ABSTRACT
Purpose of the Chapter The relationship between marketing and college and university
administration has been a tenuous one. Admittedly, as student enrollments swelled through the 1960s and 1970s the challenge was one of accommodation as opposed to recruitment, but times have changed. Today, dwindling traditional enrollments have drawn attention to university outreach programs as an attractive, and necessary, diversification. However, the outreach market is sophisticated and demanding thus requiring marketing skills for which colleges and universities have not been noted. For example, Sevier (1989) observed that:
Numerous studies have shown that marketing, particularly among college administrators, is often confused with public
relations, advertising, or other promotional activities. These, however, are actually tools of marketing, avenues through which the marketing plan is executed. (p. 394)
While certain promotional activities may be mistaken to be marketing, its use is less common than advertising. This chapter aspires to explain marketing research in a public university setting, particularly as applied to the successful marketing of outreach programs. An illustrative conceptual model of "Marketing Research for College and University Outreach Programs" is presented in Exhibit 9.2. Because the chapter is structured around this model, you may want to tum to it as an organizational aid.
