Marketing of Educational Services

By Priyanka Balwa

MBA-III-B

2009-10

Education

Education in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character, or physical ability of an individual.

Education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another through institutions.

Need for Marketing Educational services

Need to “market” their services has not really been felt by the educational sector

This is because there is always Demand>Supply

But in the recent years, there is a shift in trends

Large number of institutions for specialized fields have been set up in the recent years for fields like Management and computer education

This has lead to increase in competition

This makes them come face to face with questions like

Product differentiation, Product differentiation, product extension, product extension, diversification diversification and service integrationand service integration

Education as a service

Services are those separately identifiable, essentially intangibleessentially intangible activities, which provide want satisfaction and are not necessarily tied to the sale of product another service

Education as a service can be said to be providing an intangible benefit (Increment in knowledge, aptitude, professional expertise, skill) produced with the help of a set of tangible (infrastructure), and

intangible (faculty expertise and learning ) aids

:::Points to be noted:::

A consumer may have tangible

physical evidence to show for the service exchange transaction

But the actual benefit accrued is purely intangible in nature

Education is a service which is geared primarily to the consumer market

Characteristics:- :::INTANGIBILITY:::

Education is an Intangible dominant service—Impossible to touch, see or feel

:::Standardization is difficult::: Lack of Standardization opens up

marketing opportunity of differentiated need based course packages

Education as a service cannot be patented

:::Perishability:::

Production and consumption are simultaneous activities

No inventories can be made up

Eg:- A lecture scheduled cannot be stored

:::Inseparability:::

It is impossible to separate a service from the provider

There is a need for the service provider to be present when the service is to be performed and consumed

This limits the scale of operations—The number of providers available would define the number of simultaneous performances possible

:::Other Characteristics:::

High Fixed cost, Low Variable Cost Specialized and need based Competition Customer limitations Lack of ownership Heterogeneity

Marketing Strategies

::::Before Deciding on the Marketing Mix, Educational Institutes should answer certain basic Questions::::

What Business are we in? Who are our customers and What

benefits they seek?

Criteria that students apply:- Reputation of the institute Number of applicants keen to enroll in the

course Past success rate of placement Faculty expertise Width of specialization offered Infrastructural facilities Fees

How can we build or defend our competitive position?

What is our entry strategy? How should we offer new service

offers that help/strengthen the competitive position?

:::Marketing Mix:::

HIGHEREDUCATION

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

SECONDARYEDUCATION

ELEMENTARYEDUCATION

ADULTEDUCATION

MARKETING MIX

:::Marketing Mix:::

Marketing MIX

Product Price Place ProcessPhysical Evidence

Promotion

Product

Range- Quality Level- Brand Name- Post Transactional Service-

Price

Level Discounts (Scholarships) Allowances Commissions Payment Terms Consumers percived value Quality/price relationship

Place

Location Accessibility Distribution Channels Distribution Coverage

Promotion

Advertising Personal selling Sales promotion Publicity Public relations

People

Personnel Training Commitment Incentives Attitudes Degree of involvement Customer contact

Physical evidence

Environment Furnishings Layout Noise levels Facilitating goods

Process

Polices Procedures Mechanism Employee discretion Customer involvement Flow of activities

:::Current Trends:::

The RDAS Approach— The Relating, Discovering, Advocating,

and Supporting (RDAS) Notion of concept selling is applied to the marketing

of products and services The four RDAS categories are further divided

into 12 sequential and interdependent tasks:

I. Client IdentificationII. Fact FindingIII. Planning;IV. Establishing CredibilityV. Targeted Research; VI. Focused Planning; VII. Problem Analysis and Agreement; VIII. Planning the Presentation; IX. Presenting; X. Facilitating the Decision; XI. Achieving Closure; XII. and Rediscovering.

Rationale, practical suggestions, Rationale, practical suggestions, and examples related to marketing and examples related to marketing task accomplishmenttask accomplishment are presented within the discussion under each major heading.

This RDAS schema provides a template against which practitioners may assess their current activities, and may serve as a basis for establishing a new genre of management and cost accounting systems that can be applied to marketing educational products and services.

:::Thank you:::