Communicating a quality position in service delivery: an application in higher education

Abstract

Introductioǹ`W e teach success'' is the not so subtle headline message that dominates Hofstra University's full-page, inside back cover advertisement in the 18 December 2000 issue of New Yorker magazine. At $65,000 a page, Hofstra (located in Hempstead, New York) is no doubt counting on communicating its core message to its target audiences ± parents, alumni, donors, trustees, and students. But, what does success mean, and why do students want it? And, what particular aspects of their program are essential to enable them to deliver on this promise.In an era in which adequate funding for higher education is difficult to come by, the marketing communications component of enrollment management has become increasingly important. Sophisticated marketing communications techniques are being used, including advertising, promotional literature, direct marketing techniques such as telemarketing, direct mail, videotapes (Wascoe, Jr, 1992;Wojtas, 1991), and most recently, the Internet. Today, the college or university Web site is often the first place a prospective student or parent looks for information. The day of having and sending only a college catalog is long gone.A problem that arises too often is that marketing communications promise benefits that the institutions are unable to deliver. It is important in developing communications programs to link the benefits promised firmly to the attributes, characteristics, or operational capabilities of the institution needed to deliver these benefits. In short, service delivery has to live up to service promises, especially if the service provider is`c laiming'' the quality service position. Establishing a brand imageAt the heart of any effective marketing communications effort is a theme that resonates with, and is hopefully remembered by, the target audience. An effective theme, consistent with the image the institution is trying to project, ultimately allows for the creation and management of``brand image''.A positive brand image can be a powerful influence in the decision to attend a college or university. Some notable themes or

Applying an empathic design model to gain an understanding of consumers’ cognitive orientations and develop a product prototype

“…Olson and Reynolds (1983) then sorted this chain into six sub-levels, forming the Means-End Chain Model (see Figure 2). The Means-End Chain has since been successfully used in new product development and strategic marketing management (Gutman & Miaoulis, 2003;Pieters, Baumgartner & Allen, 1995). It uses one-on-one in-depth interviews to obtain the consumers' psychological perspectives, and is done step by step via direct elicitation (Chiu, 2005;Hofstede, Audenaert, Steenkamp & Wedel, 1998).…”

Teaching basic marketing accountability using spreadsheets: An exploratory perspective

“…Gutman (1997) proposes three levels of goals -action goals that are linked to the act itself, outcome goals associated with immediate effects of the action, and the highest level goals or consequences including the indirect effects of the outcome. Since its inception, the means-end-chain has been used to explain consumer behavior in varied context such as perception of soft drinks (Gutman 1997); US President (Bagozzi and Dabholkar (2000), Food retailing (Devlin, Birtwistle, and Macedo (2003); service employees (Pieters, Bottschen and Thelen 1998); and higher education (Gutman and Miaoulis 2003). This means-end-chain model has been investigated in a higher education context, resulting in the finding that it could be used to develop service positioning strategies (Gutman and Miaoulis 2003).…”

“…Since its inception, the means-end-chain has been used to explain consumer behavior in varied context such as perception of soft drinks (Gutman 1997); US President (Bagozzi and Dabholkar (2000), Food retailing (Devlin, Birtwistle, and Macedo (2003); service employees (Pieters, Bottschen and Thelen 1998); and higher education (Gutman and Miaoulis 2003). This means-end-chain model has been investigated in a higher education context, resulting in the finding that it could be used to develop service positioning strategies (Gutman and Miaoulis 2003). These studies suggest that some of the outcome goals associated with education include competence (a direct outcome of the act itself) as well as higher order consequences such as success in life, jobs, and interviews.…”

The Benefits and Values of Green Lifestyle Consumers

“…Laddering involves one-on-one, in-depth interviews with the respondents. Through guided questions, the interviewer would be able to effectively understand the respondents' attribute-consequence-value cognitive structure for a given product (Gutman & Miaoulis, 2003;Peter & Olson, 2010). For the purpose of the study, respondents were given approximately 40-60 minutes for their interview session.…”

“…Firstly, laddering is the most commonly adopted technique for the construction of MECs (Gutman & Miaoulis, 2003;Reynolds & Gutman, 1988). Laddering involves one-on-one, in-depth interviews with the respondents.…”