ABSTRACT
The Nigerian university educational system was
liberalised in 1999 and this led to the establishment of private universities.
To promote their different programmes and competitively position themselves,
each employed varied marketing communication tools and strategies. Little is
known about the use of marketing communication mix by universities. The study assessed
the performance of marketing communication strategies used by private
universities in South-West, Nigeria.
The study adopted survey research design. The
population consisted of 22 private universities in South-West, Nigeria and
20,276 undergraduates in the same universities. Stratified sampling technique
was used to select six universities. Multi-stage sampling technique was used
for the rest of the selection process. Simple random sampling was used to
select faculties/schools. All the departments in the selected faculties/schools
were used for the study. Simple random sampling was used to select a sample
size of 753 students from the universities, which was proportionally
distributed across the six universities. Interview guide was used to draw responses
from the marketing communication officers of the selected universities.
Avalidated questionnaire was used to collect data from the students. Cronbach’s
Alpha co-efficient values of the constructs ranged from 0.796to 0.811. The
response rate was 100%. Data from the questionnaire were analyzed using
inferential statistics. Interview responses were analyzed and presented
thematically.
Findings revealed that marketing communication
elements significantly influenced customers’ choice of all the private universities
studied: Babcock (Adj. R2 =0..410, F(1,258)=180.833,
p<0.05), Afe Babalola (Adj. R2 =0..550, F(1,221)=272.396,
p<0.05) Lead City (Adj. R2 =0..40, F(1,128)=6.367,
p<0.05) Adeleke (Adj. R2 =0..059, F(1,48)=4.056,
p<0.05) Elizade (Adj. R2 =0..016, F(1,22)=0.647,
p<0.05) Caleb (Adj. R2 =0..0.009, F(1,54)=1.504
p<0.05). The findings also indicated that Afe Babalola University, Adeleke
University and Lead City University were the only private universities that
competitively compared the value and satisfaction of their customers.
The study concluded that improvement in
strategically combining marketing communication elements of these private
universities would lead to more chances of choosing the universities by
students and parents. It was recommended
that private universities should strategically mix their marketing
communication tools to effectively communicate the uniqueness of their value
and adequately deliver such value to meet the expectation of the target
customers.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background
to the Study
University education is essential for economic
and social development. In most countries in the world, it has the
responsibility for equipping its products with knowledge and skills required
for positions in government, business, industry and professions. Perhaps this
is the reason the university prides itself as
the highest citadel of learning in the production of high-level human resource
for the labour market (Omoike & Aluede, 2007) Among others, the university
is expected to produce new knowledge through research, adopt and disseminate
the knowledge in order to facilitate new cultural values, support government, enhance business, industry and the
professions with advice and consulting services. Thus, staff (academic and
non-academic) students and graduates (products of the ivory towers) are seen to
typically hold a privileged status as originators and keepers of knowledge by
the society (Srivastava, Narayanan, Singh, Gendy & Arun, 2012). This pride
has made candidates of tertiary institutions tend towards university education
at the expense of other tertiary institutions.
Other factors that seem to propel candidates to
prefer the university to other tertiary institutions are the course of study or
programmes run by the university, the duration in running such programmes, the
societal status accrued to such students. The fact that some of these courses
are only offered in the university, coupled with the announcement made by the
federal government that polytechnics would now be campuses of proximate
universities and would no longer award Higher National Diploma, has increased
the propensity of would-be candidates for university education. These factors
have accounted for the annual increase in the enrolment
figures of students into universities in Nigeria.
Consequently,
government decided to grant licensing to private universities in order to
accommodate the large number of candidates seeking admission placements into
universities. This is because it seems difficult, if not impossible, for
governments of the countries that are considered to be developed, to provide
tertiary education singlehandedly for these candidates; hence the call for
private involvement in providing the much needed infrastructure in the tertiary
education sector (De Vaus, 2002; Zikmund, 2000).
The year
1999 marked the birth of private universities in Nigeria with the licensing of
Babcock University, Ilisan Remo; Igbinedon University, Okada; and Madonna University,
Okija (Akpotu & Akpochafor, 2009). Since then, there has been gradual
increase in the growth of private universities at an average of four (4) every
year (Sherif, 2016). This rise in the number of private universities has intensified
competition between private and public universities, on one hand, and among the
private universities, on the other hand, thereby precipitating fertile grounds
for marketing strategies for the universities to thrive.
Marketing any product, most especially universities, relies
heavily on communication, whether directly or indirectly, by
bringing the product offering to the
awareness of potential customers or creating a
brand image for the product, in the market place. Communication is,
therefore, described as a process of transferring information between a sender
and a receiver(s) through understood symbols, words, expressions or and body
language (Ogili, 2005). As a result, Jefkins (1989) explains that marketing
communication must include every form of communications. Since marketing
communication represents the totality of the elements in a brand’s marketing
mix to facilitate exchanges of shared meanings with the brand’s stakeholders,
private universities employ every element of the marketing mix to constantly
and consistently communicate with their customers, starting from programmes
offered to the physical evidence of their facilities (Masterman
& Wood, 2005).
Consequently, some private universities start the communication with
the value and philosophies of the institutions. The private individuals,
religious groups and corporate owners of universities in Nigeria, in addition
to educating Nigerians, also transmit their values and philosophies to their
students. In some cases, these philosophies may be religious, moral and social.
For instance, Babcock University gives as part of its core commitments the
initiative of impacting society for positive change by developing the
intellectual, physical, social - the etiquette necessary for each occasion,
values and integrity - as well as spiritual potential of their students in
order to be the solution needed in our society. These core values which are
ordinarily the basis for establishment of university seem scarce to come by
nowadays. Now, it is no longer surprising to see students, especially
undergraduates, dressed in shirts casually thrown on trousers with slippers to
the classrooms. The respect that
should be accorded to the staff is gradually fading away. In other words, private universities do not
just impart academic knowledge, they also inculcate societal values into the
students, thereby preparing them to be the future leaders of the nation thereby
fulfilling the responsibility placed on the university to build students in
character and learning.
Today,
with the continuous state of flux in educational businesses, it is not
surprising to find universities with nearly the same philosophies or concepts
with the same services, thus decreasing the market share and increasing the
stakes of survival (Ojo & Afolabi, 2015). To meet up and fit into such a
competitive ground, private universities constantly develop and improve their
strategies in order to capture a greater share of the market or to create a
competitive advantage for themselves. For instance, two universities may offer
the same course of study like mass communication with three specialisations at
the same price in the same location. One university may decide to add branding,
sales promotions, event management to the third specialisation area which may
not be in the other university’s curriculum, for
the same course. Doing this by the first university amounts to meeting the
needs of its customers as well as literally fighting its competitors. The
action of the institution actually shows that it is able to respond to the
demand expectations of the customers which may invariably increase its market
share.
Meanwhile, customers differ in the benefits
they seek from the educational services offered to them while considering the universities to attend. Among the factors considered
is the planning as well as getting all the achievement for their children’s
future and the total cost of the education (Dahari & Ya, 2011). This
includes good and well-resourced academic staff, infrastructural facilities
like; conducive and well equipped libraries and laboratories, accommodation,
functional and modern classrooms, security of environment, and stable academic
calendar, among others.
Some customers
favourably consider private institutions
that are faith-based because of morals, values, religion and character
development, and can even withdraw from the schools, when they think such
schools are no longer in line with their own beliefs (Sebba, 1991; Van Pelt,
Allison & Allison, 2007). The income level of customers also plays a vital role in the selection of institution as well as the parents’ level of education. Other customers
are particular about prestige and status (Rehman, Khan, Triq,
& Tasleem, 2010), size of the school, fees, accessibility of the university and security. The image and
status of the university, distinction of its scholastic programmes, future
graduates’ job prospects and entry flexibility and institutions’ physical
environment are other
reasons that determine customers’ choice of
university. To this end, the relevant question in this research is: do these
factors actually inform the planning and implementation of the marketing
communication strategies of universities?
Though customers may recognise their educational
needs, they do not just decide. In other words, decision-making about the
choice of institution to attend is a process. It starts with the input and
agreement of one or more members of the family in making choices, judgments,
and ultimately the conclusions that guide behaviours about university education
(Scanzoni & Polonko 1980). Customers could be seen to play five different
roles: initiator, influencer, decider, purchaser and user. This means that one person initiates and the
other person influences, finally one person among the family decides and
purchases. In some other cases, one person plays
all the roles. It then means that students may initiate the idea about the
choice of universities to attend, influence the parents or the guardian, take
decision but may not be the one to pay the tuition fees even though there are
other costs to be paid and will definitely be the user. Sometimes, the students play all the five
roles in that case; such students may be mature and belong to a working class
but still wish to be formally educated. There are also times where the parents
initiate the idea of going to university, influence the students’ direction of
thought, decide which school to attend and pay for the programme while the
students will be the ones to attend the class.
Hence, the question is: who exactly are private universities actually
targeting in their marketing communication strategies?
Oftentimes,
private universities concentrate completely on the information that they want
to convey. But the customers may comprehend the whole message or a part of the message; or miss the point entirely – even though the
information is relayed precisely by every standard. This actually shows that it
is not enough to merely deliver a message. The message must be received by the
intended receiver, interpreted
as conceived by the sender; message is remembered over a reasonably extended
period of time by the receiver in order for the
feedback of a well received and successful communication from the customers to
meet the set objectives of the private universities. The challenge is to ensure
that expressive communicative activity
is clear, consistent and coherent, while also enabling and facilitating impressive communicative activity that
aids judgement and decision-making about the choice of institutions (Varey.
2002).
Again,
marketing communications by these universities help to build profitable
relationships between them and their customers about the services offered. The
concept relies on delivering the marketing message to all the stakeholders that
have some form of contact with the organisation with the communication
objectives of informing, persuading, reminding, influencing and encouraging
action from such stakeholders. In order to ensure that such communications achieve
desired effect, all the marketing messages issued by these universities are
expected to be coordinated and consistent, ranging from their programmes,
physical evidences, processes and prices, which enable the promise offered to
the stakeholders to marketing communication tools that are used to make the
promise and the people who deliver the promise.
As a result, communicating with and
convincing customers to buy services is more challenging than selling
manufacturing products because education services is both tangible and
intangible though the intangibility feature is more than the tangibility (Kola &
Akinyele, 2010). Education is service oriented which can only be experienced by
the customers that have paid for it. It is perishable and
cannot be stored like physical product which makes the claiming of ownership by
the customers unattainable. Hence, the derived value from a service is time
bound and customers need to participate by writing notes in class, doing
assignments, writing examinations in order to achieve their aim. This
indeed makes education service to be intangible while the use of textbooks,
notebooks and other tools for practical speak of its tangibility (Lovelock
& Wright, 2002).
Therefore, with the specificity and
peculiarity of the universities’ service product in mind, the study assesses
the performance of the marketing communication strategies of some selected
private universities in creating awareness about what they offer, persuading
students to select them, influencing the perception of pride in the brand among
the students and their sponsors.
1.2 Statement of the
Problem
Branding
tertiary education in Nigeria is an important, but yet an understudied area.
Yet studies have indicated that there is an increasing competition among
universities and there is need for improving the marketing processes in order
to achieve better communication between universities and their interest groups
(Chapleo, 2010; Ivy, 2008; Saginova, & Belyansky, 2008)). Also, other scholars have written about how
various types of communication strategies in marketing: advertising, public
relations, personal selling, and other promotional tools could be implemented
and evaluated by universities (Dekimpe & Hassens, 1995). Thus,
confirming that many
colleges and universities use marketing strategies to engage their target
customers as it has become absolutely necessary because
of the level of competition in the tertiary educational sector. However, to the best of the researcher’s
knowledge, no research study has been done in the area of evaluating the
performance of the marketing communication strategies employed by private
universities in which the seven marketing mix is used to engage the target
customers. The elements of the seven marketing mix are:
programme, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence.
The
seven marketing mix was developed by Kotler (2008), specifically for
educational service marketing. This marketing communication mix, when applied
strategically, could have influence on the perception of the target audience
since people establish common meaning, understanding and relationships through
consistent, coherent and congruent communication. Affirming this, Harper (1977) states “it is not a question of
deciding to do it or not to do it, but rather, it's a question of deciding how to do it and how to be effective”
p. 25. However, Kotler explains further that too often, these
marketing communications focus on overcoming immediate awareness, image or
preference problems in the target market instead of viewing communication as
the management of the consumer buying process over time, during pre-selling,
selling, consuming and post- consuming stages. This means that marketers (in
this case, Nigerian Universities) need to assess the influence that each of
these communication strategies will have (or is having) at different stages on
the perception of their customers.
In view of this, the study examines the
marketing communication strategies employed by Nigerian universities to meet
the set objectives. It will also determine the extent the marketing communication strategies
employed by the private universities have influenced the perception of their
customers in the choice of universities and course of study. Do the
universities put into cognisance the factors considered by their target
customers in planning the marketing communications strategies? How effective
are the marketing communication strategies?
1.3 Objective of the Study
The main objective of this study is to assess
the performance of the marketing communication strategies employed by the
selected private universities (Babcock University, Afe Babalola University,
Adeleke University, Elizade University, Caleb University and Lead City
University) in South-West, Nigeria, in relation
to the choice of institutions made by the customers of the private
universities. The specific objectives are to:
- identify the marketing communication strategies used by
the selected private universities in South-West Nigeria to communicate
with their customers;
- ascertain the reasons for the adoption of the marketing
communication strategies by the selected private universities in
South-West Nigeria;
- find out the extent to which the marketing
communication strategies employed by the selected private universities
meet their set objectives;
- determine the target customers which these private
universities engage with identified marketing communication strategies;
- determine the effectiveness of the marketing
communication strategies employed by the selected private universities in
South-West Nigeria;
- verify whether the selected private universities in
South-West, Nigeria compare the value and customers’ satisfaction
delivered by their elements of marketing communication strategies with
those of their competitors;
- determine the relationship between the elements of
marketing communication strategies employed by the selected private
universities in South-West, Nigeria and brand awareness;
- find out the relationship between the elements of
marketing communication strategies employed by the selected private
universities in South-West, Nigeria and brand image;
- determine the relationship between the elements of
marketing communication strategies employed by the selected private
universities in South-West, Nigeria and perception;
- find out the relationship between the elements of
marketing communication strategies employed by the selected private
universities in South-West, Nigeria and relationship building;
- determine the relationship between the elements of
marketing communication strategies employed by the selected private
universities in South-West, Nigeria and referral and
- examine the extent to which the marketing communication strategies influence the decision of the customers in the choice of institutions
1.4 Research Questions
The
study aimed to answer the following research questions, which were derived from
the objectives:
- What
are the marketing communication strategies employed by the selected
private universities in South-West, Nigeria, to communicate with their
customers?
- Why
do the selected private universities in South-West, Nigeria, employ the
identified marketing communication strategies to communicate with their
target customers?
- To
what extent do the marketing communication strategies employed by the
private universities in South-West Nigeria meet their set objectives?
- Who
are the target customers which the selected private universities engage with
the identified marketing communication strategies?
- What
is the effectiveness of the marketing communication strategies employed by
selected private universities in South-West Nigeria?
- How
do the selected private universities in South-West Nigeria compare the
value and customers’ satisfaction delivered by their elements of marketing
communication strategies with those of their competitors?
1.5 Hypotheses
The following null
hypotheses were tested at =0.05 level of significance.
Ho1: There
is no significant relationship between all the seven elements of MCS
employed by selected private universities in South – West, Nigeria and
brand awareness
Ho2: There
is no significant relationship between all the seven elements of MCS employed
by selected private universities in South – West, Nigeria and brand image
Ho3: There is no significant
relationship between all the seven elements of MCS employed by selected private
universities in South – West, Nigeria and perception
Ho4: There is no significant
relationship between all the seven elements of MCS employed by selected private
universities in South – West, Nigeria and relationship building
Ho5:
There is no significant
relationship between all the seven elements of MCS employed by selected private
universities in South – West, Nigeria and referral
Ho6:
MCS used by Babcock University
do not significantly influence the decision of customers in the choice of
institution
Ho7:
MCS used by Afe Babalola
University do not significantly influence the decision of customers in the
choice of institution
Ho8:
MCS used by Adeleke University
do not significantly influence the decision of customers in the choice of
institution
Ho9:
MCS used by Elizade University
do not significantly influence the decision of customers in the choice of
institution
Ho10
: MCS used by Caleb University do
not significantly influence the decision of customers in the choice of
institution:
Ho11:
MCS used by Lead City University
do not significantly influence the decision of customers in the choice of
institution
1.6 Significance of the Study
The significance of the study is to assess the
performance of the marketing communication strategies employed by the selected
private universities in Nigeria. The study identifies the influence of
marketing communication strategies on existing students' choice of private
universities. Private universities now use some or all the seven elements of
marketing mix to engage their customers, which means they have moved beyond
relying only on the communications tools such as Advertising, sales promotion,
public relations, personal selling, or even direct marketing, to also include
physical environment of the university, process of administration, people in the
university and their behaviour to communicate with their customers. It is the
strategic combination of these tools that makes marketing communication an
enhanced method of engaging customers and other stakeholders.
This research would be significant to private
universities in many ways. It would assist them on how to send impactful
messages to their valued customers. Marketing communication personnel can use
this material to plan marketing communication strategies that are
market-oriented by identifying, as well as translating, the needs of the
customers for possible offering of solutions. This would minimise the incurred
expenses in implementing the marketing communication strategies. The findings
of the study would inform the private universities on how to implement
marketing communication tools to create and sustain long-term relationship with
their customers. The study would be beneficial in ascertaining the most
operative strategies intended to draw more numbers of candidates to study in
the private universities.
The
research gives education marketing communication agencies an indication of the
effectiveness of each of the elements of the marketing communication strategies
employed by the private universities. The study would therefore help education marketing
communication agencies to achieve better out comes from the marketing
communication campaigns of their clients. This, in turn, would enable the
agencies to help institutions to use their limited funds more efficiently to
attract students who conform to the desired student profile of the clients
(institutions) as the present global economic down-turn is affecting many
organisations, and has made them look inward and find areas of minimizing cost
of production.
Tertiary
institutions could use the results of the research to plan their marketing
communication strategies more effectively. As the study identifies factors that
influence the student's decision-making process; students would also benefit
from the study, because marketing communication strategies can then be directed
at specific target groups. The marketing communication messages would be
student-centered. This would enhance students to make more informed decisions
about the tertiary institutions they wish to attend; the field of study they wish
to pursue, the curriculum and duration of study as the use of marketing
communication strategies would avail customers with clear, credible and
consistent messages. In cases where the parents act as the influencers in the
decision-making process of selecting the choice of institutions for their
children, the credible coherent and consistent messages received from the
universities will enable them to direct their children accordingly.
This research would also be of immense
importance to the academic sector, especially scholars in the field of
marketing, and marketing communication in particular, who want to know the
effect that a better coordinated marketing communication strategies would have
on private universities’ marketing objectives, their customers’ patronage,
sales growth and market share.
The
research would be beneficial to government, both Federal and state, whose
universities could learn how to embrace marketing communication strategies to
engage the customers. Also, the study would serve as template to the National
University Commission in regulating the marketing communication strategies
employed by universities in Nigeria since the regulatory body is established to
nurture and water the growth of universities in Nigeria and not just to issue licences.
1.7 Scope of the Study
The study focused on the marketing
communication strategies used by private universities in South-West Nigeria, in
recruiting their students from 2013/2014 session to 2016/2017 session. Thus,
this study covered all marketing communication strategies that have been
deployed by private universities in South-West, Nigeria, between October, 2013
and August, 2016. It was limited to the undergraduates and parents/guardians of
the selected private universities in South-West, Nigeria. Secondly, the study
covered only private universities in South-West, Nigeria that were established
on or before December, 2012.
1.8 Operationalisation of variables
Y = Dependent Variables
Y1 = Performance Indicators
Y2 = Choice of institutions
X = Independent Variables
X = Marketing communication strategies
Y = Y1 Y2
y1= Brand awareness
y2= brand image
y3= perception
y4= relationship building
y5= referral
1.9 Operational Definition of Terms
Customers: This
term is used in this study to refer to male and female students of a minimum
age of 16 years as well as parents, guardians and other sponsors of the
students in the selected private universities in South-West Nigeria; they are
the existing students of selected private universities and their parents, guardians
and sponsors.
Existing
students: are referred to as the regular full time week
day programme undergraduates whose names are reflected in the university data
base as current registered students of the private universities.
Private
University: for the purpose of this study, private
university is referred to as a place of higher learning that is established by
an individual, a group(s) of individuals or religious organisations (Islam and
Christianity most especially). .
Marketing
communication strategies: This term refers to the
blend of seven elements of the marketing mix used by the selected private
universities in order to engage their customers.
Effectiveness: is
operationalised as the degree to which the objectives set by the selected private
universities are achieved.
Performance: is
defined in this study as outcome of the marketing communication strategies used
by the selected private universities. It is a performance when any of these
occur: brand awareness, referral, brand image, and perception.
Brand
awareness: in this study, brand awareness is measured by
recall and recognition indicators. The recall indicator is the ability to
mention the names of ten private universities that the respondents have in mind
without any aids while the respondents will be asked to identify the logo of
the ten private universities that would be made available to them.
Brand
Image: Brand Image will be measured by features that
customers are able to associate with the private universities.
Referral:
This is defined as recommendations of other
existing customers to prospective customers.
Perception:
This is measured by the level of satisfaction
of the customers with the service of the private universities.
South-West: refers
to states that are located in a particular geo-political zone of Nigeria.
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