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Understanding parents’ view on US higher education marketing communication

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Abstract

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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Journalism, Ball State University, Art and Journalism Building (AJ), Room 300, Muncie, IN, 47396, USA

    YoungAh Lee

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Appendix

Appendix

1.1 Interview questions

  1. 1.

    What are the most important decision-making factors for choosing a university for your kid(s)?

  2. 2.

    Have you actively sought information about different universities and academic programs? How? Why?

  3. 3.

    What kind of things are you looking for about the programs?

  4. 4.

    Have you actively sought information about different universities’ reputation? How? Why?

  5. 5.

    How do you define reputation?

  6. 6.

    Have you actively sought information about different universities’ management? How? Why?

  7. 7.

    Where do you find information about the university that your kid(s) interested in attending? (brochure, website, newspapers, television news, radio news, friends, etc.).

  8. 8.

    Do you ever find yourself talking to your friends and family about different universities?

  9. 9.

    When you are looking at a university’s website, what kind of information are you looking for?

  10. 10.

    What led you to look at particular university websites?

  11. 11.

    When conducting a search on the internet, what kind of things are you looking for? Is it a general search or are you looking for a specific university?

  12. 12.

    How much do you value external information (newspapers, television news, etc.) compared to internal information (current students, alumni, etc.)?

  13. 13.

    If you got the opportunity to talk to a current student, what would you ask them?

  14. 14.

    What about alumni members, if you had the opportunity to talk to an alumni member, what would you ask them?

  15. 15.

    How much do you value in-direct information (newspapers, television news, ranking information, etc.) compared to direct information (campus visits, friends, etc.)?

  16. 16.

    How much care about school ranking information?

  17. 17.

    Are there any particular sources you use to find ranking information?

  18. 18.

    What matters more to you, ranking information about the university or about the program itself?

  19. 19.

    When looking at lists of universities, how much do you value familiarity?

  20. 20.

    Why/why not do you value familiarity?

  21. 21.

    If you are unfamiliar with a university, what kind of characteristics are you drawn to (faculty quality, prestige, graduation rate)?

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Lee, Y. Understanding parents’ view on US higher education marketing communication. Educ Res Policy Prac 18, 279–299 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10671-019-09249-2

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