Direct Marketing and Student Enrollment in Public Universities in Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to establish the influence of direct marketing on Student Enrollment in Public Universities in Kenya. Direct marketing has been observed to be basic piece of an association's marketing endeavors and it incorporate every one of the messages and media used to speak with the objective market with the aim of expanding item/administration execution. The study was informed by Advertising Theory. Higher education has become an increasingly competitive market because students are expected to sponsor themselves. As the levels of domestic, continental and international competition as well as customer demands have increased, educational institutions have been forced to search for ways to gain competitive advantage. A descriptive research design was adopted for the sake of this study. The study targeted a population of 265,222 respondents made up of administrators, Marketing officers, Public relation officers and Undergraduate students from six public colleges in Kenya. The study used semi-structured questionnaires to collect primary data and the collected data was analyzed using SPSS. The study incorporated descriptive and inferential statistics. The particular descriptive statistics were mean, standard deviation and rates, while inferential incorporated correlation and regression analyses. A multivariate regression model was utilized to demonstrate the connection between the independent factors to the dependent variable. The findings revealed that there was positive and significant relationship between direct marketing and student enrollment in public universities in Kenya. Based on the findings, the study concluded that, there is positive and significant relationship between direct marketing and student enrollment in public universities in Kenya. The study recommended that, the managements and stakeholders of public universities in Kenya consider investing in direct marketing as one way of enhancing student enrollment in their universities. 

Key Words: Direct Marketing, Enrollment, Public University