Assessing the effectiveness of direct marketing and digital communication as integrated marketing communication strategies : a case study of the University of Limpopo student recruitment programme

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) strategies used by the University of Limpopo’s Marketing and Communication, Student Recruitment division. The study focuses on the use of IMC strategies including direct marketing, which includes marketing through branding, face- to -face interaction with customers and other elements including advertising. The other aspect of the marketing strategy is digital communication, which includes social media and web marketing that the university uses to market themselves to their prospective students. The use of marketing strategies by higher institutions of learning was addressed in the literature review and the importance of implementing the strategies was also discussed. The study focused further on direct marketing and digital communication strategies following low student number enrolments in 2016, especially in the faculties of Science and Agriculture, as well as in Management and Law. The study examined the way in which the university presents and sells itself, promotes its services and maintains the relationship between students, both international and domestic. In this work, IMC strategies were explained and outlined for understanding, which allows for proper implementation of the strategies. The use of General Systems Theory (GST) served as a theoretical outline for this study to highlight the importance of marketing strategies that operate in a systematic way. The use of GST also advocated for the implementation of marketing strategies as a system. The theory was able to link both IMC strategies and the organisation of higher learning, wherein IMC is a system itself. There are elements of IMC that work together to create a system in an organisation. GST supports education as it was stated that educational institutions deal with marketing strategies which, need to be approached in a systematic way (Buckey, 1968). Institutions of higher learning are composed of many systems, which should not be viewed as individual, separate units, but as contributing parts to the effective functioning of the whole marketing strategy. The research design utilised grounded theory for philosophical methodological underpinning. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews taken from nine, (9) high school leaners from Zimbabwe and South Africa. International high v school participants were attending an exhibition in different places in Zimbabwe, such as Harare (Gateway High School). In South Africa, data was collected from different areas, such as Capricorn, Vhembe, Mopanae and Blouberg in Limpopo province. Branding and the use of social media was also a concern. Most participants concluded that the university needs to upgrade its marketing strategies and focus more on the digital communication as teenagers spend time on their digital devices, which can be helpful in accessing the information they need.