Service Marketing Report: Promoting Higher Education Services

This report delves into service marketing, specifically within the context of higher education. It begins with an executive summary outlining the report's focus on the learning and teaching industry, particularly at the university level. The report identifies key factors influencing the quality and delivery of education, including the student-lecturer ratio, lecturer commitment and qualifications, the learning environment (both physical and political), library and reference facilities, and laboratories. A significant portion of the report is dedicated to developing a marketing promotion plan, detailing communication objectives such as creating awareness, addressing competition, and persuading potential students. The report also explores the promotional mix, encompassing advertisement, pricing, placement, physical evidence, personal selling, quality and branding, and process efficiency. Finally, it outlines criteria for measuring the success of the objectives by 2020, along with a budget and timeline for implementation. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and recommendations for improving service marketing within the higher education sector.

Running head: SERVICE MARKETING 1
Service marketing
Institution
Student name
Student number
Date

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Executive summary
This article was prepared with the objective of delivering a report on service marketing
with a narrowed focus to the learning and teaching industry, especially the higher level of
learning. The information and the data used in the preparation of this report were collected from
the existing information and observation on the well-established universities and colleges. The
report is limited on application to the lower learning levels on the foundation of the source of
data.
The report focuses on addressing the issues affecting the quality and delivery of
education in the universities and colleges; also the report gives an insight to promotion mix on
the factors affecting quality and delivery in the universities and colleges.

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Student’s lecturer or tutor ratio..............................................................................................................4
Commitment, qualifications and the contact hour between the lecturer and the student.....................5
The learning environment in both physical and political aspects............................................................5
Library and reference facility...................................................................................................................6
Laboratories............................................................................................................................................7
Marketing promotion plan..........................................................................................................................7
Marketing communication objective...........................................................................................................7
Creating awareness.................................................................................................................................8
Competition.............................................................................................................................................8
Convincing and persuading......................................................................................................................9
Promotional mix..........................................................................................................................................9
Advertisement (promotion).....................................................................................................................9
Premium pricing (price)...........................................................................................................................9
Placement..............................................................................................................................................10
Physical evidence...................................................................................................................................10
Personal selling (people).......................................................................................................................10
Quality and branding (product).............................................................................................................10
Efficient services delivery (process).......................................................................................................11
Criteria to measure the success of the objectives by 2020........................................................................11
Budget and timeline..................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................12
References.................................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
Over the years, the world has become a global village. There is exists inexhaustible
information files on matter world, and thousands of supporting files generated a day. The people
of Africa can tell on what is happening in Asia, America, and Europe in any combination,
naming a few continents. This fast and reliable information spread realized with the fast-growing
information and communication as well as transport and human relation technology and
development (Alam, 2019).
In the real sense, the prior discussion on the developments turning the world into a village
is all fruits of education from the higher learning levels where the individuals graduate with
degrees, certificates, and diplomas on computing and communication field, building and
engineering as well as the science field.
It is therefore indisputable to say the university level of education is the backbone to the
current status of the world. They are the kitchen to expertise development in the various fields.
Retreating a bit to the history of human evolution and the significant man discoveries and
revolutions, the roots of education are deep to uproot. Perhaps, were it not by then available
education, man could discover fire neither farming nor the wheel leaving out the information
technology in existence today (Bettencourt, 2019).
On matter trends in human history, there is high expectancy on more revolutions as
long as the world will be in existence. The prior validates and adds weight to the worthiness of

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discussing high education quality and delivery today. The discussion below is on the five major
factors affecting the quality and delivery of high education.
The student lecturer or tutor ratio
University and colleges education has little teaching on the history of things and is
instead more dedicated to the knowledge and discoveries that could change the future state of the
world. The concepts learned are therefore complicated and requires close coaching and
leadership characterized by an abundance of motivation to get the ideas home and assemble them
in practical shape.
The quality of knowledge dissemination hence has a close relationship with the ratio of
the tutor to the students. If the ratio is relatively low, the tutor can attend to each learner and give
the necessary guidance as per the students learning requirements (Beverungen, Lüttenberg, &
Wolf, 2018). The assessment and assignments marking also take a short time, and the teaching
time is not eaten up by marking time or assessment.
High ratio of the tutor to the learners is critical. The tutor finds himself in a dilemma on
the disparity in understanding the capacity of the learners where the first learners will have a
view of the tutor as time wasting as he struggles to put emphasis the so-called slow learners do
not seem to understand. On the other hand, the slow learners may leave the lecture room with
little ideas on matter taught on that particular day if the lecturer embraces the pace of the first
learners. The high ration is also a threat to the time of study as the lecturer will always suffer
fatigue and workloads, thus eating up the lecture time (Bharadwaj, Fahy, & Varadarajan, 2015).
Commitment, qualifications and the contact hour between the lecturer and the student

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Taking time and concentrating on the matter at hand has a direct mapping to the
understanding levels of the concepts taught? If the lecture only spends a few hours in class per
week, the learners are prone to absorbing little concepts and will be forced to spend a lot of time
revising the complex concepts they have no idea on. The lecturer who spends a lot of time with
the students has the advantage of understanding the learning patterns of his class thus the areas
that need emphasis hence the students spend a little time to sharpen and refresh on what they
already know.
The longtime spend by the student, and the lecture turned out to be of less significance to
efficiency in the knowledge delivery if the lecture is of low quality hence disseminating low-
quality skills to the learners. The lecturer should also be committed to the teaching service; the
process should be passion driven (Bojanic, 2015). The lecturer has to be of higher education
level than the level he teaches, for example, a certificate holder cannot handle a degree class, and
vice versa sounds effective.
The learning environment in both physical and political aspects
The fact remains learning can take place anywhere at any time, but active learning
requires necessary infrastructure. The argument on these criteria is; one can learn under a tree
without a tutor’s writing wall, but the process is likely to be less effective compared to the
learning that implemented in a sound lecture room with learning equipment’s like the projectors
and the computers. From the above explanation, there a contribution of the learning environment
to the quality of the teaching and learning (Bolton, 2019).
Politics and interests of peoples’ is the primary threat to the unity and peace of the
people. Fallout in the political scene of the state at times results to violence hundreds of deaths

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and injuries along with the displacement of the people (Butt, Run, Din, & Mutum, 2018). The
trauma from the battlefield tappers with the learner’s concentration to learning, and however, the
tutor may strain to explain concepts; the student gets no point out of it.
A tutor who losses a closely related person in the war also losses motivation at work, thus
delivering low-quality teaching. Displacement also scatters and separates the members of the
class. Learning time is wasted in the process, making it difficult for the students to graduate on
the expected time.
Stable governance, characterized by low political drama facilitates the economic growth
of the country (Pounders, Moulard, & Babin, 2018); hence enables the government to play a part
in the education field by hiring tutors and boosting the learning facilities of learning
organizations. It also gives room for sponsorship offers; hence, the individuals from the low
social class saved from learning on drama common as the learners are sent home for fees (Chen,
Chen, & Su, 2018).
Library and reference facility
Lecture hours are limited; the lectures are therefore unable to deliver all that the concept
at hand comprises of. Reference material is concrete support to the learning process. The
materials enable the learner to obtain the information on the facts and the fine details the lecturer
may have omitted in the teaching process. The fact lecturers are human being validates the
possibilities of the individuals to commit errors in the teaching process, just like in another
profession. The reference materials act as the marking scale for the student to approve or
disapprove the concepts taught in class. The brain retention power of complex concepts is low,

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and the students, therefore, need to refer to what they learned regularly to ensure they can handle
the learning test as well as the application tests (Cherubini, Iasevoli, & Michelini, 2015).
Laboratories
Scientific and technical courses in the university level require substantial support from
the cosmetic representation and testing of the viability of the application of the gained
knowledge. The undeniable fact remains, seeing and testing things out is essential in learning as
opposed to theoretical learning. The laboratory work provides the student with the necessary
confirmation on the application of the theories learned in the lecture halls. Practical works also
provide the students with the necessary confidence on the actual application of the knowledge
obtained hence boosting the quality of the education delivered (Choi, & Williams, 2016).
Marketing promotion plan
It's evident providing the best services in the industry and proving them at the most
affordable price is not an assurance of making the most sales in the market. Promotion for
services requires robust communication and communication skills.
Marketing communication objective
The promotion activities of a product or a service have only one objective of making high
sales hence profit. The objective is, however, realized from the accomplishment of several sub-
objectives following the explanation below.
Creating awareness
Perhaps the most important thing to do after adequate preparation for services provided is
making your potential customer aware of the existence of the service. This message is

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communicated to sensitize the community and the general population on the availability of the
service (Davcik, & Sharma, 2016).
Setting up a high learning institution and hiring tutor’s only gains meaning after
attracting learners to the institution. If the awareness for the existence of the institution and the
services available is not in the public domain, the organization will attract almost zero intakes
suggesting the high significance of communication marketing on creating awareness.
Competition
The education sector is a vast market, and investors from various corners have taken the
opportunity of investing in this market. The highest population on both the local and
international communities is aware and well informed on matter education implying the market
has access to the critical information on the sector. The availability of this crucial information to
the investors enables them to set up numerous institutions hence competition.
Communication promotion henceforth informs and reminds the potential customers on
the services offered as a means to counter the competition set up from other institutions a
measure to maintain market relevance (Joung, Goh, Huffman, Yuan, & Surles, 2015). If the
organization does not communicably promote the organization, there is a high likelihood of
being competed out of the market. Competition in the service market is one of the factors that
have subjected many organizations to knock off the market. The institutions hence have to
embrace a solid marketing communication strategy to counter competing.
Convincing and persuading
The fact the institution in discussion is not a monopoly in the market, communication
marketing strategy has to be practiced as a means to persuade the potential customers or the

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learners to be specific on the reasons he needs the services of the given organization and the
advantages the client is likely to enjoy at the end of the day (Kim, Song, & Lee, 2016).
Decision making of the clients is affected by the information they have on they have at
hand. However, this information needs to be supported through communication to persuade the
clients to buy the service. Persuasion is the acceleration gear towards the decision made on
buying.
Promotional mix
The marketing mix is a fundamental marketing strategy constituting of several elements
of marketing. The aspect is popularly known as the 7Ps of the marketing mix that comprises of
product, promotion, place, physical evidence, people, price, and process.
Due to the limitation on the word count of this report, only one component of each
element considered for application to the learning institution at hand (Kim, 2018).
Advertisement (promotion)
The power of advertisement in the marketing mix is not a subject to ignore.
Advertisement is a paid for information sending element to the potential customers. The
advertisement means include includes the billboards, newspaper, radio, and the television as well
as blogs and emails. The learning institutions should use these forms of getting the word out to
sensitize the community on the existence of the organization and persuade them to buy their
service.

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Premium pricing (price)
The strategy is applied by the learning organization through the provision of the service
at a high price at the initial stage; the customers end up thinking of the service to be of high
quality thus joining in number on the reduction of the price at a later date (Hall, Baker, Andrews,
Hunt, & Rapp, 2016).
Placement
The institution has to be located at a place that is accessible and favoring the learning
process. The most competent institution is the one located in the state where war has no history,
and the government well supports the institution.
Physical evidence
The only conclusive physical evidence that is a promotional strategy is physical evidence.
The organization should have a clean record in matter performance and discipline as well as the
sustainable physical infrastructure. Perhaps this is the best promotional method since the
potential customers.
Personal selling (people)
The institution should hire marketing experts to meet the potential customers both
through the media and open-air platforms (Lovelock, & Patterson, 2015). The personal seller
strategizes how to meet the potential customers and elaborate the explanations on the feature of
the organization and persuade them as well as convince them on the reason they have to buy the
teaching services of the organization. The matter price, quality of the infrastructure, and the
qualified staffs of the organization tabled at in this case.
Quality and branding (product)
The institution management has to come up with slogans, motto, vision, and mission to
act as a guide through the learning. Good leadership to coach and guide the teams should also be

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put to work as a mechanism to improve the standards and the quality of the education offered.
Quality teaching services will reflect on the students’ performance on both the certificates and
practical field excellence (Martínez, 2015).
Efficient services delivery (process)
The management uses these criteria to ensure the client's service is enhanced at the most
decent manners. The receptionist will embrace politeness and effective communication strategy.
Criteria to measure the success of the objectives by 2020
Sustainability of the organization is the best measure of the effectiveness and success of
the strategy. The learning institution sustainability should, however, not be confused with the
financial well-being of the institution since the financial status will only reflect the sustainability
of the other components of sustainability (Shi, Mu, Lin, Chen, Kou, & Chen, 2018). The
numbers of the individuals joining the organization should be analyzed since is the only best
measure of objective sustainability.
Budget and timeline
The above marketing strategy has to be sponsored. The personal sellers will have to be
paid and provided with the necessary services such as transport and lunch. The adverts also have
to be paid for among other components of promotion. The cost incurred in the promotion process
is referred to as the budget for the strategy (Kotler, Bowen, Makens, & Baloglu, 2017).
As long as the organization strategy is concerned, the institution has to achieve the top
level benefits of promotion strategy used by 2020. The sufficiency of the promotion mix is
determined by the accomplishment of the objective set within the budget and the timeline set.
Otherwise, the strategy will be considered ineffective.