Case studies
The Project
Strategic challenge
In a highly competitive executive education market, the Business School wanted to expand its portfolio with a new senior leadership programme that would be distinctive, commercially credible and aligned with the School’s academic strengths, market position and location.
The School needed to understand where there was genuine market opportunity, how its offer could stand apart from competitor programmes, and what kind of proposition would appeal to senior leaders and sponsoring organisations.
Outcomes
H&A’s work enabled the School to identify a clear gap in the senior leadership programme market and develop the foundations for a differentiated new executive education offer.
Together, five members of the H&A team worked with faculty and professional staff from the School’s executive education and marketing teams to clarify the target audience, sharpen the programme’s value proposition, and define the core attributes of a new Senior Executive Programme. The work also generated practical recommendations for how the programme could be positioned and marketed to employers and senior leadership audiences.
As a result, the School has a stronger evidence base, a clearer product concept and a more confident route towards launch.
H&A’s contribution
H&A brought together sector insight, competitor analysis, employer market testing and structured product development to support the School’s decision-making.
The work included a comprehensive review of the competitor landscape for senior leadership programmes, identifying both market saturation and areas of opportunity. H&A then worked collaboratively with the executive education and marketing teams through facilitated workshops, using an H&A product development framework to test and refine the emerging proposition.
Qualitative market testing with employers provided direct insight into client expectations, buying criteria and perceived value. This evidence was fed into the second workshop, enabling the team to make informed decisions about the programme’s audience, positioning, content and design.
H&A also made recommendations for the marketing approach to support the programme’s launch, ensuring that the proposition was grounded both in market intelligence and in the distinctive strengths of the Business School and its location.
Feedback
“Hardcastle and Associates' deep insight into the executive education market, combined with expertly facilitated workshops, brought real energy and structure to a complex project. The team kept us focused while creating space for ambitious and creative thinking, and their collaborative approach helped us move forward with clear direction. The team were a pleasure to work with throughout and played a key role in shaping our thinking and development of our senior executive programme.”
Business School Marketing Manager