The competitor set you are not tracking

Ask an institution who it competes with for Vietnamese students and the answer is usually a list of similar institutions in the same country. Ask a Vietnamese family the same question and the list looks nothing like it.

What a family's shortlist actually contains

Frequently a mix across destinations chosen on cost, distance and perceived outcome rather than on institutional type. A regional option with published fees and a short flight sits on the same list as a Western institution twice the price — and it is that comparison, not the peer comparison, that decides.

Why the mismatch is expensive

• You position against arguments your actual competitors are not making.
• You concede on price without knowing what the family is comparing against.
• You miss the objection that is actually losing the enrolment, because it concerns a destination you never considered a rival.

How to find out cheaply

Ask. Add one question to your enquiry form or interview: where else are you applying? Aggregate a season of answers and the real competitor set appears — usually with two or three names nobody on the marketing team had listed.

What to do with it

Not attack the alternatives. Answer the comparison honestly: what your institution gives that the cheaper, closer option does not, stated in terms a family values. That argument only works if you know which alternative you are answering.

Positioning against the real set: Marketing & Branding →