Perceived factors influencing success of marketing activities of universities in Kenya

Abstract

Business schools have been established in an effort to improve business management practices locally and internationally. There has been an increase in marketing activities by universities with the aim of informing the public about their offerings and in an attempt to enhance their competitive advantage. The purpose of this study was to find out which marketing activities that business schools in Nairobi undertake, in addition to how they go about measuring the success of their marketing activities and to determine which factors influence the success of their marketing activities. Activities were drawn from previous research including the 7P business school marketing mix. The study adopted a descriptive and explanatory research design. Correlation analysis was also used to explain the relationships between the various activities, the measures of success and the factors influencing success. Data was collected in the month of April 2014 on all the business schools in Nairobi. The results of the study showed that out of the 7P business school marketing mix, the one that had the highest mean is People, which are those marketing activities that have interaction among alumni, faculty and potential students. The measure of success that is mostly used is the quality of service. The factor that has the highest influence on success of marketing activities was management support. Business schools should ensure that the management supports their marketing activities by being involved in the formulation and providing the necessary resources to increase chances of their marketing activities being successful.