The influence of marketing communication on students' decisions to enrol at Durban University of Technology

Abstract

Marketing communication strategies are now imperative in the Higher Education arena. Understanding the prospective students’ choice and determining the subgroups into which they fall, provides the basis for a well-planned strategy for marketing communications practitioners at Durban University of Technology (DUT). The purpose of this study is to review the effectiveness of the current marketing communication strategies of DUT, and to establish how first time enrolees make choices when selecting a Higher Education institution at which to study. This study uses quantitative descriptive methods of convenience sampling of the January 2009 intake of students. Although specific to DUT, the findings of this study may also be of interest to other Universities of Technology that are assessing their marketing communication strategies. Research implications in this study identify the most appropriate means of marketing communications for the DUT brand in the context of prospective student choice. At the close of this cross-sectional research, the study provides proposals for future marketing initiatives for DUT. The results of the study may be used in determining more appropriate marketing campaign strategies and initiatives to establish DUT as a first choice brand in our competitive arena. The value of this study is that it supports the opinion that the focus of marketing communication strategies must continually be modified in response to a changing market.