CASE STUDY OF EDUCATION MARKETING. Design and Management of services: Two universities for analyses. Marketing management has reached the education sector later than other fields. In this case study we will carry out a brief exposition of a bad experience at a private university (whose name we best not remember ….) to analyse the importance of planning the design and management, of education services. In the practical section we will formulate questions; about the case that has been put forth and about a service which we know much better: Málaga University. We will begin with the real case, which took place in a university of unknown name: Álvaro, a young man of 17, approached a private university with the support of his family, with the aim of studying a science based degree, as the state system appeared not to have sufficient resources and laboratories to be considered a possible option. Private secular universities, being a relatively young concept in Spain, do not have the image or differential positioning to allow potential clients to make a decision based on, differential intangible aspects generated by consolidated marketing policies. In this context, and as the ‘choice’ factor can not be simplified down to price (as each credit is practically the same as in private universities), the final decision will be conditioned by factors which are apparently inexplicable and uncontrollable for those responsible for marketing at the university which is chosen/ not chosen. Let us see how: the family of the student contact the university around the month of May, an efficient external relations department, whose front office is a recently inaugurated call- contact centre. This call centre is the pride and joy of the marketing department, due to its automated process capacity, cost saving and above all the control of information that they supply. The student first contacts via internet, to check what the University has on offer and then after calls a free 900 number. The University takes advantage of this contact to apply a CATI (Computer Assisted Telephonic Interview) and in the process incorporates a large amount of information into their data base. In just a few days, the student receives at home, ample, luxury and appealing information about the University. After this he is sent a personalised invitation, for both him and his family, to visit the campus and take the opportunity of accepting a promotion, consisting of sitting the preadmission test at no cost. A follow up call, is also carried out, to confirm the student will attend. The family was really impressed with these steps, which also coincided with a noteworthy publicity campaign in mass media by the aforementioned University. The day they visited the University the sun was shining, inviting them to take a tranquil stroll around the ample and well equipped University campus facilities. Unfortunately, the positive perception changed in a matter of a few hours. The security service ignored, in a visibly rude manner, the parents’ request for information about which of the seven buildings they should go to (perhaps because they drove a modest rent-a-car and had left their snazzy German estate car at Gran Canary Airport). Murphy’s law lead them to park in front of a building at the opposite side to admissions, meaning that due to their search for the building (where the interview was to take place) they arrived half an hour late to the appointment. Throughout the corridors they asked a number of gentlemen for directions (whose rigid attire gave them an air of being professors), which if this were the case, must have been very occupied with science, as they said they didn’t know where the admission tests were being carried out. One of them said to the father, with certainty that, he was wrong, that these weren’t going to be carried out until the next month. On arriving late to the appointment, the students’ turn to sit the test had passed and the only apparent solution was to wait until the next turn which was at 4pm. The father explained that their plane was leaving at 7pm, and asked for certain guarantees that the test would finish in time. No matter, thought the family, we will take advantage of the waiting time to get to know the facilities and perhaps speak to a professor. Unfortunately when they finally located the offices of the faculty in question, it was one thirty. On asking the caretaker if there were any lecturers available to clarify queries about the curriculum, the employee replied “I don’t think so, the air-conditioning is broken, and with this heat I’m sure they must have all gone off to eat, I have instructions not to move from here, see if any of the offices are open.…” The evening interview started 20 minutes late, as the person responsible was in a monumental traffic jam. Despite having waited more than half an hour in the corridor and a number of people having crossed the family’s path, no one asked if they could help them in any way. The test, was done in the set time, however the person responsible believed that they would have to return to confirm the results, perhaps twice more (although they weren’t really sure about this). On getting into the car to leave, with just enough time to get to the airport, they found an ostentatious sticker on the windscreen which, apart from reminding them that they had parked in an area which they shouldn’t have (they couldn’t find another one and they were running late to the interview) the notice made it practically impossible to drive without risk to life and limb. Whilst they waited to board, the father rang his secretary to confirm a visit to a church run university which, in principal, had seemed inadvisable due to the family not being very religious. QUESTIONS TO DEVELOP 1. Conceptual levels of the service offered for the private University studied in the case. Identify the errors made in each level. 2. Characteristics of the service offered by the University. Indicate at least two strategic implications and propose one action which, in your opinion, would improve the management of the organisation (for each of the characteristics). Justify your answer. 3. Design a servuction system for the University of Málaga’s Faculty of Economic Sciences. Education services Marketing in specialised areas Jose M.Nuñez
