In this study, we conducted in-depth interviews with 29 parents of prospective college students, a target public of university marketing efforts. We explored how university communication influenced parents’ attitudes, and reputation perception. The research findings are significant in understanding parents’ views on responding to prevalent university marketing communication campaigns. It was noted that parents internalized financial language enough to describe their college selection process as if they were purchasing consumer goods instead of selecting their children’s educational institution. However, once they passed the initial cost analysis stage, parents highlighted the institutional culture as one of the most critical dimensions of university reputation, meanwhile expressing great skepticism on university’s promotional efforts such as paid advertising. Additionally, parents expressed that personal or peer experience of universities heavily influenced their decision as the time to choose a college neared. Lastly, this study shows that a university’s strong organizational identity and culture communicated through the internal stakeholders’ experience can significantly influence prospective parents’ favorable cognitive and behavioral intentions.

中文翻译：

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了解父母对美国高等教育营销传播的看法

在这项研究中，我们对29名潜在大学生的父母进行了深度访谈，这是大学营销工作的目标人群。我们探讨了大学交流如何影响父母的态度和声誉认知。该研究结果对于理解父母对于应对大学营销传播活动的观点具有重要意义。值得注意的是，父母内部化了财务语言，足以描述他们的大学选拔过程，就好像他们在购买消费品而不是选择子女的教育机构一样。但是，一旦他们通过了最初的成本分析阶段，父母便将制度文化视为大学声誉最重要的方面之一，同时对付费广告等大学的推广工作表示极大的怀疑。此外，父母表示，随着选择大学的时间临近，大学的个人或同伴经历严重影响了他们的决定。最后，这项研究表明，通过内部利益相关者的经验交流的大学强大的组织认同感和文化可以显着影响准父母的良好认知和行为意图。