2. 312MKT International Marketing
Lecture Sixteen

3. Learning objectives Defining Services
Understand the elements of the marketing mix in the service context (7Ps) – Example: Higher Education
Explore International Marketing in British Education
Explore the benefits of having international students/scholars in the UK

4. Defining Services
“An activity or series of activities of more or less intangible nature that normally, but not necessarily, take place in interactions between the customer and service employees and/or physical resources or goods and/or systems of the service provider, which are provided as solutions to customer problems.”
(Christian Grönroos, 1990)
Source: Kasper, van-Helsidingen and De Vries (1999)

5. Defining Services
“The goods/service dichotomy is a subtly changing spectrum, with firms moving their position within this spectrum over time. A good example of a good/service dichotomy is Domino’s Pizza, a home-delivery pizza chain. Is the customer buying goods (a pizza) or a service (a guaranteed arrival within 30 minutes)”
Source: Kasper, van-Helsidingen and De Vries (1999)
(John Bateson, 1992)

6. Are services really intangible?
In principle, services are indeed intangible. However, the demarcation line between tangibility and intangibility will not always be the easy to draw.
For examples teaching; sometimes it can be part of a tangible product.
Source: Kasper, van-Helsidingen and De Vries (1999

7. The Example of Higher Education
The Marketing Mix
The Example of Higher Education
In The service sector the 7P model approach is used in order to satisfy the needs of the service provider’s customer
Product
What is being sold?
Services
Employability
Source: Ivy (2008)

8. The Example of Higher Education
The Marketing Mix
The Example of Higher Education
Universities offerings are made up of three main offerings
The core
The tangible product
- Augmented level – (intangible attributes)
Source: Ivy (2008)

9. The Example of Higher Education
The Marketing Mix
The Example of Higher Education
Price
University tuition fee
There is a relation between price and the perceived quality of education
Place
Is the distribution method that the university adopts to provide the tuition to its market in a manner that meets, if not exceeds student expectations.
Source: Ivy (2008)

10. The Example of Higher Education
The Marketing Mix
The Example of Higher Education
Place
Alternative modes of tuition have grown significantly
Virtual learning media, e.g. Blackboard and Moodle
Distance learning opportunities have also through the post, , and web, video and teleconferencing, block release options and more recently pod-casts
Source: Ivy (2008)

11. The Example of Higher Education
The Marketing Mix
The Example of Higher Education
Promotion
Includes all the tools that universities can use to provide the market with information on its offerings: advertising, publicity, public relations, and sales promotional efforts.
Source: Ivy (2008)

12. The Example of Higher Education
The Marketing Mix
The Example of Higher Education
Promotion
Includes all the tools that universities can use to provide the market with information on its offerings: advertising, publicity, public relations, and sales promotional efforts, university’s website, open days.
Examples?
Source: Ivy (2008)

13. The Example of Higher Education
The Marketing Mix
The Example of Higher Education
People
Includes all the staff of university that interact with prospective students and indeed ones they are enrolled as students of the university.
Academic staff
Administrative staff
Support staff
Source: Ivy (2008)

14. The Example of Higher Education
The Marketing Mix
The Example of Higher Education
Physical Evidence
Are the newest additions to the services mix.
It is the tangible components of the service offering.
A variety of tangible aspects are evaluated by a university’s target markets, ranging from the teaching materials to the appearance of the buildings and lecture facilities at the university.
Source: Ivy (2008)

15. The Example of Higher Education
The Marketing Mix
The Example of Higher Education
Process
Are all the administrative and bureaucratic functions of the university: from handling enquiries, to registration, from course evaluation to examinations, from result dissemination to graduation, to name but a few.
Source: Ivy (2008)

16. International Marketing for British Education
Leadership
The UK is the second leading exporter of international education.
The UK government had sponsored initiatives to attract more international students.
Source: Binsardi and Ekwulugo (2003)

17. International Marketing for British Education
The Challenge
Intense Competition
Propositions
Product cantered view Vs Marketing centred view.
Businesses must be viewed as customer satisfying processes (Levitt, 1968; Kinnell, 1985)
Source: Binsardi and Ekwulugo (2003)

18. International Marketing for British Education
A Modern Approach
Relationship Marketing between the service provider and the customer (Gummeson, 1994)
– But who is the customer?
Source: Binsardi and Ekwulugo (2003)

19. International Marketing for British Education
The Socio-Economic System Approach
Halal (1996) proposed a stakeholder model of the corporation, which views the corporation as a socio-economic system composed of various equally important constituencies: Employees, Customers, Suppliers, The Public and its Government, Representatives and Investors
Source: Binsardi and Ekwulugo (2003)

20. International Marketing for British Education
An Integrative Stakeholders’ Approach
“The percentage of students that remain loyal to an institution and stay on to peruse postgraduate courses is certainly too small to be the focus of any institution’s marketing strategy at the undergraduate level”
(Ivy, 2001; Nicholls el al, 1996)
Source: Binsardi and Ekwulugo (2003)

21. International Marketing for British Education
An Integrative Stakeholder’s Approach
Marketing efforts should not only be directed to students but to the entire range of stakeholders.
Student should be regarded as customers and not just customers
Source: Binsardi and Ekwulugo (2003)

22. Benefits of having international students/scholars in the UK
Economic
Contributing to the UK gross national product
Non-Economic
Fostering of social and political tolerance, mutual respect between UK and non-UK
Establishing foundations for future cultural and international business relationships (Kotler and Fox, 1985).
Source: Binsardi and Ekwulugo (2003)

23. Higher Education in the UK
International Higher Education
Top Ten Countries with Best Education in the World
Web-link
Higher Education in the UK
Web-link
Web-link

24. Selected References
Binsardi, A., & Ekwulugo, F. (2003). International marketing of British education: research on the students’ perception and the UK market penetration. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 21(5),
Ivy, J. (2008). A new higher education marketing mix: the 7Ps for MBA marketing. International Journal of educational management, 22(4),
Kasper, H., van Helsdingen, P. J., & De Vries, W. (1999). Services marketing management, an international perspective.