Research Article: 2021 Vol: 20 Issue: 5
Euis Eka Pramiarsih, Langlangbuana University
Iwan Gunawan, Langlangbuana University
Cucu Lisnawati, Langlangbuana University
Popon Mariam, Langlangbuana University
Citation Information: Pramiarsih, E.E., Gunawan, I., Lisnawati, C., & Lisnawati, P. (2021). Education marketing management in increasing the quantity of students in educations. Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 20(5), 1-11.
Private universities as one of the economic actors need to prepare themselves to survive and continue to develop. The level of competition for quality and quantity is great and is increasingly attractive among private universities, indicating that currently competition in the world of education is inevitable. In order to maintain their existence, educational institutions, especially private universities, are required to be able to market superior educational service products in order to overcome and face intense competition. The purpose of this study is to analyze marketing management which can increase the quantity of students at private universities of Langlang Buana Bandung. The research method applied is qualitative research methods, data analysis techniques for research using triangulation techniques. Researchers use participatory observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation. The analysis of the research results shows that there is an increase in the quantity of new students at private universities-UNLA, this will not be separated from the quality possessed by the private universities-UNLA Bandung and quality is a dynamic condition related to products, services, people, processes, and the environment. Schools that have met the target of marketing management in private universities-Unla Bandung.
Marketing Management, Student Quantity.
Private Higher Education is one of the social organizations that is engaged in education towards the creation of competent human resources in all dimensions of life. Private universities, as well as State Universities (PTN), strive to develop advanced and quality educational institutions. From a business perspective, private universities as one of the economic actors need to prepare themselves to survive and continue to develop. The level of competition for quality and quantity from private universities with PTN, the interest of prospective students in private universities which is always inferior to PTNs, even the competition that occurs between higher education institutions currently does not only occur between private universities (private universities) and state universities. (PTN), but competition is more intense and more attractive among private universities, indicating that currently competition in the world of education is inevitable. In order to maintain their existence, educational institutions, especially private universities, are required to be able to market superior educational service products in order to overcome and face the intense competition, because no matter how good a private university is, if it is not promoted to the maximum, it will have an impact on the minimum number of students and the university's unfamiliarity private sector among the public. The purpose of marketing activities, especially for a non-profit organization engaged in educational services, to any level, is aimed at convincing “customers” (students, parents, and other related parties) that the educational institution concerned still exists., to convince the public and “customers” that educational services are truly relevant to the needs of society, besides that marketing activities need to be carried out so that the types and types of education can be widely known and understood by the community and most importantly, these marketing activities are carried out so that the existence of educational institutions is not abandoned by the wider community as well as “potential customers”. The point is that marketing activities are something that must be carried out by private universities, in addition to being aimed at introducing the public about the existence of an educational institution and also for forming a good image of the institution with the aim of attracting a number of prospective students.
Kotler (2000) stated that a positive image is a very valuable asset in the market. A positive image is also a strong foundation in influencing customer expectations. One of the ways to do this good image is by influencing the needs and expectations of customers to suit the products and services available in private universities. Thus, prospective students are more interested in entering the private vocational school. Therefore, private universities must strive to be able to produce quality products, satisfying services, and supported by maximum promotion so that the expected results will be achieved.
Marketing activities are not just business activities so that educational institutions get students, but also an effort to improve the quality of education as a form of responsibility to the wider community. Educational institutions are required to constantly revitalize their strategies, in order to ensure the suitability of environmental demands and competition with their internal strengths. The demand for higher education as a producer of educational services is to have both management and strategic capabilities in marketing their production. The inability of producers to market their products is due to their quality that is not liked by the community, does not provide added value for individual personal improvement, unsatisfactory service, so that the service products offered will not sell. The impact of this does not rule out that it will be one of the causes for the decline of a university so that in the end it will likely result in the imposition of a closure on the college, if the college is closed due to the inability of the managers it will cause certain problems in a society. It is evident that the increasingly sharp and complex levels of competition and the level of acceleration occur require private universities to be able to adapt to a dynamic environment.
Providing the best service for an educational institution is the main goal and capital to attract students and prospective students. To achieve customer satisfaction, establishing a close to the customer is a very important thing in addition to a strong desire from the leaders of educational institutions to make educational institutions that can provide excellent service (hands on value driven) where the provision is excellent service by an educational institution to students must be done optimally and thoroughly (hands on the knitting), not half-heartedly, so that students as the party being served feel satisfied (customer satisfaction), and this will increase public/student confidence and stakeholder private higher education institutions.
Discussing the increase in the quantity of new students certainly will not be separated from the quality possessed by Higher Education. Because quality is a dynamic condition related to products, services, people, processes, and the environment of higher education/educational institutions that have met the target. Efforts so that marketing activities are not abandoned by its customers, namely students, an educational institution in this case a private university must be able to provide services that have higher value, better quality, more affordable prices, adequate facilities and better service than its competitors. . So, marketing (marketing) educational services is an activity of educational institutions that provide services or delivery of educational services to consumers in a correct and satisfying manner. Thus business and marketing do not work with advertisements and promotions that deceive the public, but educate and convince the public to the right so that people believe and believe that the higher education service products offered are products of good quality educational institutions in terms of input, process, and output as well as outcomes. Quality educational service products will create a sense of satisfaction that is felt by the community or stakeholders.
Everything that educational service marketers do in the end boils down to the value that educational service customers will provide for the satisfaction they feel. The creation of customer satisfaction (consumers) can provide several benefits, including the relationship between the company and the customer being harmonious, providing a good basis for repurchasing and creating customer loyalty and forming a word of mouth recommendation that benefits the company. According to Tjiptono (1996), “customer satisfaction is the basic capital for companies in forming customer loyalty”. This means that loyal customers are the most valuable asset for the company in increasing the quantity/number of enthusiasts in a company.
Customer satisfaction is prioritized in business activities, as well as in education, even though it is not a business, service to consumers, namely students, must still be prioritized. Services for students are not only from teaching staff, namely lecturers, but also from educational staff, namely administrative staff. In this case, if there are things that can reduce services, the leader of an educational institution such as the Chancellor, Director or other leaders who are in the area of the educational institution must immediately take positive and decisive steps so that trust returns to normal. Student satisfaction as customers will be able to increase the prestige of these private educational institutions/tertiary institutions so that they will be favored by the public and eventually become favorite private universities, priority private universities, private universities that are coveted by the public/students/consumers and become the choice of private universities. The main thing is as a place to learn to continue their education.
Based on the description above, it can be seen that marketing cannot be separated from management activities in the form of analyzing, planning, implementing, and supervising all activities (programs), trying to achieve predetermined goals in marketing in order to obtain a favorable exchange rate with target buyers in the framework of achieve organizational goals. A private tertiary institution (private university) needs to pay attention to its marketing management because it will determine how big the community, in this case are prospective students, will enroll in the private tertiary education institution. But in educational marketing that must be considered not only outside the environment of private universities such as the installation of banners or distributing brochures but also there must be improvements from within the private tertiary institution itself, especially in improving its resources. Because with the existence of quality resources, it will give birth to a good and positive image in the eyes of the community.
Langlangbuana University Bandung is one of the private universities and is the author's choice to study its marketing management. Based on the results of observations of marketing management activities carried out by Langlang Buana University Bandung (hereinafter abbreviated to UNLA - Bandung) starting from planning to achieve the desired goals, the implementation of marketing defines entrepreneurship, namely business, but business here is not a business but an effort to gain the trust of the community. . Marketing is very necessary and important to do so that customers know and understand what is being offered. The existence of this marketing has made the number of students who are interested in entering UNLA Bandung increasing. Departing from the above premise, the researcher wants to try to examine How Educational Marketing Management is carried out by Higher Education in an effort to Increase Student Quantity.
Marketing Management Concepts
Marketing management or marketing management comes from two words management and marketing, namely two separate sciences that are combined into one activity. That is, the functions that exist in the two sciences are combined in the form of collaboration. Marketing is a social and managerial process that involves important activities that allow individuals and groups to get their needs and wants through exchanges with other parties and to develop exchange relationships. Marketing is an activity process that is influenced by various social, cultural, political, economic and managerial factors. The result of these various influences is that each individual or group gets their needs and wants by creating, offering, and exchanging products that have commodity values (Cimodity Values). Marketing is a human activity directed at fulfilling and satisfying needs and wants through an exchange process.
Marketing that is often adopted comes from the American Marketing Association according to Kotler & Armstrong (2012) which defines it as follows: marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and managing relationships with customers, all of which can benefit organization. Meanwhile, the American Marketing Association (AMA) defines marketing as follows, “Marketing is the planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals”. This means that marketing is a process of planning and implementing concepts, prices, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals.
The above definition can be concluded that marketing is an integrated effort to combine strategic plans directed at satisfying the needs and desires of consumers to obtain the expected benefits through the exchange or transaction process. The existence of satisfaction felt by consumers, raises a positive response in the form of repeated purchases, and encourages other consumers to buy the same product or service. Producers will also receive multiple profits through the dissemination of positive information from consumers to other consumers. The main elements in marketing can be classified into three main elements, namely:
1. Elements of a competitive strategy, including: (a) Market segmentation, namely the act of identifying and forming groups of buyers or consumers separately. Each of these consumers has their own characteristics, product needs, and marketing mix. (b) Targeting, namely the act of selecting one or more market segments to be entered. (c) Positioning, namely the determination of market position. The goal is to build and communicate the competitive advantages of existing products in the market into the minds of consumers.
2. Elements of marketing tactics, including: (a) Differentiation, which is related to how to build a marketing strategy in various aspects of the company. The activity of building a marketing strategy is what distinguishes the differentiation made by a company with other companies. (b) Marketing mix, related to activities regarding products, prices, promotions, and places or better known as 4Ps, namely Product, Price, Promotion, and Place.
3. Elements of marketing value, relating to: name, terminology, symbols, or designs, or a combination of these, which are intended to identify goods or services of a / group of sellers and differentiate them from competitors. Brands have many important meanings for consumers, namely: (a) As an identification to differentiate between one product and another. This identification is necessary so that consumers have the freedom to choose which products and brands meet their needs; (b) As a guarantee for the quality and performance of the product to be purchased. The brand will give confidence to consumers that; (c) A brand gives a person status and image. By buying a certain brand, it shows how one's social status is; Brands give emotional meaning. A fan of a football club, for example, will be willing to buy various kinds of merchandise that are sold with the club's attributes.
The purpose and function of educational marketing, of course, cannot be separated from the understanding that has been stated above. The goals of educational marketing are:
1. Provide information to the public about the products of educational institutions.
2. Increase public interest and interest in educational institution products.
3. Differentiate the products of educational institutions from other educational institutions.
4. Provide more assessment to the community with the products offered
5. Stabilize the existence and meaning of educational institutions in society. So, what you want to achieve from educational marketing is to get customers that are tailored to the target, both those related to the quality and quantity of prospective customers (students).
Meanwhile, the function of educational income is as a renewal step when an educational institution must follow or compensate for the intense competition in acquiring customers. The function of marketing (marketing) in the world of education is to create a good image for educational institutions. The aim is to attract community members to use the educational services provided by these educational institutions. The ways to create this image vary depending on the member of the society it is intended for. If the prospective customers we are aiming for are economically weak people, then we have to create an image that our madrasas are not expensive. If the target consumers are middle and upper economic groups who dare to pay more for better service quality, then the image we have to create is that our private universities provide better services than other private universities, even though for that they must pay a little more expensive. So, educational marketing is useful as a step in balancing the position of education in the era of global competition.
The marketing function of education/school services itself is part of a marketing technique that aims to achieve better results compared to marketing techniques that cannot achieve the target number of students or users of educational services as desired (Mantja, 2002). And the concepts carried out by an organization or educational institution includes:
a. Production Concept This concept states that like the products available and in tune with their abilities. Therefore management must concentrate on increasing the efficiency of production (from within educational institutions) and the efficiency of the distribution of institutions.
b. Product or Service Concept This concept holds that consumers or users of educational services will love and pay more attention or attention to the services offered with the best quality and performance standards and striking features, and therefore educational organizations or institutions must devote continuous efforts. in improving services.
c. Sales Concept The sales concept states that consumers will not buy and try the services offered unless educational institutions carry out a strong sales and promotion business. Therefore we need various perfect sales techniques to find good consumers.
d. Community Marketing Concept The concept of community marketing states that the task of an organization is to determine the needs, wants and interests of the target market and provide the desired satisfaction more effectively and more efficiently than competitors in such a way as to maintain and enhance public trust.
In maintaining the community/customers, the company must be able to understand what customer satisfaction is customer satisfaction is the result that buyers perceive of company performance that meets their expectations. Customers are satisfied when their expectations are met and happy/happy when their expectations are exceeded. Satisfied customers stay longer, buy more, and comment on the company.
Like a management function, marketing aims to provide direction and purpose to the activities of educational institutions. In addition, the marketing objective is to make the company or institution's product competitive because there is a value difference with competitors (Alma). The stronger the difference value, the better it is for the company or institution. Finding differences requires carefulness, accuracy, and high creativity. In the orientation of the marketing objectives of educational institutions is to maximize customer satisfaction. There are five dominant factors or determinants of the quality of education services, namely:
a. Reliability (realibility), namely the ability of teachers/lecturers to provide services as promised, reliable, accurate and consistent.
b. Capability (responsiveness), namely the willingness of employees and agency owners to help customers and provide services quickly and meaningfully as well as the willingness to hear and resolve complaints raised by consumers or users of educational services, for example the provision of appropriate means to ensure the proper process.
c. Assurance, namely the ability of employees to generate confidence and trust in promises that have been made to consumers, for example promises in promotions.
d. Empathy, namely the willingness of teachers or lecturers or employees and managers to be more concerned about giving personal attention to, among others, teachers or lecturers and employees who must position themselves as students or parents and customers. When a customer complains, a solution must be sought to reach a harmonious agreement by showing a genuine sense of care.
e. Tangible (Fungible), namely the appearance of physical facilities, equipment and various communication materials, such as buildings and cleanliness of buildings as well as neat spatial planning.
Discussing the increasing quantity of new students, it will certainly not be separated from the quality that is owned by the school. Because quality is a dynamic condition related to products, services, people, processes, and the school environment that have met the target. Education is considered as the most valuable investment in the form of improving the quality of human resources for the development of a nation, measured by the extent to which people receive education. The higher the education a society has, the more advanced the nation will be (Qomar, 2007). In today's competitive world of education, customer satisfaction in education services is one of the determining factors for the success of educational competencies. The contribution of education to national development is of course not just the provision of education, but quality education, both in terms of inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes (Qomar, 2015). With a quality learning process, it will create a sense of satisfaction that is felt by the community/student guardians. Everything that educational service marketers do in the end boils down to the value that educational service customers will provide for the satisfaction they feel. The creation of customer satisfaction (consumers) can provide several benefits, including the relationship between the company and the customer being harmonious, providing a good basis for repurchasing and creating customer loyalty and forming word of mouth recommendations that benefit the company (Schiffman et al., 1965). According to Tjiptono (1996), “customer satisfaction is the basic capital for companies in forming customer loyalty”. This means that loyal customers are the most valuable asset for the company in increasing the quantity/number of enthusiasts in a company.
The focus of educational marketing management has changed from just serving the educational process to how to make education users transformed into educational customers (education customers), where educational customers will give high loyalty so that they cannot turn to other institutions. Changes in the management aspect must be able to create:
1. Regular repeat purchases, namely customers who always buy or regularly use programs launched by the institution, for example, students complete their studies until the end, but stay in the same department;
2. Purchases across product and service lines, customers buy outside the product / service line, for example when a private university issues another program, many students from other private universities take part in the training;
3. Other refers, namely recommending other products, for example, students recommending to family, friends or the community any educational service program, whether it is recommending the course taken or other services (training, seminars, workshops and so on);
4. Demonstrates an immunity to the full of the competition, namely showing immunity from the attractiveness of similar products from competitors, for example, apart from private universities, UNLA, many other institutions offer similar education but as much and as interesting as anything other private universities do, students remain steadfast in choosing the private university UNLA as their educational service institution.
Customers like the one above that every educational institution will look for, this can be done through an educational marketing strategy; this strategy is adopted from the business world, where its application is adjusted to the philosophical values of education itself as a non-profit institution. The pattern of competition between tertiary institutions can be viewed as a conducive climate for the growth of education delivery. Education commercialization issues are a logical consequence of the unequal market served by existing tertiary institutions. The emergence of favorite universities is the result of the attributes of higher education institutions which are sensitively captured as universities that can meet market needs. The attributes of higher education include the vision and mission, physical infrastructure, the reputation of the educators, the achievements of students and graduates produced by the higher education institutions.
On the other hand, it is necessary to group a broad market for education service users into several segments. It would be better if private universities can sharpen their management strategy in relation to the market segment by implementing the allians strategy in the form of cooperation with other institutions. This is very logical when the competence and collaboration between educational institutions will become more dynamic, so for certain materials, universities can collaborate with competent partners.
Products in the world of education are divided into services: education, research, community service, extracurricular activities and administration. The form of these products should be in line with market demand or market desires followed by the ability and willingness of the market share (consumers) to purchase these educational services. Higher education institutions should produce educational services that are customer satisfaction oriented. In addition, it is also necessary to pay attention to the shift in the concept of customer benefits towards value for the educational services offered. Expensive tertiary institutions will not be a problem as long as the benefits felt by students exceed the costs incurred and vice versa, cheap universities are not guaranteed to be invaded by prospective students if they feel their value is low, this proves the quality of educational services is the main and absolute thing to build a positive and good image for an educational institution and this will affect the interest of the community/consumer attraction to the educational service products we offer.
Important factors that are carried out in managing marketing in higher education are:
Market Identification
The first stage in tertiary education marketing is to identify and analyze the market to determine market conditions and expectations including educational attributes which are of interest to consumers, including in this stage is the mapping of private universities-other private universities.
Market Segmentation and Positioning
Determining the target market is the next step in managing higher education marketing problems. In a market with a very diverse character, it is necessary to determine what attributes are of primary interest to education users. In general, markets can be selected based on demographic, geographic, psychological and behavioral characteristics. Thus, universities will find it easier to determine marketing strategies in relation to market characteristics and needs. In addition, institutions must know the character of the market, so that we can determine which parts of the market we will serve. Of course, economically, serving a large market will bring universities into a good scale of operation.
Product Differentiation
Differentiation is a strategy to offer different offers compared to those offered by competitors. The differentiation strategy implies that the company has a service or product that has a quality or function that can differentiate it from competitors. Differentiation strategy is carried out by creating perceptions of certain values in consumers. For example: perceptions of work excellence, product innovation, better service, a superior brand image, etc. Differentiating is an effective way of seeking market attention.
Of the many universities that exist, parents of students will find it difficult to choose a college for their child because the attributes of interests between universities are increasingly standard. Higher education should be able to give a different pressure from other universities in the form of attractive packaging such as logos and slogans. Internet facilities may become standard, but the guarantee of a safe and clean internet will attract the attention of parents. Making the difference easily can also be done in forms of physical appearance that are captured by the five senses that give a good impression, such as wearing attractive uniforms, clean campuses, infrastructure facilities or college stickers.
Cost Advantage (Low Cost)
The strategy to make all production costs efficient so as to produce a product or service that can be sold cheaper than competitors. This low price strategy focuses on price, so usually producers do not really care about various supporting factors of products or prices that are important to be able to sell products or services at low prices to consumers.
Marketing Communication
Higher education managers should be able to communicate the college marketing messages that the market expects. Higher education as a scientific institution will be more elegant if the forms of communication are presented in a scientific form / format, such as holding field competitions, scientific forums / seminars and the most effective is the recognition of achievements by independent media such as news in mass media. Communication that is deliberately carried out by universities in the form of promotions or even advertisements needs to be taken into consideration. The form and material of the message should be packaged elegantly but attract attention so that the university remains in the image of a university as forming good character and values.
Publication
Educational services marketing activities carried out at UNLA Bandung are carried out by implementing 4 (four) promotional mixes, namely Advertising, Personal Selling, Publicity, and Word of Mouth. Advertising is carried out by making billboards, banners, leaflets, posters, brochures, car branding, banners, and stickers which they put up in strategic places, such as roadsides, around school environments such as public and private high schools/vocational schools and other crowded places. In line with Fowler (2013), saying that advertising is a way of promotion that is often used in commercial marketing. Advertising can be done through the media, including: Electronic media (television, radio, film, cinema, internet); Print media (newspapers, magazines, bulletin); Outdoor media (billboards, electronic boards installed side by side moving roads electronically, billboards, tree advertisements, banners, posters and others).
Personal Selling is carried out by means of visits or outreach to schools such as public and private high schools/vocational schools. Usually the promotion team consists of 4 to 6 people who are tasked with providing information directly to the school and students in grade 3 (three) who will take part in the UAN, Basu Swastha (2007), said that personal selling is the interaction between individuals, meeting each other face to face, referred to create, improve, control or maintain mutually beneficial exchange relations with other parties.
Publicity is carried out by conducting roadshows, workshops or events on and off campus and then inviting journalists from print media to cover these activities. In addition, the promotion team utilizes internet media through FB social networks and websites to share pictures or photos of roadshows, workshops and events they have conducted with other social network users. This is expected to create a good campus image in the community. In accordance with the opinion of Basu Swastha (2007), publicity is “some information about a person, goods, or organization that is disseminated to the public through the media free of charge, or without the supervision of a sponsor”.
The last yeng promotional activity is the Word of Mouth which is carried out by involving all staff, students and alumni to disseminate positive information about the campus to the wider community around them such as family, friends, neighbors, or people they know, in this activity people hope those who get the information will be interested and will re-disseminate the information that has been received to others. Publications that are often forgotten but have a strong influence are the promotion of successful alumni who can share experiences or evidence of university success. Peer groups can be one of the most effective forms of marketing. Looking at the age of high school students, peers are one of the most influential factors in decision making.
Through the activity steps mentioned above, universities can achieve a balance in the operationalization of teaching in a condition of competing for “consumers” from many university administrators. Thus the problem of college student shortages does not occur again. Educational organizations should have a management system that maximizes the attributes considered by the market as important attributes in an educational institution. So that the concept of educational marketing with a service/product perspective will develop into a market-oriented and even society-oriented education marketing concept. The next step in the strategy is how college services can look like what consumers expect. The gap that often occurs is the difference in people's perceptions of the quality and attributes of the educational services offered.
Based on the results of research on service organizations of a university, several characteristics of a good service organization were found, namely service organizations that have:
1. A strategic concept that focuses on consumers.
2. Quality commitment from top management
3. High standard setting
4. System for monitoring service performance
5. System for satisfying customer complaints
6. Satisfying employees with customers.
To achieve the characteristics mentioned above, it is fitting for educational institutions to know what parameters will be the strengths in service organizations. There are at least five determinants of service quality, namely: reliability, responsiveness, confidence, empathy and form.
Reliability is the ability to carry out the promised services appropriately and reliably. In every realization of higher education services, it should be in accordance with what has been promised and further condition the existing services to help the success of the teaching and learning process. Responsiveness is the ability to help customers and provide services quickly. Speed of time must also be followed by punctuality so that service quality is not sacrificed. The person in charge of activities, in this case the university manager, is the spearhead in responding to stakeholders. They should be able to answer each question at least to be good listeners when complaints arise.
Confidence is the knowledge and competence of lecturers and the ability of lecturers to generate trust and confidence in consumers (students and society). Market confidence that arises is a reputation for higher education that has been built over a certain period of time and is primarily a reflection of the quality of the lecturers. For this reason, an internal marketing approach strategy is needed, namely how college owners can increase the ability/competence of lecturers and motivate lecturers to be more confident in their organization.
Empathy is a prerequisite for caring, giving personal attention to customers. In principle, every human being likes to be noticed by others. This can be the basis for higher education treatment to pay attention to each student's development. Good administrative management, including databases, can facilitate this approach.
Tangible is the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communication media. In general, educational services will look better when physical facilities are complete and good. To add to the manifestation of services, it can be done by creating the intangible. Meanwhile, regarding several elements that need to be considered in educational marketing, there is a slight difference between educational institutions that already have a good image in the community (favorite private universities) and educational institutions that are said to have no image. For institutions that already have an image in the implementation of educational marketing, they only need planning that can improve the existence of these private tertiary institutions. This can be done with continuous quality improvement with innovation as a new breakthrough in anticipating the demand for the world of work as the relevance of education.
Image/image is an impression of feelings or conceptions that exist in the public about a company, about an object, person or about an institution. An image cannot be printed like printing goods, but an image is an impression that is obtained according to one's knowledge, understanding of something.
Image is formed from how the institution carries out its operational activities which have the main foundation in terms of services. Image is also formed based on impressions, based on the experience experienced by someone with something, so that it can build a mental attitude. And this mental attitude will be used as a consideration for making decisions. Because the image is considered to represent the totality of one's knowledge of something. Educational institutions and other non-profit institutions, seek the funds needed to finance the organization. These funds are obtained from people associated with the organization. Therefore, to make it easier to flow, it is necessary to form a good image of the organization. Thus, educational institutions must strive to create a positive image in the hearts of the community, so that people can make decisions to enroll their children into these educational institutions.
The implementation of service quality elements is the main thing that must be carried out for a university in providing educational services so that it can make the higher education superior and in the end it will make it easier for marketers to communicate the strengths of the college. So that in delivering the message of the university's vision and mission, the public can understand it easily and quickly, there will be no misunderstanding, trust and strong harmonious relationships from consumers and stakeholders will be built. When each consumer and stakeholder component in the education system understands which direction the higher education is headed, then the gap between the demand and supply of education users will be smaller. Higher education institutions will focus more on the target market in accordance with their mission while still considering the feasibility of being able to operate and develop.
Educational marketing management is a social and managerial process in which individuals and groups get what they need and want by creating and exchanging and utilizing services (quality and quantity of educational institutions and teaching systems that have been offered in promotional or sales activities) with users’ educational services (parents/guardians). The increasing quantity of new students will certainly not be separated from the quality possessed by private universities-UNLA Bandung. Because quality is a dynamic condition related to products, services, people, processes, and the private university environment - UNLA Bandung that has met the target.