Specific of marketing communication in higher education and development of preferences of communication tools by applicants in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The general basis of marketing is the satisfaction of the needs and wishes of the customer, which is also true in higher education, where it is necessary to find, analyze and satisfy the needs of applicants, but also students, graduates and other stakeholders. To achieve this, we need a product. In the case of the Czech public university, it is represented in the form of offers of study programs, lifelong learning courses and the University of the Third Age for the elderly. It might seem that it is possible to use the same tools to raise the profile of a university, faculty or study program as with commercial service companies. However, is that really the case? Do educational services have their specifics in marketing communication? The research team tries to answer this research question by analyzing secondary data sources, i.e. based on the interpretation of various studies, statistics, etc., but mainly thanks to long-term research monitoring the implementation of marketing and communication tools in Czech commercial services (2016-2018; N = 332). To this end, the team of authors has been following long-term attitudes of applicants (already 4 years, N = 400-700 respondents each year) to the portfolio of used communication tools through which the selected university operates on applicants. The aim of this paper is to define the specifics, differences, possibilities and limits of current marketing communication in higher education as opposed to commercial services. The results can be used by university marketing staff to enrich the portfolio of communication tools and to inspire how to target the target group more effectively, what tools to employ at which stage of the decision-making process, and how best practice can be derived from commercial practice.