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Paper No.T1.1-5
THE NEED FOR APPROPRIATE MARKETING MIX IMPLEMENTATION
AT SERBIAN UNIVERSITIES∗
Jovan Muškinja1, Mladen Radišić2, Dušan Dobromirov3, Miroslav Ferenčak4
1234
1
Faculty of Technical Sciences, Novi Sad, Republic of Serbia
2
3
4
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Abstract: In order to participate in the higher education market, universities and faculties
must make their own marketing mix that would suit the potential customers. By making their
value set and promoting it the right way, Serbian universities can rival other national and
regional universities who are entering the market with aggressive pricing strategy. By following
the examples from other countries, good innovative marketing mix can be applied.
Key Words: Higher education/marketing/value set
1. INTRODUCTION
Higher education institutions have goal to prepare young people for the labor market. When
that is taken into consideration, universities can be represented like a production line. On one
side there is unfinished product, rough around the edges-the high school graduate, and on the
other side of the production line is the trained and skilled professional who is prepared to take
on the challenges of working for the employers who need new educated work force. With this in
mind, two main stakeholders-consumers can be defined for universities to market itself to.
Future students and their parents who want to get the the combination of cheap, easy
education and diploma that is worth something. And companies that are searching for skillful
and professional young people who are ready to face the challenges of working in the market
environment.
Universities must create and market their study programs considering the two main
stakeholders. Thus, there is only one study program, and two very different sides who must buy
the same product, a different marketing approach should be applied when handling with those
two sides.
This paper explains the possible solutions of a marketing mix that universities can apply to
market their study programs, suited for both future students, their parents and the companies.
The subject of creating the study program suited for the market but also attractive for the future
students is also explained.
2. DESCRIPTION OF STAKEHOLDERS
Universities (particularly state universities) have many stakeholders. Some of them are
complementary to each other and some of them are in conflict. Weaver defines four main
stakeholders for universities:
1) The Government
2) University administration
3) Teachers-academics
4) Customers (the learners, their families, employers and society as whole) [1]
This conflict is not specific for higher education. For example financial institutions come to
same conflict when on the one side they have the borrowers who require the lowest interest
rates and the investors who search for the highest. And in some cases that the borrower and
the investor can be same person or entity. Robinson and Long distinguish between primary,
∗
The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological
Development of the Republic of Serbia, within the Project No 47005.
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secondary and tertiary customers. They see primary customers as being the students,
secondary customers as the paymasters, i.e. local education authorities, employers, etc. and
tertiary customers as validating bodies, ex-students, employers, parents, etc. [2] The very
vocational nature of this sector of higher education produces a more specific difficulty, however
students can be either considered as customers (with courses as the higher education
products) or as products with the employers being the customers. Whichever is chosen will
have important implications for the correct identification of institutions’ customers, i.e. students
or potential employers, and, thus, the strategic planning process. [3] Every stakeholder in higher
education has a particular view of quality, dependent on their specific needs consequently
higher education institutions have to fulfil multiple needs.[4]
The specificity of higher education is that most students (undergraduates) are one time
consumers, as opposed to the business sector where repeat purchases take place often. This
results in differences in consumer behavior in the two sectors and possible different marketing
strategies to address consumers in the two sectors.[4] But, universities have one product that
has to be marketed very differently towards different customers.
3. MEANS OF COMMUNICATION TOWARDS CUSTOMERS
First, to market something, universities or faculties need to define value set to market. In
spite of the similarity of products in higher education, there are suggested key factors to be
used by universities to occupy positions of distinctiveness: teaching led vs. research-led;
science-based vs.arts based; basic teaching vs. higher level teaching. But even those factors
cannot ensure totally differentiated positions of universities (especially where the national higher
education sectors have numerous universities).[5] Therefore, we can state that there are
limitations in using the positioning concept in the real sense (differentiation) in the higher
education sector. Shattock noted „most universities are actually doing (or they say are) very like
most other universities … in branding they play with some mix of „excellence”, „quality”,
„achievement” – none remotely unique”. [6] This is entirely true for Serbian market of higher
education. None of faculties or universities are differencing themselves from each other.
Considering this, defining a value set is very important, and the whole marketing mix will be
focused around it. Undergraduate student always wants to know what and where can he work
with knowledge and diploma that he acquires on the university. On the other hand, the
companies who are searching for new employees want to know if the graduate has enough of
specific knowledge needed for business. And neither side gets this information from the
marketing campaign stating that university/faculty is the biggest, with most students, with nice
buildings and similar. Those type of marketing campaigns are only good for short term influence
on undecided undergraduates and for improving the admission rates.
When we look at the long term marketing strategy and means of communication, it is very
important to maintain the good reputation of university-faculty. The reputation is usually built over
time, and unlike brand it can't be constructed over night. And the value set should be focused
around the reputation, if the reputation is on the satisfactory level. The value set should contain
success stories of graduate students, who were able to use the knowledge they gained during the
studies, and become successful in their respective line of business. Those stories are both
interesting for undergraduate students and for companies seeking new employees. But to use them,
a success rate system must be implemented. What counts as a success story must be defined.
After defining the value set, the usual marketing mix activities or the 4P (product, price,
distribution and promotion) can be applied. Not in the same manner as it would be applied in the
commercial company, but with the same premise and same meaning, but modified to suit the
needs of higher education institutions.
1) The product-study program must be opened to frequent changes. As the market changes,
so does the market needs for specific trained professionals. University must follow this constant
trend of changes and implement it into its primary product, the study program. By doing this, its
also implementing those changes to its most important product, the graduate, trained
professional, who will not be behind the market and its needs the moment he finishes university
studies. Inputs for making better study program can be gained from student internships. By
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experiencing first hand the conditions and nuances of the workplace, interns acquire a realistic
perspective of employer expectations and, thus gain knowledge about the habits, skills and
attitudes needed, valued, and rewarded.[7] The input from alumni students who are now
employed in their professional field is also very important, and useful in creating and correcting
study programs.
2) Price is a important part of higher education marketing mix, but not the part of the mix
that is easily changeable, considering the specifics of higher education. Higher education has
always been in some way state financed. But this has changed in the past 20 years, first in
USA, then in the UK[4], and we think that we can expect these changes in Serbia soon. Many
universities have gone from total government financing to partial and even minimum. This opens
the market race for every university, state and private. Considering that there is an increasing
number of private universities, state owned universities must shift the focus from price to their
specific value set based on their reputation. By doing so, they can compete with private
universities who are taking the aggressive pricing approach.
3) Distribution policy is rather not considered, as having too little applicability to the higher
education sector.
4) Promotion is the second most important part of marketing mix, as it was explained
before. Value set must be created, and together with reputation of the university-faculty, these
two components must be the center of promotion. Subsequent efforts to ensure good student
experience through valuable teaching experience and good support services and to prepare
students for their profession (as main requirements of students from higher education) are to be
done to ensure correspondence between reality and the communicated image and to maintain
promotion policy within the marketing philosophy that concentrates on the consumer.[4] Long
term communication should be established with companies that employed the graduates in the
past, thus making a valuable two way communication. Promoting the success stories will affect
both the undergraduates and the possible employers, who are former defined as two main
customers of higher education.
4. FUTURE TRENDS
In USA as compared to Europe marketing concepts in higher education have been
assimilated to a higher extent, as USA has gone through the clash of cultures between the
traditional academic values and the market-focused values 10 years earlier [5]. Even in Europe
there are differences, with UK being seen among the earliest in Europe to introduce more
market-like approaches to higher education [8]. But in many countries marketing related
activities are at initial stages in higher education, communication being usually the first step to
introduce a marketing orientation in the institution. Market race for the customers in higher
education in Serbia started slow, but with increasing number of private owned universities, there
are more and more offers on the market every year but the consumer number in not increasing
in the same rapid way.
5. CONCLUSION
As explained in the paper, the need for successful and innovative marketing mix for
promoting the higher education to its consumers exist. As the two consumer sides are very
different, there are parts of marketing mix aimed at one or at the other side. But the core of
marketing mix, a value set should be interesting for both sides, as explained. To build a good
value set, a success rate must be established and defined.
With established value set, the traditional marketing mix can be applied for higher education,
although with some changes. The need for this is explained, as the higher education industry
has entered the free market race in Serbia, and rules of market apply, as they apply to any
other industry. Universities must not sit idle and promote themselves as being the best, biggest
and etc. They should present their successful products (graduated students, who are now
trained professionals employed in their study field), to all the potential consumers, and that will
result in the best marketing possible in the field of higher education.
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6. REFERENCES
[1] Weaver, T., “What is the good of Higher Education?”, inHigher Education Review, Vol. 8 No. 3, 1976.
[2] Robinson, A. and Long, G., “Marketing Further Education: Products or People?”, NATFHE Journal,
March 1987.
[3] Tony Conway, Stephen Mackay, David Yorke,"Strategic Planning in Higher Education: Who Are the
Customers", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 8 Iss: 6, 1994.
[4] Luminiţa Nicolescu, Applying Marketing To Higher Education: Scope And Limits, Management &
Marketing Vol. 4, No. 2, 2009.
[5] Chapleo, C. ,Interpretation and Implementation of Reputation/Brand Management by UK University
Leaders, International Journal of Educational Advancement, 5, no. 1, 2004
[6] Temple, P., Shattock, M., What does „Branding” mean in higher education? In Stensaker B. and
D’Andrea V. (eds.) Branding in Higher Education. Exploring an Emerging Phenomenon, EAIR Series
Research, Policy and Practice in Higher Education,2007.
[7] Radišić M. Et all, Student internship model development for financial institutions in the Republic of
Serbia, Conference XVII Skup TRENDOVI RAZVOJA: “ EVROPA 2020: društvo zasnovano na
znanju”, Kopaonik 2011.
[8] D’Andrea V. (eds.) Branding in Higher Education. Exploring an Emerging Phenomenon, EAIR Series
Research, Policy and Practice in Higher Education, 2007.
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