Área Temática: Marketing



Theme Area: Marketing

Code: Mkt

Marketing COMMUNICATION IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS: CASE STUDY: UNASP – ADVENTIST UNIVERSITY CENTER OF são Paulo

RESUMO

Analisar a comunicação de marketing e sua importância para as instituições educacionais tendo como estudo de caso o UNASP - Centro Universitário Adventista de São Paulo. Diante das mudanças no cenário do mercado educacional e com o acirramento da concorrência é preciso manter o público-alvo informado das ações de interesse realizadas pela instituição. Durante muito tempo as instituições educacionais se negavam a usar as ferramentas do marketing para a divulgação de seus programas, sua estrutura, a sua marca e outras informações que o mercado demandava. Atualmente a utilização das estratégias de marketing é fator crítico para o sucesso da instituição, com o surgimento de novos concorrentes e mudanças no perfil dos alunos, que estão cada vez mais exigentes e conscientes da qualidade também no ensino. As instituições educacionais perceberam a importância das ferramentas de marketing que buscam conhecer as necessidades e desejos de seus clientes e com isso proporcionar melhorias na qualidade dos serviços prestados pela instituição.

Palavras chave: marketing; ferramentas de marketing, comunicação integrada de marketing, instituição educacional, alunos.

Abstract

Analyze marketing communication and how important it is for educational institutions based on a case study: UNASP – Adventist University Center of São Paulo. Given the changes in the educational market scenario, besides the intensification of competition, it is necessary to keep the target audience informed about the interest actions carried out by the institution. For a long time, educational institutions denied to use marketing tools to disclose their programs, their structure, their brand and other information demanded by the market. Currently, the use of marketing strategies is a critical factor for the success of an institution, as new competitors have emerged and students’ profile has changed, who are increasingly demanding and aware of quality education as well. Educational institutions have realized how important marketing tools are in order to know the needs and desires of their customers, and therefore offer improvements in the quality of their services.

Keywords: marketing; marketing tools; integrated marketing communication; educational institution; students.

1. Introduction

The need for basic knowledge and the low speed of development in economy were enough for an individual to get a good position in the work market from the 1960s until the beginning of the 1980s. With the economic opening in the 1990s, the market demanded more qualified workforce, which demanded from both the government and the higher education private sector an expansion in order to assist such repressed demand (Revista do Ensino Superior, issue 115).[1]

Data published in 2008 by INEP – National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira – disclosed that there were 2,252 higher education institutions in Brazil; 2,016 of them were private, among which 437 were communitarian/confessional/philanthropic. Higher education institutions offer 1,809 Business Administration courses, among which 1,141 are offered by private institutions.

The productive sector realized the changes in the economic scenario, besides the repressed demand fulfilled in the 1990s, which evidences the level of intensification in higher education institutions when struggling for students, their target audience.

For at least two decades, marketing has been attracting educational institutions because it offers essential tools to deal with challenges such as how to attract students, increase satisfaction with the institution and the courses, and plan programs according to their mission, attracting former students’ and other people’s financial support and enthusiasm. Marketing study in educational institutions is critical because it aims to analyze the market composed by students, teachers, donators and opinion makers in order to know their needs and desires.

The present research intends to analyze how important marketing communication may be for educational institutions, having UNASP, one of the 437 IES, as a case study. That communication must establish dialogue and build a relationship with customers according to KOTLER’s (2006:532) point of view. In this paper, customers will be treated as the target audience, to whom IES must strengthen their brands.

Marketing definition and how it is applied to educational institutions will also be presented in this paper, showing its functioning and importance. As to communication, important elements in the process will be presented, so we are able to understand how the message gets to the customer and their reaction to it. In order to achieve success, it is necessary to know how the customer will interpret the message.

Through communication, educational institutions’ marketing discloses their services, offering an attractive syllabus to the work market, quality education, technical resources which make the learning process easier, and qualified professionals for the learning process.

1.1 Problem Situation

Through marketing, educational institutions have found out their audience’s needs and desires, offering structure improvements like architecture work in their entrances, reception rooms for students’ and prospects’ assistance, and classrooms with multimedia resources in order to strengthen the institution quality.

In order to get the audience informed about rendered services as well as what their structure offers, institutions started working with a more aggressive marketing strategy as to communication, which is the means to disclose their offers, attracting thus a greater number of people. The participation in fairs related to university entrance and professions, both in specific places and in schools which have target audience, has become IES’ object of dispute, specially since 2000, when they realized that the market has been increasingly restrict because of the assistance to the repressed demand and the increase in colleges, university centers and universities.

From the students’ point of view, has UNASP applied and disclosed marketing in an adequate way, fulfilling their needs?

1. 2. Goals

1.2.1 General Goal

Analyze how important marketing is for educational institutions based on the students’ perception of UNASP and also its improvement proposals for the institution marketing quality.

1.2.2 Specific Goals

- Describe how marketing works and how it influences the relationship between the institution and the students;

- Assess whether UNASP has fulfilled students’ needs;

- Assess how the disclosure and the means of communication are reaching UNASP’s target audience;

- Find alternatives to improve communication between students and UNASP.

1.3. Explanation

1.3.1 Social Relevance

As in every institution, marketing has proved to be an effective tool in management and planning, using resources to attract the target-market, fulfilling their needs and desires. Without the target-market, the institution would not be able to survive.

1.3.2 Scientific Relevance

This study is due to the growth in the number of competitors and the increase in the customers’ requirement level, which demand more quality and wish to acquire more knowledge. Marketing importance and benefits in educational institutions will be presented.

1.3.3 Interest

With the increase of competitors and more demanding target audiences, institutions had to search for alternatives to remain firm, proposing differentiated programs to go on in the market and be competitive.

1.3.4 Feasibility

In this research, we have searched to reach specific goals, since they have a very high feasibility for the educational institution that wishes to survive, retaining and attracting students, qualified professionals and the indication of their audience. We will use questionnaires in the research in order to obtain the analyses results.

2. Methodology

The research has been carried out with first-year students from Business Administration, Pedagogy, and Nursing courses and also last-semester students from Business Administration and Pedagogy courses at UNASP. Data were collected from questionnaires, with part of the questions formulated to express both the opinion and the perception of the answerer in Likert’s adaptation scale and the other part formulated in a closed way, but with wide possibility of answers, aiming to explore factors such as satisfaction, needs, service quality and adequate means of communication.

PIZZINATTO et. al. (2008) showed in a research how a marketing-oriented IES may fulfill their needs in a long term through efficiency and quality in their programs and services. The authors based on the Orthodontics Stricto Sensu Post Graduation Program at the Dentistry College of Piracicaba in the State University of Campinas, in São Paulo, identifying different characteristics of rendered services. The authors classified the students as consumers, even knowing that their satisfaction, despite its core importance, may be hard to be measured because they diverge among themselves when determining which school characteristics are related to each one’s satisfaction.

DIAS (2003) considers service as an intangible good, an action or a performance which adds value by means of a desired change in the client or in their benefit. In this sense, education received by the student modifies their life and adds value through competence and ability for their lives’ development.

3. Data Analysis and Interpretation

The questionnaires were handed out straight to the answerers in their respective classrooms, then collected after they were filled in, and tabulated. The results obtained through the interviewees’ answers were arranged in charts and graphs according to the answers obtained for each question; next, analysis and interpretation were carried out in search for the identification of whether their needs had been fulfilled, which means of communication attracted students to UNASP and which means of communication was deemed most interesting for students to get informed about what is going on at the University.

a) Sex of interviewees

As the research was carried out with first-year students from Business Administration, Pedagogy and Nursing courses and last-semester students from Business Administration and Pedagogy courses from UNASP, the remarkable nature of the female genre for Pedagogy and Nursing courses is observed in the significant amount of 83%.

GRAPH 1 – Interviewees’ sex

[pic]

Source: Research

Graph 1 shows that 83% of the interviewees belongs to the female group and 17% belongs to the male group. This question has not surprised the researchers, as Pedagogy and Nursing courses have been historical and traditionally chosen mostly by women. Another reason for that is the core human nature and the need for closeness of such areas, which are characteristics of the female genre.

GRAPH 2 – Interviewees’ age bracket

[pic]

Source: Research

The age bracket found was the following: 64% of the interviewees are between 17 and 24 years old, determining a very natural characteristic in the current context of University students, who are increasingly younger. On the other hand, when the 25-29 years old range percentage is considered, we have a total of 30%, showing that it is a challenge for colleges to assist this older part of their audience with different needs in relation to the yonger audience. Although the younger audience is part of the majority of interviewees, the number of students closer to the middle age calls attention, whose preliminary interpretation of this research considers the search for a constant through knowledge and higher determination for professional formation.

GRAPH 3 – Interviewees’ Courses

[pic]

Source: Research

Among interviewees, 44% of them study Pedagogy; 32% of them belong to the Business Administration course and 24% to the Nursing course. Considering the approach in Graph 1’s presentation - interviewees’ sex, Pedagogy and Nursing courses sum up 68%.

GRAPH 4 – Interviewees’ Religion

'[pic]

Source: Research

UNASP is one of the 437 classified by INEP in their 2008 report as communitarian/confessionals/philanthropic. According to the research, most of UNASP’s audience is composed by adventist students (60%), against 21% of catholics, 1% espiritualists and 18% composed by christians, protestants and students with no religion. The factor which contribues to such significant percentage is that the institution adds Adventist religion principles to their education and respects them, such as no classes on Fridays (after sunset).

GRAPH 5 – Type of organization where interviewees work

[pic]

Source: Research

Among interviewees, 28% work for private companies; 24% do not have a job; 23% work for UNASP; 18% work for Adventist companies; 3% work for public companies; 2% work for miscellaneous companies; and 1% of the answerers failed to answer the question. Summing up UNASP’s own audience and Adventist companies’ audience, we will have 41% and this contributes to the maintenance of religious principles along the researched courses, simultaneously reflecting on the perception of the Institution’s marketing.

GRAPH 6 – How interviewees got to know about UNASP

[pic]

Source: Research

According to the data presented in Graph 6, 80% of the interviewees heard about UNASP from family and friends, showing how important close people’s indication and affinity relationship are. In second place, 12% of the interviewees mentioned that the presentation was made in High School, allowing us to infer that it is important for UNASP to keep a relationship with other schools in order to attract potential students, although this research has not been able to identify whether the school belonged to the Adventist own network or to others. The fair and events question was not chosen by interviewees, which shows that at a time when competitors struggle for every space to penetrate in the target audience, those might be the next focuses for the institution’s marketing in order to disclose their offers to the audience.

GRAPH 7 – What influences students to enter an institution

[pic]

Source: Research

For most of the interviewees (37%), the fact that influenced them on their choice was the Adventist education, which shows that religion is a critical factor on students’ decisions, and thus it is important for UNASP to go on investing on religious education. For 29% of the interviewees, UNASP’s location was critical for their choice because they live nearby, and it is also away from the complicated traffic in São Paulo city. This item has been crucial on a college’s choice and it is directly related to one of the four p’s in marketing mix called praças (marketplaces). As to this item, the market has shown its vigor for the offer of remote education courses, since it may fill in two important gaps: time and home-school/home-work-school distance. Scholarships have been applied by many institutions as a marketing strategy, being fully or partially applied to the monthly fee, applied to the whole duration of the course or having gradual fall progression along the course. The research has identified that 13% were interested in UNASP due to the scholarship offer, and this must be intensified by the Institution as a way to disclose their courses.

GRAPH 8 – People’s reaction to UNASP

[pic]

Source: Research

This question was intended to identify the interviewee’s perception when they talked about UNASP to friends, relatives, at their jobs and places they often go to. For 59% of the interviewees, whenever they mention UNASP to other people, these people recognize the institution; 28% do not recognize the institution; 11% feel that people act indifferently when they hear the name UNASP; and 2% failed to answer the question. Such high percentage of people who recognize UNASP makes it easy for students in the work market both for effective positions and traineeships.

GRAPH 9 – First thing that comes to mind when they hear the name UNASP

[pic]

Source: Research

This question was intended to check what interviewees thought whenever they heard the brand’s name, that is, which association would be made whenever they heard the brand UNASP. According to 37% of the interviewees, the church is the first thing that comes to their mind about UNASP; for 23%, it is education; for 22%, they think of the college; for 12%, it is the institution’s integrity; for 4%, it is the concept of an inexpensive college because of scholarships; and 2% failed to answer the question.

GRAPH 10 – Why interviewees would indicate UNASP

[pic]

Source: Research

As with other products and services, the customer also values the education service brand of the institution where they study by realizing the value assigned to the institution. Among all interviewees, 56% answered that they would indicate UNASP because of its quality education; 21% would indicate UNASP because it provides serious and quality Adventist education; 15% would indicate it because of the environment – infrastructure; 4% because of other factors like no classes on Fridays. Faculty was mentioned by 2% of the interviewees. Although faculty is the production machine of an education institution, this is not the determining element in the choice or indication of an institution in Brazil, unlike other institutions which have professors rewarded with a Nobel Prize.

GRAPH 11 – Why interviewees would not indicate UNASP

[pic]

Source: Research

The question which generated Graph 11 allowed us to infer the students’ level of satisfaction with UNASP, even considering that its formulation was intended to identify the reason why they would not indicate the university. A significant percentage of interviewees - 30% - would not indicate it because of the assistance rendered by the secretariat employees when requesting or delivering documents and in the financial section, especially for negotiations. Another significant percentage was in the item miscellaneous - 30% - with no visible reason - in an informal conversation, the researchers may have detected that it was due to a personal dissatisfaction because of low grade performance rather than something directly related to the institution. The interviewees who do not approve of the infrastructure sum up 13%; the Adventist education summed up 7%; and 12% failed to answer the question. As to this quality education item, only 4% of the answerers said they would not indicate the university, what allows us to infer that the great majority approves of their quality education.

GRAPH 12 – People’s questions about UNASP

[pic]

Source: Research

The topic asked by most people related to the interviewees is what college they go to/what course they are taking - 70% of the interviewees. The ones who want to know about the church or the way the religion works sum up 22%; 4% ask about other topics like the type of classes and whether there is support material; 2% wonder if there are communitarian programs and how they work.

GRAPH 13 – Means of communication used to get informed about UNASP

[pic]

Source: Research

Communication is another important item in marketing mix according to KOTLER (2006)[2], calling attention to several communication platforms. In this question, this research was intended to identify how interviewees get information about UNASP and, at the same time, infer which means of communication were most used to lead information to its audience. Amongst interviewees, 26% of them get informed by UNASP’s intranet; 24% by UNASP’s website; 17% by bulletins/leaflets; 16% seek for information they need at the mural; and 13% get information from classroom representatives.

GRAPH 14 – How interviewees assess UNASP’s means of communication

[pic]

Source: Research

According to 49% of the answerers, the means of communication used by UNASP are good; 29% consider them regular; 12% consider it great and 10% consider it bad.

GRAPH 15 – Which means interviewees would like to use in order to get better informed about UNASP

[pic]

Source: Research

No one is better than the target audience when it comes to answering this question about which means of communication they would like to use in order to get information about UNASP. The question had an implicit goal to confront interviewees’ opinion about quality of the means of communication they currently have access to. For 36% of them, they would feel more comfortable by receiving information from the classroom representatives. According to this group, as they are in the classroom, it would be easier to get reliable messages that way. On the other hand, 19% of the interviewees consider bulletins/leaflets most effective; 18% of them get informed by UNASP’s intranet since they are collaborators and have easy access to computers. The same happened to 12%, who get informed by UNASP’s website; 6% get informed by murals; 6% chose others; 3% failed to answer the question.

4. Final Considerations

This research has worked with the proposal of analyzing how important marketing communication is for educational institutions having UNASP (Adventist University Center of São Paulo) as a case study, based on data obtained by a questionnaire answered by first-year students from Business Administration, Pedagogy, and Nursing courses and last-semester students from Business Administration and Pedagogy courses, with the question “From students’ point of view, has UNASP been applying and spreading marketing in an adequate way, fulfilling their needs?

After tabulation and interpretation of the information collected, the present article found out that UNASP’s students realize the institution’s marketing participation and sought for information when they were making their minds as to which institution they would study at. Through marketing, educational institutions get to know their audience’s needs and desires, providing structural improvements from architecture work in the entrance up to reception rooms for students’ and prospects’ assistance, and classrooms with multimedia resources, in order to strengthen the institution’s quality.

As competition increasingly grows, institutions have observed that the demand for courses is still significant, but the offer for courses with varied proposals is large. Graph 6 shows that students got to know about the institution from friends and family, and these ones heard about it specifically from marketing communication in church, at work, at their former school or at a course they took. This result points to a strategic decision from the institution to go on with marketing communication, strengthening market information so that its brand stays in evidence as long as possible in future students’ minds.

In Graph 10, we may find the answer to why interviewees’ indicate UNASP. For 56% of them, they indicate it due to quality education; 21% of them indicate UNASP because it provides serious quality Adventist education. The result of this question represents a differential for the institution at its strategic placement before competitors, and thus the institution must take advantage of such information to communicate to the market about one more reason why future students should choose it. As with other products and services, the customer also values the education service brand of the institution where they study by realizing the value assigned to it. Although faculty is the production machine of an education institution, this is not a determining element in the choice or indication of an institution in Brazil, since this piece of information was expressed by interviewees as one more quality factor.

4.1 – Study limitations and suggestions

As every research, there are certain limitations which must be pointed out in order to make it easier for other future researches on the subject and correlated topics. Some of them are:

a) Universe of the sample: 100 students, with an answering rate of 94 students from Business Administration, Pedagogy, and Nursing courses from the evening shift;

b) Time matter for information survey: usually, a plan indicates the directions and possible alternatives for obtaining, tabulating and interpreting data collected, always facing difficulties with one or another information that is retained or hard to understand. As we run out of time, it is necessary to finish with as most exemption as possible;

c) Interruption of classes to collect information: as usual in researches, interviewees fail to answer and, if they have to hand in the questionnaire later, they usually forget it. In order to obtain most answers, interviews had to be carried out on classrooms in the corresponding courses and answerers would usually hesitate because they had tasks at that moment which they did not want to interrupt, so they often fail to contribute with a remark that could change final interpretations.

Suggestions:

- Future researchers could compare UNASP’s study to other institutions whose marketing strategy is more aggressive - participation in professional and university fairs, promotion of High School students’ visits to the institution, invitation to High School students to participate in their events or attend a class and other ways of persuading future students.

- Comparing results, they would verify more consistently how important marketing communication is in the market, as well as the ways to carry out such communication not only under the esthetic point of view, but also with language and most accessed means for future university students to obtain information and solve doubts.

5. Bibliography

CHIAVENATO, Idalberto. Introdução á teoria geral da administração: uma visão abrangente da moderna administração das organizações: edição compacta. 3ª ed. rev. e atualizada. Rio de Janeiro: Elsevier, 2004.

ELIAS, Jorge José. Marketing: o modelo dos 4 Ps. Available at: . Acess on: April 7, 2009.

DIAS, Sergio Roberto (Coordenador); Professores do Departamento de Mercadologia da FGV-EAESP e convidados: MACHLINE, C; ROJO, F. J. G; PSILLAKIS, H. M; FERRACCIÚ J. de S. S; PARENTE, J. G; CHERTO, M. R; COBRA, M. H. N; ARRUDA, M. C. C de; BRETZKE, M; MIGUEL, N. A. de; SOUZA, R. F. de; DIAS, S. R; MASANO; T. F; LIMEIRA, T. M. V; JONES, V. Gestão de marketing. São Paulo: Ed Saraiva, 2003.

FARIA, Sergio Enrique. Aplicação do composto de marketing nas instituições do ensino superior. Available at: . Acess on: April 18, 2009.

GUIA DO ESTUDANTE. As melhores universidades do país. 8º ed. São Paulo: Ed. Abril, 2008, p.146.

Hosokawa, Elder. Cronologia do Centro Universitário Adventista de São Paulo (UNASP SP). São Paulo: Inédito, 2009. p.1-5.

KOTLER, Philip; FOX, Karen F. A. Marketing estratégico para instituições educacionais. São Paulo: Atlas, 1994.

KOTLER, Philip. Administração de marketing: a edição do novo milênio. 10ª ed. rev. São Paulo: Prentice Hall, 2000.

KOTLER, Philip; ARMASTRONG, Gary. Princípios de marketing. 7ª ed. Rio de Janeiro: Prentice-Hall, 1999.

KOTLER, Philip; KELLER, Kevin Lane. Administração de marketing. 12ª ed. rev. São Paulo: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006.

Pizzinatto, Nadia Kassouf et. al. Planejamento de Marketing: uma Análise dos Serviços Recebidos pelos Alunos no Programa de Pós-Graduação da Faculdade de Odontologia de Piracicaba – Unicamp. Revista ANGRAD - V. 9, N. 3, Jul./Ago./Set. 2008.

TIMM, Alberto R. A educação adventista no Brasil: Uma história de aventuras e milagres. Engenheiro Coelho: Centro Universitário Adventista de São Paulo - UNASPRESS, 2004.

TREVISAN, Rosi Mary. Marketing em instituições educacionais. Available at: ções/pdf/revista_PEC/marketing_em_instituições.pdf> Acess on: April 23, 2009.

UNASP. Histórico. Available at: . Acess on: April 16, 2009.

Wikipédia. Centro Universitário Adventista de São Paulo. Available at: . Acess on: April 16, 2009.

-----------------------

[1] The article goes on mentioning that such demand has been fulfilled.

[2] On page 533 from 2006 issue, chart 17.1 shows some of the main communication platforms used by companies to speak to their audience.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download