports makes clear that all traditional and non-traditional marketing communication tools should be used effectively in order to reach their objectives.