The Consumer of University Educational Services – A Central Element of Educational Marketing

Abstract

The marketing of educational services has become both a priority and a challenge, taking into account the technological changes that have arisen from the aspect of the tools and teaching methods used, as well as from the point of view of the requirements on the market manifested by the bearers of labor demand and supply. In addition, the opening and internationalization of these services has led to an increase in competition in this area, which forces universities to attach greater importance to educational marketing activities. From the point of view of the study of the behavior of the consumer of university educational services, the approach is even more challenging as the offer of educational services presupposes the rendering of an inexpensive, unstable, perishable and extremely variable service in terms of diversity, which requires an extremely complex analysis of the variables that influence the behavior of the “consumer” student, as well as from the point of view of the purchasing decision process, as a result of the action of these factors. In this context, the present paper aims to analyze the necessity of applying specific educational marketing tools, methods and techniques, especially of university marketing, not only from the perspective of the promotional component, which has a leading role in this field, but also starting from to the analysis of the peculiarities of the behavior of the consumer of educational services as a beneficiary.

Keywords

• consumer behavior
• educational marketing
• higher education