CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter summarizes the topics as taken from related literature and

studies that the researcher studied in connection with the research.

Related Literature

The main topics that are under this study include online marketing,

consumer behavior or consumer choice, social media, use of websites, and search

engine optimization.

Online Marketing. Online marketing or internet marketing is the means of

increasing traffic or enhancing online visibility through varied promotional activities

done on the internet (Adams, 2017). Adams said that there are ten known

essential online marketing approaches and these are search engine optimization,

search engine marketing, social media marketing, pay per click ads, affiliate

marketing, email marketing, influencer marketing, blogging, video marketing, and

content marketing. Nuseir (2016) named other forms like display advertising,

sponsored search, and classifieds. To benefit from the Internet, marketers use

some of these approaches to acquire or attract the audience, convert them into

customers, and retain them as patrons of your product or service (Roberts and

Zahay,2013,).
 With the principal aim of marketing as any action of promoting a company’s

products, services, brand, and reputation as well, marketing should first be an

effective source of information for the market or the consumers. Other than a

source of information, one recognized advantage of online marketing is its role as

a communication channel. According to Johnston (2010), the job of the marketers

of higher education institution concern the communication to potential students the

advantage of enrolling in their institution. These approaches should therefore

enable the university’s voice to be heard as much as online influencers, which in

this case would be other students, are loud on the online marketing platforms that

the school and the students use.

Studies showed that higher education marketing has embraced the online

space as their tool for promoting the school’s offerings (Hanover, 2014, p.3).

Unlike in traditional marketing which only makes use of a one-way communication,

online marketing enables consumers to give feedback, look for enlightening

answers to their questions, and consequently share this in virtual networks (Nuseir,

2016, p.237). In today’s digital era, online marketing may be considered an

indispensable tool for business operations as almost everything now is on the

Internet, and it is clear that the online market is a continuously growing audience

(Schwarzl and Grabowska, 201, p.195).

Websites and social media. As a source of information, online marketing

can best perform this job through websites and social media. College websites

should contain valuable information as students agree that they rely on getting
information from the websites about the college (Pokhrel, Tiwari, & Phuyal, 2016,

p.32). In addition, websites should be treated as its topmost representative

especially online (Hanover, 2014, p.3). In a study conducted in 2014, 68% of the

participants indicated their preference for viewing information online as they are

the key players of a higher education institution in building an image that students

will perceive of a certain university.

When it comes to social media, it is one best example of online marketing

approaches that are seen to be beneficial in higher education marketing. With

social media that allows sharing of content and exchanging comments, university

marketers allow a two-way communication between the university and the potential

enrollees, and in addition, a two-way communication between those potential

enrollees with their peers (p.23). This is achieved as key people from the

university have a chance to interact with students on their accounts and respond to

their inquiries as quickly as possible (Spearman, et.al, 2016).

These online tools that marketers use for student recruitment are viewed

with a fundamental role in forming a certain perception of the university. This

perception will in turn affect the decisions they will make (Spearman, et al, 2016).

In a report conducted by De Water (2010), the use of websites and social media is

effective in stimulating or building up interest among students, asserting the

relationship between a forward-looking website traffic and enrolment rate increase

at the least once students perceived the message positively. On its own, the

internet is recognized to have a huge impact on the perception of consumers and

their purchasing patterns (Nuseir, 2016, p. 230). This is shown in another study

resulting to 75% of the respondents who confirm that websites and social media

really aid them when evaluating their choices and making their buying decisions

(Nuseir, 2016, p. 233)

Consumer Behavior. In marketing, several literatures talk about similar

concepts or terms like consumer behavior, consumer decision making, consumer’s

preferences and consumer choice. Consumer behavior is defined as the dynamic

interplay of perception and actions of an individual or consumer along with is

environment (Peter and Olson, 2010). It involves not just the thoughts and feelings

of the consumers, but also the things that influence his action, and the interaction

he has with his surroundings. Consumer behavior is dynamic such that it changes

all the time, and one’s behavior may be affected by the different exchanges he has

with other consumers as well. Affected by a lot of factors categorized into

personal, psychological, situational, and societal factors with many other branching

factors, consumer behavior is a complicated study which requires continuous

market research (Tanner and Raymond, 2012).

In marketing, thrusting deeper into the intellect and emotions of every

consumer is extremely important, as this will give them ideas as to what products

to create that will appeal to the customers, how to satisfy the consumers’ needs

and wants, and how to increase customer retention. It furthermore allows

marketers to develop strategies that will elevate their chances of creating favorable

thoughts on consumers that will affect their purchasing decision or choice.

Marketing strategies are complemented by a comprehensive grasp of consumer

behavior which implies that it is essential to understand the consumers choice,

preferences, decision making, and behavior to support a company’s marketing

campaign. The better understanding the marketers have on consumer behavior,

the more quality it can provide for its products and services, and the easier and

more constructive the making and the content of their marketing plan may be

(Peter and Olson, 2010).

Consumer choice is a marketing and an economics concept, and in two

disciplines they are also interconnected and possess the same known factors like

price, perception, and external influences. In marketing, it relates to how

consumers perceive product and service offerings and make action upon the

perception and in economics, it is about the relationship of the consumers’ choices

to demand and supply in the economy, as well as to utility. Choice is said to

manifested in the marketplace and apparently in this age, technologies have come

to affect consumer choice (Dholakia, 2012). Right now, more and more studies

are conducted discussing the art of manipulating consumer choice with recent

findings related to neuroscience, identifying those factors that directly affect the

thinking of a customer (Bault and Rusconi, 2020). Consumer choice has been

studied with its relationship with web experience, social media, and other

technologies, while it still maintains its correlation with other external influences

and internal factors.

 Integrated Marketing Communications. Integrated Marketing

Communications (IMC) refers to the blending or incorporating all promotional

activities or marketing tools to target customers, making them work together to

drive more sales and achieve cost efficiency (Juneja, 2015). It plays a vital role in

conveying the brand message on a wider scope, reaching more audience to

spread the organization’s brand, products, and services. By reaching a larger

audience and influencing their consumer choice, IMC helps yield more revenues

for the company. As it aims not just to win new customers but also to maintain

relationships with the old ones, IMC also contributes to achieving better customer

retention and creating new markets.

IMC is about integrating the traditional and modern ways of promotion,

making use of online and offline marketing tools to communicate to the target

customers. In the communications theory applied to the field of marketing, IMC will

revolve around a changing communications environment where market research,

marketing communications plan, branding, customer relationship management,

and buyer behavior are all linked to one another (Smith and Zook, 2011). The

integrated marketing communications comprise of public relations and

sponsorships, packaging and merchandising, direct marketing and sales

promotions, and advertising through print, mass media, and the internet. Some

companies maximize the use of each one of these, while some just use a

combination of maybe three or four. Moreover, these days, companies strategize

well in choosing which among these they will apply extensively. But indeed, the
internet, especially the social media has changed the game in this revolutionized

era of marketing.

Marketers should understand that at the heart of the IMC is the smooth

planning and consistency of the messages being delivered in all the promotional

platforms being employed. With IMC, the companies are able to check the

compatibility of one marketing activity to another like the structure of the message

that is on a social media page and website, as compared to the printed

advertisements. In line with this, companies are able to see whether the appeal of

one IMC component like public relations is well aligned with their other promotional

activities. Since IMC ensures coordination of communications planning, it

enhances the organization’s opportunity to be retained well in customer’s mind, to

communicate in a consistent manner, and to help affect their consumer choices.

Integrated marketing communications is such an indispensable tool for every

organization, especially now that there must be more and more marketing

approaches done by companies in the advent of the Internet (Percy, 2018).

Related Studies

Like the definitions of marketing in the context of product businesses and

services industries, the marketing for schools or education services refers to the

ways in which an organization determines and satisfies the needs and demands of

its clients in order to achieve its objectives (Oplatka and Hemsley-Brown, 2012,

p.4). In a school or university scenario, Opltaka and Hemsley-Brown (2012)

defined from Davies and Ellison (1997) marketing as the process that a school

undertakes to promote the company itself and its services or program offerings to

the prospective clients composed by the students and parents alike, as well as to

the community, reaching as far as the province, region or the country. Because a

university offers education which is a service and not a tangible product, McCoy

stated that there may have some strain as education must be marketed differently

than a product. It is indeed crucial for schools, especially the private universities

and higher education institutions to conduct marketing activities in order to build

their reputation, boost their market share, and increase further enrolment rates in

such a highly competitive education milieu (Oplatka and Hemsley-Brown, 2012,

p.2).

While schools are just one among the existing and flourishing businesses

around the globe, some key marketing strategies may be commonly compelling to

every organization. Looking into our present environment, one would see how

technology has affected all disciplines, including largely the business. Sotnikova

(2016) articulated that with the invention of the Internet followed quickly by its

penetration across the globe, it has conspicuously transformed the ways of doing

things and doing business in general, including marketing. Sotnikova said that

these online marketing strategies must be aligned with the company objectives and

must be customer-oriented, in a way that will influence the consumers’ buying

behavior (p.8). This is under the belief that as online marketing approaches

capture the attention of the audience, it is almost likely that the information they
read or see is retained in their memory, and may be remembered when already on

the stage of decision-making or buying. For a successful strategy, he said that

internet marketing should ensure first that customer needs are well understood,

and different niches are served properly (p. 10).

The study of Sotnikova (2016) investigated the use of online marketing

communications of a certain company and these include email marketing, content

marketing, search engine marketing, and social media marketing, pointing out how

SEO plays a significant role in the marketing strategy of an organization (p.53).

However, other means may be considered equally important as they also influence

consumer choices. From the interviews he conducted, one mentioned that

consumer buying behavior always changes. With online marketing approaches

available before the consumers’ eyes and ears, they have a chance to learn about

customer feedback through comments on social media, watch videos and other

notable content posted by an organization, and read blogs or other information

from the websites (p. 52). With Sotnikova’s findings, he recommended that salient

to online marketing approaches would be applying principles such as representing

well the company’s image, controlling the quality of the online marketing

communications including the texts, videos, and graphics, developing an appealing

style on the diverse marketing paraphernalia, and taking advantage of all the

opportunities at one’s disposal in order to maximize the online marketing

approaches and enable these to influence consumers’ choices.

 On an almost similar study with Sotnikova (2016) cited by Lockett (2018), it

emerged that social media platforms were extensively used by small retail

businesses, with Facebook being their preferred site in promoting their products

and communicating with their customers (p.67). With such engagement, customer

relationships are developed which create leads and drive more sales (p.71). How

this happens is when consumers’ satisfaction on a certain product may lead to a

positive product review, causing them to share this to others in their social

networks through a sort of word-of-mouth marketing online (p.72). It was hence

recommended in the study that online marketers should rethink their online

marketing approaches and choose the right, innovative tools like good channels of

communication to bring about more customer purchases and influence the

decisions or choices of future customers (p.85). A firm’s online marketing

approaches should in a way emphasize feedback and follow-up in order to

increase the company’s revenues.

The biggest change in the so-called Integrated Marketing Communications

is its shift to a customer-centric approach by maximizing technology including the

addition of the online marketing approaches and deriving valuable data out of the

chosen tools. Hence, online marketing is not just about promotion and conversion

to sales, but also understanding the data. Gathering data is easier given the

swelling online involvement of the consumers, but the proper interpretation and

understanding of the choices of consumers and the entire consumer behavior

remains a challenge (Cleary, 2013, p.16). In Cleary’s study, he concluded that the
business website remains to be the most significant online strategy, next to which

are the social media networks. Beyond the two, they can use content marketing

and video marketing, with the consideration that all of these approaches used shall

be assessed using data analytics (p.40).

Nowadays, marketing for schools has been presented with a lot of options

other than the traditional career talk orientations, press releases and public

relations activities, and print and digital media advertising. In this information

revolution era when most people are always Internet-wired, and when majority of

the Internet population are the youth, McCoy (2011) observed that searching for

their intended colleges mostly happens through the Internet (p. 22). This paves the

way for the rise of the use of online marketing approaches. In view of the

phenomenal changes in the way people obtain information and choose from that

information the one that values, in addition to the trend that colleges use to market

their institutions, the marketing teams of the universities are driven more to

improve their online marketing approaches. McCoy reiterated that the shift from

print advertising and other traditional marketing strategies to online marketing

seeks to focus on what the clients or the students want or look for (p.32). As the

marketing departments reinforce the use of cyberspace and other web

technologies (McCoy, 2011), even the public or non-profit universities make their

own efforts of employing their internet marketing techniques (p. 30). In his study,

the results showed that the school’s expenses for online marketing alone has

jumped to 70% of the colleges (p.32). In particular, the students ascertained that
the schools’ official websites are the most helpful when it comes to their

information search (p.35). But to improve the efficiency of these websites,

marketers should also be knowledgeable with different search engine optimization

techniques. As McCoy (2011) posited, the majority of internet users who also

happens to be the prospective students use search engines like Google in their

college search (p. 32).

When it comes to social media, Stagno and Constantinides (2012)

emphasized the prevalent adoption of online marketing channels in the field of

commerce (p. 2). According to them, higher education institutions continue the

exercise of social media marketing as part of their integrated marketing

communications. As with other businesses, they disclosed the positive impact of

social media marketing on them owing to the fact its high adoption rate among the

young age groups. Some of the proven outcomes of this kind of marketing are

better communication between the school and the stakeholders, stronger brand

advocacy, and customer engagement. This generalization matches with

Taherdoost and Jalaliyoon (2014) as cited by Lockett (2018) that social media

marketing opens doors for opportunities, brand enhancement, and better support

from the clientele. On that account, it is plausible to surmise that using the social

media as part of the entire marketing plan of a university could help their prospects

shape intelligent decisions about their choice of program or college degree, and

also their choice of school or university (Stagno, 2012, p.3). With the information

they are presented with by specific social media marketing’s message of a

university, consumers’ choices may be influenced. Furthermore, the satisfaction of

potential students from a certain online marketing approach may somehow

contribute to the goal of any university which is to achieve great enrolment

numbers. Nonetheless, it is not always the same for everyone.

On the study of Stagno and Constantinides, statistics indicated that 95.1 %

of the future students maintain a profile in social media sites, and 77.5% log in at

least once a day in their profile, translating this to the respondents being heavy

users of social media applications for social interaction and information seeking.

Interestingly, however, the respondents ranked social media as the least among

the factors that influence their choice of a degree to take or university to enroll. The

study concluded that this can be attributed to the lack of relevant and rich content

in these social media pages that some universities have. While the other

businesses have benefitted much from social media marketing, the university

marketers should be challenged to use social media proactively. Thus, it has been

recommended that the university’s social media marketing accentuate on

practicing two-way communication, one which involves a dialogue, unlike the

traditional one-way communication present in traditional advertising platforms.

Synthesis

The business landscape has substantially changed over the last two

decades as brought by the Internet, which introduced innovative tools for doing

things. Marketing is definitely an aspect of business that was affected as well,

giving rise to the incorporation of online marketing approaches along the varied

marketing strategies that a business used to have. As a business, schools,

especially the higher education institutions and universities have tried diverse

online platforms to recruit for students or to market the education service they

offer, in order to appeal to its target market, who are the young ages. With the

prospective students comprising most of the digital population, universities have to

maintain an online presence. They need this to compete as well in an Internet-

driven environment of university competition.

Among a long list of available online marketing approaches or strategies,

schools mostly use search engine optimization, social media marketing, websites,

and email marketing. Higher education institutions put their marketing effort into

establishing their web visibility. One assumed role or benefit from online marketing

is as a source of information. Every marketing campaign should be informative

besides being persuasive in a way Information should be well-crafted so that it will

be sufficient for the inquiries of the target market. With thousands of audience

possibly going to read or see a specific online marketing campaign like a post on

social media or an announcement on the website, these tools should be catchy

enough to capture attention, stimulate interest, develop desire, and command an

action on the consumers.

Another benefit of online marketing is as a communication channel. It’s

been said that an edge of Internet marketing is allowing interactive communication

which the traditional marketing like print ads, TV commercials, and banners may
lack. The websites are designed not just to inform but also to serve as a channel

as it allows website visitors to leave a comment or ask questions that will be sent

to them and they respond automatically or personally. To maximize website use,

there should be some staff assigned to it as well so that when potential students

access them, there may be someone to respond as immediately as possible.

When it comes to the use of websites, it is considered an essential part of

the online marketing strategies, being the basic that a company has to have to

penetrate the online market. As with social media marketing, the social media

pages of a company or a university may be the primary venue for exchanges

between the university and the prospective students. Search engine optimization

on the other hand should ensure intelligent operation so as to bring the students to

the online platforms that the universities use to promote their course offerings and

the school itself. With these top three online marketing approaches, the universities

can shape a solid structure that will reach a wider audience and help influence

each other’s choices. Still though, the challenge is to make each one of these

properly conceptualized and executed.

In this sense, websites should be user-friendly as well for students and

parents alike that they can easily navigate all over it to search for the information

they need. Social media posts should also incorporate the maximum information it

can hold to impart to the audience the institution’s services. Most importantly,

these online platforms should be at first searchable through Google and other

search engines, and so it is rudimentary to perform search engine optimization.

Once these have been established, these online marketing approaches would be

fused and coherent that all the information they want to know will be available in

either of the said platforms. This way, the approaches ensure that the role they

play as a source of information is properly accomplished.

Social media posts on the other hand should also enable dialogs or

conversation exchange between the representatives of the institution and the

potential students and existing students alike. The entire marketing staff should

have their own assignment as to handling all these online tools that they will not

miss a chance as well to communicate specifically to genuinely interested

students. In today’s reality, there will be more individuals checking their social

media feeds on a daily basis that visiting some schools’ websites, and there will be

a bigger need to keep track of social media posts or queries from the prospective

students. Online marketing as a communication channel may be the nearest step

towards convincing a student to choose a certain university because of the

communication that happens. University marketers thus should be very

accommodating and sincere when using online marketing even though the

communication may not be face to face.

Online marketing approaches really help in influencing consumer choice as

with many studies conducted when it comes to small businesses in retail and other

industries. With advertisements they see around the internet plus other

information and opinion they get from social media influencers, consumers tend to

decide on these available information say even without using a product or

experiencing a service yet. Hence internet marketing informs and allows

communication, which if combined together will be a better force in persuading

consumers to try a product. In the same manner, the online marketing approaches

of universities promote the school, inform the prospective enrollees, and

communicate with these prospects until such time that they influence them in their

choice of university. The students’ choice of university should at least favor the one

that was able to market their schools and program offerings effectively for them to

conclude that online marketing really did help attain their goals.

Similarly, in the university setting, online marketing approaches will first

attract the attention of the potential enrollees as well as their parents. This

attention will become an interest as they come to look for information about the

university by looking for more sources which could be another online campaign.

With well-constructed marketing messages and the presence of the information

they need, plus peer influences on social media, consumers or the clientele can

will soon desire to consider enrolling in a university. This desire later on will further

make the consumer choose, or decide, and take action. As consumers take the

action favorable to the university which means he will finally enroll, this leads to the

university’s additional revenue.

But getting them enrolled does not stop there because again, they can use

these new enrollees to get more enrollees. They may be influencers too for those

who remain to be prospects. If these new enrollees get to be impressed by the

school upon his admission, he may share the experience in social media. Social
media may be very active again with another influencer supporting the institution.

The institution in consequence will improve more of its marketing tools and take

the opportunities to promote the school consistently. Marketers must be proactive

in all these online marketing approaches to maximize their wins and they know that

they are almost there when they influence the choice of the students of a

university.

Consumer choice in marketing is truly a serious matter to consider not just

for a marketing campaign to reach and capture the target market’s attention, but

also to convince them to choose the company’s products and services. With so

many internal and external factors affecting consumer choice, it is essential for

marketers to present their products in a convincing manner that will ultimately

affect their decisions. The marketing efforts of the company will fall under the

external factors, but how they also position themselves in a way that will arouse

the consumer’s feelings and perception will impact the internal factors. In the

marketing of a higher education institution, the company must use marketing

strategies that will be attractive enough for the potential students to view. To

complement the approach, there should be a compelling message that will make

prospective students consider enrolling in the school.

Integrated marketing communications is the set of various promotional

materials and marketing activities that an organization uses that coordinate all

these efforts in a holistic manner. IMC makes sure that there is a certain theme

surrounding all the marketing tools being used. It guarantees that the message
conveyed in all their print advertisements, public relations activities, online

methods and the like contain similar key information that a potential customer

should see. Consistency is one thing that IMC establishes to better build the brand

and monitoring the effectiveness of marketing activities will be better done with a

comprehensive integrated marketing communications plan.

Just like other businesses, a higher education institution will benefit well

from devising and applying its own IMC which will possibly include tailoring their

career talks, large-format advertisements, brochures, social media pages, and

website into a synchronic plan. As these so-called inbound and outbound

marketing are fused, they reinforce one another and unify the message. A well-

written marketing plan must emphasize the IMC to guide marketers in being

consistent with their information, the advertisement copies, and corresponding

speeches just like in PR talks. The IMC will outline the promotional activities that a

company undertakes, and the company employees as well must be aware of what

the IMC contains to help the organization deliver what they promise on their

marketing messages.

The studies related to this research have showed some similarities and

differences in different settings or places where the studies were conducted. The

related studies include those closely related to the topic, and those that are related

in some variables. Given the broad literature of this matter, it implies the
timeliness of this existing problem or concern in this era of globalization,

particularly the Internet age.

Most studies reviewed by the researcher always discussed the importance

of the Internet in business in general these days just like in the researches of

Sotnikova and Cleary. Sotnikova’s study showed how Facebook was extensively

used in small organizations while Cleary affirmed that the website is the most

significant online strategy. The foci were the different online marketing strategies

and how they are used in the business. Specifically, these studies tried to measure

how online marketing influenced key purposes or business goals like brand

awareness and loyalty, as a source of information and communication channel,

and as a tool for increasing profits and customer retention. Same thing goes with

the study of Lockett and Onishi proving that that social media marketing opens

doors for opportunities, brand enhancement, and better support from the clientele.

The businesses in those related studies include the small businesses like

retail stores and other shops, service businesses, and of course private schools.

The common theme embedded in their studies is how the online marketing

approaches are benefitting their small organizations. To support the other variable

which is consumer behavior, the researcher also reviewed other studies that

determined the factors affecting consumer choice. In addition, the researcher also

perused studies about the marketing of schools in general.

Closest to the current study of the researcher is how online marketing

approaches influence the university choice of a student. Similar topics are evident
in the work of Oplatka and Hemsley-Brown though the focus was school marketing

in general, without much emphasis on online marketing as compared to this

current research and extending the scope to the entire school, not just in higher

education institution. McCoy in particular discussed the different internet marketing

methods that are already mostly used in higher education institution. While some

studies showed that online marketing indeed influences the perception of a student

in selecting a university, some studies showed otherwise. Other studies too

stressed out the importance of online marketing, but not all available approaches

are effective.

But one thing would be common among all which is finding out that other

people’s recommendation is a big influencer of the decision-making of the

consumers in general. This was manifested in the studies of Constantinides and

Stagno, and Spearman, et.al which examined the factors affecting a student’s

choice of university. Spearman, et. al identified several factors more than just the

marketing of schools, while Constantinides and Stagno identified social media’s

impact on university choice. Relating this to social media alone, these people’s

referrals also appear in online platforms like the social media, which confirms that

online marketing approaches still provide an impact on the choices of consumers

by way of involving peers or influencers in their social media posts.

But however inconsistent the different findings are when it comes to

supporting the problem of the researcher on this study, it simply demonstrated that

one thing may not always be applicable to everyone in different settings. A

marketing strategy may serve one purpose or another but not all the time in all

situations in each distinct business or industry. There are certain businesses

where it will work best and other industries where it may work less. Though we

can conclude that most studies agreed that online marketing approaches influence

a consumer’s choice, it is necessary to look into other factors and distribute the

marketing and other administrative efforts of the institution accordingly and

effectively. An online marketing approach may be advantageous enough but must

also be created and assessed from time to time because consumer behavior

always changes.

The researcher thus wants to conduct this study, analyze the results of the

methods, and interpret what they mean for further recommendations. The

researcher aspires to determine the different online marketing approaches of

select universities and their influence on consumer choices, at least in the confines

of the city and its vicinity where these universities are located.