Solutions to impove the marketing activities at thanh long university

vietnam national university, HANOI school of business Nguyen Thi Hai Oanh SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE THE MARKETING ACTIVITIES AT THANG LONG UNIVERSITY Major: Business Administration Code: 60 34 05 Master of business administration thesis Supervisor: Dr Nguyen Thi Phi Nga Hanoi - 2011 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is a pleasure to convey my gratitude to those whom without their help my thesis is far from its completion in my humble acknowledgment In the first place I would like to record my gratitude to Dr Nguyen Thi Phi Nga for her supervision, advice, and guidance from the very early stage of this research as well as giving me extraordinary experiences through out the work Above all and the most needed, she provided me unflinching encouragement and support in various ways I am indebted to her more than she knows I gratefully acknowledge the teaching staff at Hanoi School of Business for their precious lectures which had given me the basic foundation of theory for my research In also send my sincere thanks to my family, my husband and my daughter for their endless encouragement and help during my course of doing the thesis Finally, I would like to thank everybody who was important to the successful realization of thesis, as well as expressing my apology that I could not mention personally one by one ii ABSTRACT “SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE THE MARKETING ACTIVITIES AT THANG LONG UNIVERSITY ” Nguyen Thi Hai Oanh MAB Candidate, 2009 – 2011 School of business Vietnam National University, Hanoi Supervisor: Dr Nguyen Thi Phi Nga November 2011, 97 pages Nowadays, together with economic development, social demands on qualified human resources are rising Therefore, it is essential for private education sector to improve their advantages in order to provide education services of all levels, especially tertiary and higher education Obviously, that means education now should be considered as a market With a view to meeting higher and higher demands on education and training, the first private university of Vietnam – Thang Long University is managing to provide learners with professional education services with modern training courses in various fields; high quality training programs; modern and professional education environment Thang Long University, the first private university in Vietnam, was formally established in 1988 under the Decision No 1687/KH-TV dated 15th December 1988 of the Ministry of Education and Training And Thang Long Private University officially operates in private sector under the name of Thang Long University under the Decision No 1888/QD-TTG of the Prime Minister dated 31st December 2007 iii During the period of 22 years of development, together with other universities in both public and private education sectors, Thang Long University has made the education market more multifarious Thanks for that, learners and audiences have many choices for training courses in their concerned fields Thang Long University is providing many social high-demand faculties such as Foreign Languages, Accounting, Finance and Banking and Social Activities… However, beside various opportunities and advantages, Thang Long University still has to face with many difficulties in such a competitive education market That is the reason why an effective and productive marketing strategy should be regarded as the first priority of the university Main problem of Thang Long University in this stage is to develop an appropriate strategy to take full advantages and overcome difficulties to achieve the goals that the university has proposed In this thesis, the basic theories of Strategic Marketing Management was used, combined with studying to evaluate customers‟ satisfaction in order to analyze the effect of internal and external factors to give out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Thang Long University Based on the results obtained, in Chapter III, the system of recommendation and proposed implementation plan for key solutions were made to better the image of Thang Long University iv TÓM TẮT MỘT SỐ GIẢI PHÁP NHẰM CẢI THIỆN HOẠT ĐỘNG MARKETING TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC THĂNG LONG Nguyen Thi Hai Oanh Khoa Quản trị kinh doanh Đại học Quốc Gia, Hà Nội Người hướng dẫn: TS Nguyễn Thị Phi Nga Tháng 11.2011, 97 trang Trong phát triển kinh tế không ngừng nay, nhu cầu nguồn nhân chất lương cao đặt nhu cầu hàng đầu xã hội Bởi vậy, thời điểm khu vực giáo dục tư nhân buộc phải phát triển lợi thể thân để cung cấp dịch vụ giáo dục chuyên nghiệp cho thị trường giáo dục Việt Nam Với mục tiêu đáp ứng nhu cầu ngày cao giáo dục đào tạo xã hội, trường đại học tư thục Việt Nam, đại học dân lập Thăng Long cố gắng để đưa tới người học dịch vụ giáo dục chuyên nghiệp với khóa học chất lượng cao với nhiều chuyên ngành đa dạng với môi trường học tập đại bậc Việt Nam Trường Đại học Thăng Long trường đại học dân lập Việt Nam thành lập theo Quyết định số 1687/KH-TV ngày 15 tháng 12 năm 1988 Giáo dục Đào tạo Sau này, theo định số 1888/QD-TTG thủ tướng phủ ngày 31 tháng 12 năm 2007, Đại học dân lập Thăng Long thức đổi tên thành Đại học Thăng Long Trong suốt trình 22 năm thành lập phát triển, Đại học Thăng Long góp phần xây dựng thị trường giáo dục đa dạng Cùng với trường đại v học khác khối Giáo dục Công Giáo dục tư thục, Đại học Thăng Long giúp người học có nhiều lựa chọn chương trình đào tạo chuyên ngành Đại học Thăng Long tập trung đào tạo ngành thị trường lao động có nhu cầu cao như: Ngoại ngữ, kế tốn, tài ngân hàng, hoạt động xã hội… Tuy nhiên, bên cạnh nhiều hội lợi mình, Đại học Thăng Long phải đối diện với nhiều khó khăn thị trường giáo dục vô cạnh tranh Đó lý nhà quản lý nên xem xét chiến lược Marketing hiệu mục tiêu hàng đầu cần làm trình phát triển Vấn đề Đại học Thăng Long xây dựng chiến lược phát triển phù hợp nhằm tận dụng triệt để lợi thế, khắc phục khó khăn để đạt mục tiêu mà nhà trường đề Trong luận văn này, lý thuyết quản trị chiến lược Marketing sử dụng kết hợp với nghiên cứu mức độ thỏa mãn khách hàng nhằm phân tích ảnh hưởng yếu tố bên bên để nhìn điểm mạnh, điểm yếu , hội thách thức mà Đại học Thăng Long có Dựa kết thu được, chương III luận văn này, hệ thống kiến nghị, đề xuất phác thảo kế hoạch thực giải pháp quan trọng cho công tác Marketing nhằm giúp Đại học Thăng Long ngày phát triển vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS vii LIST OF FIGURES x LIST OF TABLES xi INTRODUCTION .1 Reason for thesis selection .1 Objectives of the research .2 Scope of the research Research Methodology Expected results The structure of the thesis .4 CHAPTER 1: GENERAL THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF MARKETING SERVICE AND MARKETING IN EDUCATION 1.1 Overview of Marketing Service .5 1.1.1 Definition of Marketing Service 1.1.2 General characteristics of Marketing Service 1.1.3 Mar-Mix in Marketing Service .13 1.2.1 General concepts of Marketing in Education 22 1.2.2 Mar-mix in Education 25 1.3 The application of Marketing in Education in Vietnam 34 1.3.1 Overview and experience of the application of Marketing in Education in some countries 34 vii 1.3.2 Analyzing the quality of tertiary education in Vietnam 36 1.3.3 Marketing in Education and the necessity of Marketing in Education in Vietnam .38 CHAPTER 2: THE ANALYSIS OF THE APPLICATION OF MARKETING IN EDUCATION AT THANG LONG UNIVERSITY 40 2.1 An overview of Thang Long University 40 2.1.1 The history of Thang Long University 40 2.1.2 The human resource of Thang Long University .41 2.2 The current situation of Marketing activities of Thang Long Universities .44 2.2.1 The Thang Long‟s activities environment analysis 44 2.2.2 The necessity of the application of marketing activities to Thang Long University 55 2.2.3 Thang Long University market positioning 61 2.2.4 The current situation of the application of Mar-mix .63 2.2.5 Assessing the effectiveness of marketing activities at Thang Long University 80 CHAPTER 3: SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE THE MARKETING ACTIVITIES IN EDUCATION .82 AT THANG LONG UNIVERSITY 82 3.1 Thang Long University‟s development strategies from 2010 -2020 82 3.1.1 Development point of view and objectives from 2010 – 2020 .82 3.2 Suggested solutions to improve the marketing activities at Thang Long University 85 3.2.1 Solutions to education products at Thang Long University 85 viii 3.2.2 Solutions to the pricing policies at Thang Long University 86 3.2.3 Developing the teaching staff‟s professional competencies and improving the quality of Education 88 3.2.4 Solutions to promotion mix .89 3.3 Supported solutions 93 3.3.1 Establishing of a system to study students‟ needs 93 3.3.2 Cooperating with universities at home and abroad for a better brand image and position .93 3.3.3 Establishing Marketing Department at Thang Long University 95 CONCLUSION 96 REFERENCES 99 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.3: Direct distribution channel (Services Marketing course book, page 281) Figure 1.4: Indirect distribution channels (Services Marketing course book, page 281) x measures of testing and evaluating are used in the mid - semester tests The university designed details and particular regulations on testing progress Teachers and trainers of each faculty have responsibilities on tailoring testing contents of their disciplines The university has stated their standards on graduation from training programs and should pay more attention to the improvement of standards on graduation By these criteria, training programs must supply learners with both professional and practical knowledge in order to help them be self confident in their knowledge and skills The quality of graduation, therefore, could be regarded as strong proof of the university‟s training quality Image 3.2: Students and Lecturers at Thang Long University In order to approach the education quality of neighbor countries and all over the world, Thang Long University are focusing on its advantageous disciplines such as accounting, business administration and finance and banking, and developing new majors such as social activities and nursing Through global cooperation, the university should negotiate with abroad universities and countries that recognize and identify the diplomas of Thang Long University 86 Thang Long University committed to provide students with a good and healthy education environment which has been implemented in various ways to meet students‟ satisfaction Firstly, the leaders at Thang Long University are well-aware of the importance of a qualified, knowledgeable and whole-hearted teaching staffs for the philosophy of „like teachers like students‟ or „good teacher makes good students‟ Money and encouragement are spent and addressed to invest in the teaching staff improvement The teaching staffs are encouraged to better themselves with constant self-study and further education Training courses, academic workshops are regularly organized to provide lectures with the chance to get access to the world of knowledge and teaching methodology Obviously, these are all for the sake of students Also, administrative staffs are offered opportunity to better all the soft skills to serve student well Learning and teaching are the two first priorities at Thang Long University Whatever plans and strategies written and implemented all aim at offering the best to students Lectures are asked to work under organized and effective principles with self-aware spirit It is very common to see the teaching staffs working overtime in return for the understanding and knowledge of students In Thang Long University students and teachers often work together regardless of time concept for the students‟ benefit Students admit that they had the feeling of comfort learning here for they can ask for supports from the school and teaching staffs whenever in need This is only generated from the culture we are proud of Apart from good investment in the teaching staff, good investment is also spent on knowledge accessible resources for students and teaching staff‟s benefit In order to get information students can get access to the electronic library open free of charge 10 hours a day from 7a.m to p.m in accordance with piles of reading materials in the traditional library On a regular basis, workshops and forums are organized with the participation of successful entrepreneurs of all business sectors to help students have an over view of what real work experience will be in the employment market In so doing, the leaders try to bridge students to a variety of knowledge resources 87 3.2.2 Solutions to the pricing policies at Thang Long University Financial plans are made according to the general planning processes At the end of years, the management board states about planning financial programs for the next year to all departments in the university Based on their lecture programs and responsibilities, each department will make their annual financial plans Due to prices of education programs at Thang Long University cost higher than that of other private universities, the university should pay attention to improve the quality of educational products Understandably, educational products with high quality might involve students who concerned about joining education programs 3.2.3 Developing the teaching staff’s professional competencies and improving the quality of Education Developing the teaching staff is always regarded as the top priority and the most important factor in the development of Thang Long University For years, the university has been concentrating on developing the teaching staffs and officers with a view to improve the quality and expand the scale of education programs The management board, teaching staffs and officers of Thang Long University are enthusiastic for the field of education and training Additionally, they are also keen on upgrading their professional qualification and applying their management skills Thang Long University has built the process and method to evaluate teachers and lecturers‟ abilities All departments and faculties always arranges lectures to review and evaluate lectures in order to gain experiences They also have responsibilities for managing outlines of each module, checking lectures, reviewing, managing teaching timetable, evaluating quality of teaching frequently The university also has been focusing on changing and adapting new teaching methods Recently, Thang Long University has organize two courses on modern learners oriented teaching methods In order to improve teaching methods, the university encourages the teachers and trainers to use hi-tech equipments into their lectures 88 Besides, it is undeniable that the modern physical evidence play an important role to apply updated teaching methods into lectures such as projector, power point slide show… Furthermore, the teaching staffs need to apply their skills in many field Notably, professional skills and practical skills as well need improving through training courses and workshops that can help them enrich their knowledge Their teaching skills need to be adapted for generational psychological difference of students The university also supports their lectures with both physical and mental evidence to research in order to improve their knowledge efficiently Compensation and Benefits policy (C&B Policy) is regarded as one factor that also influence to the quality of teaching staffs Improving the quality of education and training is the matter concerned by the state, especially the Ministry of Education and training Hence, upgrading the quality of teaching staffs that have responsibilities for delivering knowledge to learners is regarded as the top priority of each educational institution Good teachers and lecturers with strong academic background and various practical experiences could help students feel more interested in their lecture and eager to research In a word, the University should continue motivate the teaching staff to make self-improvement by means of appraisal and encouragement both spritually and physically 3.2.4 Solutions to promotion mix 3.2.4.1 Advertising activities Advertising by word of month is always considered to be one of the most effective channels to a business in long term period In the field of education and training, the customers who used the education products could issue right and exact evaluation about the quality of educational institution Therefore, Thang Long University concerns about the review from current students at the university and 89 also the graduates who applied gained knowledge into their works The university has done the survey on the educational quality Additionally, the university should contact directly to employers that the graduates are working for to collect their feedback Thanks for the good feedbacks, the image and position of the university could be strengthened and promoted Therefore, it is recommended that the university should make a long term plan for evaluating the quality of educational programs and provide society with good educated-products to make full use of the WOM means of advertisement 3.2.4.2 PR activities At Thang Long University, the department of public relations officially established in 2009, plays an important role in directly carrying out PR activities It is undeniable that PR is one of the most effective activities in the marketing mix policies The main task of the PR department is to organize activities and events and to promote the image of Thang Long University through cooperation with 19 clubs at the university, especially marketing club In order to complete the task, PR department built cooperation with newspapers, press and communication organization such as VTV2; VOV, Tien Phong Newspaper, Thanh Nien, Dantri… Notably, Thang Long University holds the anunal event of Open Day that aims to provide information about Thang Long University to high school students and their families in middle of March From 2009, visiting to high schools in Hanoi and other provinces where a number of students come from, is also one of PR activities at Thang Long University However, these PR activities have just carried out recently from 2009 when the PR department was established officially However Thang Long University‟s PR plans have not been launched and implemented more than one year Due to limited budget for PR programs, PR department of Thang Long University has not been able to use all PR channels effectively Additionally, the staffs in this department still need to improve and apply themselves in professional knowledge and skills 90 Thang Long University should concentrate on PR activities that could bring effectiveness in promoting the image of Thang Long University 3.2.4.3 Direct marketing activities Direct marketing activities is defined that organizations directly contact individuals and/or organizations who need to know information about organizations Thang Long University has also implemented direct marketing activities through visiting high schools in Hanoi and other provinces to introduce about the university to students Besides, the university also has activities combining PR and direct marketing activities such as the annual event of Open Day in middle of March Additionally, Thang Long University should focus on direct sources including:  High school in Hanoi and other provinces  Graduated students from other universities who have demands on upgrade their diploma with Master couses However, direct marketing activities haven‟t been estimated as importantly as they should be Therefore, Thang Long University should promote activities to find out their potential customers who need details of information about the education and training programs at the university 91 Image 3.3 and 3.4: Open Day March 2011 at Thang Long University 92 3.3 Supported solutions 3.3.1 Establishing a system to study students’ needs Researching information and needs of students means looking for customers‟ demands in educational market Due to changeable demands of customers, this activity should be implemented frequently and in time Therefore, it is required professional operation in order to gain right information Thang Long University should establish a system to study students‟ needs that must work frequently with a view to update the needs, wishes of students The university should concentrate not only on current students studying at the university but also the graduates and students having demands on the educational programs Thanks for that, the image and position of Thang Long University could be promoted and strengthened nation wide and abroad 3.3.2 Cooperating with universities at home and abroad for a better brand image and position Global cooperation is one of the most important priorities of Thang Long University In recent years, Thang Long University has kept building and developing the cooperation relationship with various abroad universities and international organizations The university has gained tremendous achievements in many fields such as education, science research… Thank for these achievements, Thang Long University could position itself in the recent educational situation On 14th January 2011, the team of professors from San Jose State University – USA visited Thang Long University to discuss about corporation between the two universities According to the bilateral agreement, Thang Long University signed corporation in Educational Programs in Social Activities 93 Image 3.5: Meeting between Thang Long University and San Jose State University – USA in January 2011 Together with enhancing cooperation with universities abroard, Thang Long University should shake hands with educational institutions at home, especially in terms of inviting senior lecturers and proffessors to solve the problems of highflyers shortage By so doing, the University can help both students and the core teaching staff to have chances to learn and exchange knowledge as well as have exposure to different teaching and doing research methods Not only should the university strengthen its cooperation with educationalists, but also with enterprises It is advisable for the university to create a network of graduates who are now working in different enterprises and invite them to participate in talk show or make presentations to share real-life experiences with the undergraduates in out-side class activities 94 3.3.3 Establishing Marketing Department at Thang Long University Although the PR Department was established in 2009, a particular Marketing department at the university would play a crucial role in implementing Marketing activities Therefore, It is very necessary to make the university aware of the effectiveness of Marketing activities Then the university could launch right strategies and guidelines Marketing activities could be implemented disjointedly and fragmentally unless there is a particular and professional Marketing department Besides, it is very necessary to train staff in PR department to become a team of competent people Human is always key factor Without them, the department can not be established and operated Thus the human resource development should be paid due attention, which helps the PR department stronger and well-developed In addition, the university should recruit the right staff to work in PR department They should be the people who have academic background and practical work experiences in marketing to help the university make long – term marketing plans and strategies instead of assigning lecturers from some departments to take up the job while still being incharge of their teaching careers 95 CONCLUSION Applied Marketing in the field of education and training could be considered as a new topic Together with development in economy, politic and society in Vietnam after joining WTO, Marketing will more and more promote its role in many fields including education and training Due to higher people‟s social consciousness, everyone wants and needs to apply themselves and improve their knowledge and skills through training programs While private universities and education centers have been developing and competing together in the educational market, Thang Long University should apply Marketing activities to improve its position effectively Therefore, this thesis has offered marketing related solutions in order to improve Marketing operation at Thang Long University Notably, it is recommended that diversifying education products and improving products‟ quality could help the university‟s products meet social demands The thesis proposed two marketing related solutions to promote education and training activities at Thang Long University including marketing mix factors based solutions and additional solutions a Marketing mix factors based solutions:  Diversifying the educational products and develop new disciplines  Improving quality and quantity of teaching staffs  Improving quality of educational products through practical researches  Advertising and promoting the image and position of the university in order to deliver information about the university to target markets b Additional solutions: 96  Establishing the Marketing department at the university that could specialize in developing and implementing related activities  Checking out and completing marketing operations From Marketing related point of view, corporations can not satisfy all customers at the same time However, it doesn‟t mean unsatisfied cusomers could get bad impression of corporations Many managers of corporations have a common though that thier customers must have satisfied with the products while leaving none of feedback Actually, just 1/3 unsatisfied customers complained about their problems and only 5% of these complaints reach management board Moreover, customers complaining about products or service are not representative for all customers or unsatisfied customers Therefore, in order to know how customers think and feel about corpoartions, they need to collect feedback from their customers actively Many corporation actively encourage their customers to complain about thier problems with products and services Evaluating customers‟ satisfaction is regarded as the only way to know how they feel about the quality of added values of products and services Based on mentioned theoretical foundation, Thang Long Unviersity has researched and searched information about students‟ ideas with many ways:  Type and purposes of research Studying to evaluate customers‟ satisfaction is one type of description sesearch The research describes all issue related to attitudes, behaviors, proposes of customers The purposes of research is to know how students estimated and felt about educational programs and quality of training courses Then these results will play an important role in creating effective marketing solutions  Subjects of research Subject of researching includes current students studying at Thang Long 97 University, the graduates and individuals who have demand to attend training programs provided by the university Notably, the current students and graduates are two key factors to extract information that could be helpful in improving the quality of training programs at the university On the basis of clearly defined objectives, subjects and scope of the research, this thesis has contributed to collect and solve some general problems: The thesis analyzed, synthesized and systemized the fundamental issues about service and marketing service in the field of education and training Meanwhile, the thesis also studied the situation of educational market with a view to indicate crucial demands of almost all universities on using educational consulting service to improve their competitiveness On the basis of practical analysis, the thesis analyzed the Marketing activities at Thang Long University Accordingly, the university‟s opportunities, objective challenges and abilities are explored to develop strengths and fix weaknesses Thanks for that, effective and suitable solutions for the Marketing operation could be found The thesis aims to propose solutions related to the field of marketing service in order to give a new direction and completely change the way to think of educational institutions as businesses that need marketing activities to grow and maintain sustainable development Accordingly, educational institutions could determine customers‟ expectations and adapt to meet these expectations subjectively Thanks for these solutions; I strongly believe that Thang Long University could become one of the most prestigious universities in Vietnam in not – too - distant future 98 REFERENCES Lan Châu (2009), “Marketing in Education and training: the art of overcoming offensive”, Marketing Vietnam, (57), Page 58-60 Nguyen Quang Dong (2008), “Strategies on developing higher education in Vietnam – achievements, opportunities and challenges”, Economic and Development Journal, (134), Page 48-53 Tran Minh Dao (2006), Basic Marketing, National Economic University Press, Hanoi William James (2006), Simple Marketing, Labor and Society Publisher, Hà Nội Tran Kieu, Nguyen Viet Su (2003), “ Strategies on developing education and training and issue on human resources in Vietnam”, Science Journal, (1), Page 5758 Philip Kotler (2005), Marketing Management, Analysis Publisher, Hanoi Philip Kotler (1992), Basic Marketing, Analysis Publisher, Hanoi James Morrison (2006), “Higher Education in USA”, Current America, (12), Page 59-64 Luu Van Nghiem (2008), Marketing Service, National Economic University Press 10 Don Sexton (2007), Marketing 101, Labor and Society Publisher, Hanoi 99 Website www.marketingchienluoc.com www.marketingvietnam.com www.openshare.com.vn www.chungta.com www.business.gov.vn www.brainmarkbietnam.com www.thanglong.edu.vn http://www.thanglong.edu.vn/tin-tuc/832-cong-khai-thong-tin-co-sogiao-duc-dai-hoc-dai-hoc-thang-long-.html www.wikipedia.org 100 ... the marketing activities at Thang Long University 85 3.2.1 Solutions to education products at Thang Long University 85 viii 3.2.2 Solutions to the pricing policies at Thang Long. .. Long University where the author is working, the thesis ? ?Solutions to improve the Marketing activities at Thang Long University? ?? is considered as practical project for the author to analyze Marketing. .. ANALYSIS OF THE APPLICATION OF MARKETING IN EDUCATION AT THANG LONG UNIVERSITY 2.1 An overview of Thang Long University 2.1.1 The history of Thang Long University Thang Long University, which is the