Promotion mix for advanced educational program a case study of national economics university

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEGEMENT

This research paper is made possible through the help, support and
encouragement from people who all deserve our sincerest gratitude and
appreciation.
Our research consultant and research instructor
Hundreds of students from the Center for Advanced Educational Program,
National Economics University Intake 54, 55, and 56
High school students in Hanoi
Our classmates’ parents
Also, much credit is due to our family and friends. Their love,
support and constant encouragement gave us a great deal of energy and
determination during the time of writing this paper.


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I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This paper is commissioned to provide an analysis of the current
promotion mix that the Center for Advanced Educational Program is
implementing, its effectiveness from the students’ and parents’ point of
view over the last three years, and some recommendations on how to
improve the shortcomings.
The methodology for the study was random sampling with three
groups of respondents, including students of Advanced Educational
Programs - Intakes 54, 55, 56, senior year students from high schools in
Hanoi, and parents of students from the class Advanced Financed 54A. In

the process of data collection, this study used both quantitative and
qualitative approaches. Several sources of secondary data, such as the
information about Center for Advanced Educational Program on its
website, Facebook page and magazine, online articles related to the
program, and records, documents and personal contacts from the office
building, were employed. Meanwhile, the primary data were gathered
through online and offline questionnaires. In data analysis, the numbers
and figures are calculated by Excel and ranked to draw the overall
comparisons between channels and marketing communications of
promotion mix.
Results of data analyzed draw attention to the fact that among the
five tools of promotion mix, Public Relation and Personal Selling are the
two most effective in terms of both popularity and quality for a larger base


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of audience they can reach relative to the others. Meanwhile, the least
effective marketing communication is Direct Marketing, which includes
newspapers, online magazines, website, and social network channels,
notwithstanding the explosion of Internet of the last decade. This finding
can be justified by the fact that there remains a lack of attention and
appropriate approaches from the executives in making use of the prospects
that this marketing communication would offer. Further investigations also
revealed that Personal non-trading communication channels emerges as
one of the most promising and realistic marketing communication for the
fact that many senior year high school students would normally turn to
family, relatives, teachers and forerunners – i.e. former or current
university students, to decide on a university course.
Based on the key findings, this study finds the prospects of building

up a better promotion mix of the Center for Advanced Educational
Program. The major areas of weakness require further investigation and
remedial action by management while a need for the sustenance of
potentially good channels should also be recognized. In general, it is
recommended that the approaching methods of some marketing
communications should be reconsidered; the online promoting strategies
should be more extensively focused in a long run; and some other new
ideas would be generated in practice.


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II. INTRODUCTION
II.1. Background information
Internationalization has become a major worldwide trend and a very
hot topic on the media which affect all fields of life, which can be seen in
almost every field: economics, culture, sports, and education. As wealth in
society has increased, studying abroad is much more common and
accessible than before, even in a developing country like Vietnam. To
illustrate, based on a survey by the Ministry of Education and Training
(MOET) in 2013, over 100,000 students were studying and conducting
research in foreign countries. Consequently, English, which is the
dominant second language in the world, has become a crucial tool in
education.
Although better education opportunities are in favor of everyone, not
all families in Vietnam can afford the huge expenses of studying abroad.
According to MOET, 90 percent of abroad students were self-sufficient,
meaning that students were liable for all costs when studying abroad
(averaging USD20,000-40,000/year). In other cases, parents may feel
uncomfortable letting their children live far from home. However, parents

have the same denominator that they all expect to provide their children
with optimal education opportunities.
Meeting the demand of such families, Vietnam institutions have
developed courses and programs collaborating with foreign institutions,
especially from English-speaking countries with advanced education such
as the United States of America, The United Kingdom, Canada, Australia,
etc. After graduating those courses, students were granted a degree
recognized by both domestic and partner universities.


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The benefits of collaborating courses are outstanding. First and
foremost, they are considered a cost-saving way of accessing advanced
education in overseas countries. Students do not have to live far from
home, which saves them travelling and accommodation expenses, together
with lower tuition fees. Besides, the curriculum is English-based that help
improving students’ English capacity. After several years of studying,
students will become used to English and have better English skills.
Secondly, collaborating courses provide students living in domestic
environment with an international mindset, together with a set of soft skills
that are crucial for the market economy.
II.2. Rationale
Among the leading universities in Economics in Vietnam, National
Economic University (NEU) follows the internalization trend in education
to open collaborating courses like Advanced Educational Program (AEP),
Professional Oriented Higher Education (POHE), Bachelor of Business
Administration in English (E-BBA), and International Bachelor Degree
(IBD). Each of these courses has its special features and covers an own
field. Especially, with high admission requirements, professional and welldesigned training process with reliable outcomes, Advanced Educational

Program is receiving more attention from parents and students in Vietnam.
However, as the number of international standardized university
programs in Vietnam is on the increase in recent years, AEP is facing
fiercer competition from similar programs and courses. Aside from similar
courses of NEU mentioned above, there are other large institutions that
also have an Advanced Educational Program, i.e., Hanoi University of
Science and Technology, Foreign Trade University, and Vietnam National


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University, Hanoi. As a result, when choosing a tertiary program, students
become confused between a variety of choices.
As inferred from the fact, training quality is no longer the only thing
that matters to win the competition. Marketing activities should be
strengthened as an essential factor to attract learners. However, compared
to common products and services, educational programs have some
disadvantages regarding marketing activities. A marketing mix consists of
four Ps, which are Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. While Product,
Price, and Place are considered inflexible components in terms of an
educational program like AEP, Promotion seems to be the deciding
element. A good promotion strategy is the key to build a positive image of
the program, reach a larger base of audience, and create effective
relationships with students and their parents.
Recognizing the role of marketing, as shared by Ass Prof., Dr. Bui
Huy Nhuong – Director of Advanced Educational Centre, AEP has put
more effort to promote the program in recent years. However, the success
of such effort is unguaranteed and there is still a long way to go until AEP
can achieve a desirable position in the “market”.
In recognition that no official and formal study about AEP’s

promotion has been conducted, this research takes the initiative in learning
about promotion activities and how they affect the program. More
importantly, this research reflects the outlook of AEP students and high
school students, who are the target audience of AEP’s promotion strategy
in order to gain a deeper insight into how AEP can attract more applicants
in keeping with its stature. Hopefully, this can provide reliable and
objective information for AEP managers to plan and implement their
policies.


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II.3. Research objectives
The research project is about the promotion mix of Advanced Educational
Program - National Economics University and have three objectives:
1. To thoroughly understand recent marketing communications and

media channels through which AEP is being promoted.
2. To evaluate the effectiveness of each marketing communication,

including the size of audience that it reaches, the importance and
quality perceived by audience.
3. To make some recommendations to enhance AEP’s promotion

strategy.
II.4. Research questions
To serve the objectives, the research will answer the questions below:
1. What types of marketing communications and media channels that

Advanced Educational Program is using before and after the

university entrance exam to attract new applicants?
2. How effective is each marketing communication?
3. How can Advanced Educational Program go further in its promotion
activities?
II.5. Subject and scope of research
 Subject of research: The research focuses on Advanced Educational

Program’s Promotion Mix in years 2012, 2013, 2014.
 Scope of research:
- Students of intakes 54, 55, 56 in Advanced Educational Program.
- Final year students from several high schools in Hanoi.
- A number of Advanced Educational Program students’ parents.
To be noticed, although Advanced Educational Program has
recruited eight intakes until 2014, only intakes 54, 55, 56 which are the
most recent ones are involved in the research. These students are believed


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to have fresh experiences and up-to-date information that can support the
research. Furthermore, due to time and place difficulty, in a total of more
than 20 high schools in Hanoi and other provinces that Advanced
Educational Programed has approached, only typical high schools are the
target of this research.


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III. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
III.1. The Promotion Mix

III.1.1. The Promotion Mix and its role
Promotion Mix – also called Marketing Communications Mix describes a blend of promotional variables chosen by marketers to help a
firm reach its goals. It has been identified as a subset of the marketing mix.
It is believed that there is an optimal way of allocating budgets for the
different elements within the promotional mix to achieve best marketing
results, and the challenge for marketers is to find the right mix of them.
Activities identified as elements of the promotional mix vary, but typically
include the following:


Advertising: Any paid form of non-personal presentation and
promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor.



Sales promotion: Short-term incentives to encourage the purchase
or sale of a product or service.



Personal selling: Personal presentation by the firm’s sales force for
the purpose of making sales and building customer relationships.



Public relation: Building good relations with the company’s various
publics by obtaining favorable publicity, building up a goof
corporate image, and handling or heading off unfavorable rumors,
stories, and events.



Direct marketing: Direct connections with carefully targeted
individual consumers to both obtain an immediate response and
cultivate lasting customer relationships - the use of direct mail, the


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telephone, direct-response television, e-mail, the Internet, and other
tools to communicate directly with specific consumer.
III.1.2. Marketing Communications in the Promotion Mix
III.1.2.1. Advertising
Advertising can be traced back to the very beginning of recorded
history. Archaeologists working in the countries around the Mediterranean
Sea have dug ups signs announcing various events and offers, The Romans
painted walls to announce gladiator fights, and the Phoenicians painted
pictures promoting their wares on large rocks along parade routes. During
the golden age in Greece, town cries announced the sale of cattle, crafted
items and even cosmetics.
Modern advertising, however, is a far cry from these early efforts.
Although advertising is used mostly by business firms, a wide range of
non-for-profit organizations, professionals, and social agencies also use
advertising to promote their causes to various target publics.
Marketing management must make four important decisions when
developing and advertising program:





Setting advertising objectives
Setting the advertising budget
Developing advertising strategy.
Evaluating adverting campaign.

III.1.2.2. Sales promotion
Sales promotion is any initiative undertaken by an organization to
promote an increase in sales, usage or trial of a product or service (i.e.
initiatives that are not covered by the other elements of the marketing
communications or promotions mix). Sales promotions are varied.


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 Free gifts e.g. Bakeries give away a card with spaces for stickers

with each purchase. Once the card was full the consumer was given
a free cake or drink.
 Discounted prices e.g. Budget airline such as Vietjet Air and Jetstar
Airways e-mail their customers with the latest low-price deals once
new flights are released, or additional destinations are announced.
 Joint promotions between brands owned by a company, or with
another company’s brands. For example fast food restaurants often
run sales promotions where toys, relating to a specific movie release,
are given away with promoted meals.
 Free samples (or sampling) e.g. tasting of food and drink at
sampling points in supermarkets. For example, TH True Milk
products are given away to potential consumers at supermarkets or
in high streets (by a promotion team).

 Vouchers and coupons, often seen in newspapers and magazines, on
packs.
 Competitions and prize draws, in newspapers, magazines, on the TV
and radio, on The Internet, and on packs.
 Cause-related and fair-trade products that raise money for charities,
and the less well-off farmers and producers, are becoming more
popular.
 Finance deals - for example, 0% finance over 3 years on selected
vehicles.

Here are some examples of popular sales promotions activities:
(a) Buy-One-Get-One-Free (BOGOF) – which is an example of a
self-liquidating promotion. For example if a loaf of bread is priced at
VND10,000, and cost VND3,000 in manufacture, selling two for


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VND10,000 still makes profit – especially if there is a corresponding
increase in sales. This is known as a PREMIUM sales promotion tactic.
(b) Customer Relationship Management (CRM) incentives such as
bonus points or money off coupons. There are many examples of CRM,
from banks to supermarkets.
(c) New media - Websites and mobile phones that support a sales
promotion. For example, in the United Kingdom, Nestle printed individual
codes on KIT-KAT packaging, whereby a consumer would enter the code
into a dynamic website to see if they had won a prize. Consumers could
also text codes via their mobile phones to the same effect.
(d) Merchandising - additions such as dump bins, point-of-sale
materials and product demonstrations.

III.1.2.3. Personal selling
Personal selling is where businesses use people (the “sales force”) to
sell the product after meeting face-to-face with the customer. The sellers
promote the product through their attitude, appearance and specialist
product knowledge. They aim to inform and encourage the customer to
buy, or at least trial the product. A good example of personal selling is
found in department stores on the perfume and cosmetic counters.
A customer can get advice on how to apply the product and can try
different products. Products with relatively high prices, or with complex
features, are often sold using personal selling. Great examples include
cars, office equipment (e.g. photocopiers) and many products that are sold
by businesses to other industrial customers.


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III.1.2.4. Public relation
Another major promotion tools is public relations – building good
relations with the company’s various publics by obtaining favorable
publicity, building up a good corporate image, and handling or heading off
unfavorable rumors, and events. Public relations departments may perform
any or all of the following functions:
 Press relations or press agency: Creating and placing newsworthy

information in the news media to attract attention to a person,
product, or service.
 Product publicity: Publicizing specific products.
 Public affairs: Building and maintaining national or local
community relations.
 Lobbying: Building and maintaining relations with legislators and

government officials to influence legislation and regulation.
 Investor relations: Maintaining relationships with shareholders and
others in the financial community.
 Development: Public relations with donors or members of nonprofit
organizations to gain financial or volunteer support.
Public relation is used to promote products, people, places, ideas,
activities, organizational, and even nations. Companies use public relations
to build good relations with consumers, investors, the media, and their
communities. Public relations can have a strong impact on public
awareness at a much lower cost than advertising.
III.1.2.5. Direct marketing
Direct marketing is about making direct contact with existing and
potential customers to promote products or services. Unlike media
advertising, it enables targeting particular people with a personalized


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message. Direct marketing can be cost effective and extremely powerful at
generating sales, so it is ideal for small businesses.
Direct marketing uses a variety of different methods. Direct mail,
mailshots and leafleting are widespread, and other forms of direct and
integrated communication are growing in popularity. Telephone marketing,
mobile marketing, email and texting offer more opportunities to reach the
target market.
Direct marketing allows generating a response from targeted
customers. As a result, small businesses can focus their limited marketing
resources where they are most likely to get results. A direct marketing
campaign with a clear call to action can help boosting sales to existing
customers, increase customer loyalty, recapture old customers and generate

new business.
Direct marketing can be evaluated and measured precisely. Results
can be analyzed to see which target group was most responsive. Sample
groups can be used to test marketing before rolling out the campaign that
will deliver the best response rate.
Choosing the right communication method is vital. Businesses can
be more receptive to receiving sales calls than consumers, for example.
Individuals will prefer different ways of contact, so make sure you take
account of their preferences.
III.2. Communication channels
III.2.1. Personal communication channels
Personal communication is communication between two or more
persons with a specific person communication with others. The message
emanates from a specific person. It can be done face to face, or by a person


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to audience, over telephone, or through post or couriers or through emails
or through mobile messages.
Personal communication in the case of marketing can also be
categorized as communications from advocates, experts and social
contacts. The company salespersons’ communication to customers is
communication from advocates of the product.
An independent expert communicating to prospective buyers about
the merits of the product is classified as expert communication. A neighbor
saying good things about a brand is social channel of communication.
Companies take various steps to stimulate personal communications
about their products and brands:
1. Identify influential individuals and devote extra effort on them.

2. Create opinion leaders by supplying possible opinion leaders with

the product on attractive terms.
3. Use influential or believable people in testimonial advertising.
4. Develop word of mouth publicity by requesting satisfied clients to
promote their product among their friends.
5. Establish online discussion groups and communities.

III.2.2. Non-personal communication channels
They include media, atmospheres, and events.
Media channels consists of print media (newspaper, magazines,
souvenirs,

proceedings

of

conferences),

broadcast

media

(radio,

television), display media (billboards, signs, posters) and electronic media
(audiotape, videotape, videodisk, CD-ROM)
Atmosphere is what firms create in their office environment. The
office interiors and exteriors have a meaning to the potential buyers.

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Events are occurrences designed to communicate particular
messages to target audiences or audiences. Company arranged news
conferences, opening ceremonies of various kinds, and sponsorships of
various events come under event communications channels.

IV. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
IV.1. Sample selection
The methodology for this study was a random sample of 605
respondents divided into three groups, which are:
1. 445 out of 492 students from 25 classes of Advanced Educational

Programs - Intakes 54, 55, 56 responded in the survey, resulting in a
response rate of 90.5%.
Considered current “customers” of the educational service provided
by Advanced Educational Program, this group is the most important
and focused. Because they are directly experiencing the activities in


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Advanced Educational Program, they are expected to have the most
precise opinions.
2. 114 out of 120 senior year students from 10 high schools in Hanoi

responded in the survey, resulting in a response rate of 95%.
Being in their senior year of high school study, these students were
considering choices before applying for universities. This group,

despite not having attended Advanced Educational Program, was the
“target customers” for future promotion activities. Their opinions
would reflect current success of Advanced Educational Program’s
promotion strategy.
3. 46 out of 50 parents of Advanced Educational Program students

from class Advanced Financed 54A responded in the survey,
resulting in a response rate of 92%. Besides students, parents also
have a voice in their children’s decision. Therefore, a small number
of parents were preferably included in this study.
In general, the response rate of the whole sample size was 91.11%.
(For more details about the sampling size, see Appendix B)
IV.2. Data collection
This research used both quantitative and qualitative approaches in
data collection. However, quantitative data accounted for the main part
during the process and also are the main bases of results.
IV.2.1. Secondary data
Secondary data are collected by someone other than the user.
Common sources of secondary data for social science include censuses,
organizational

records

and

data

methodologies or qualitative research.

collected

through

qualitative


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Specifically in this research, this step took only less than a month of
the whole process. Several sources of secondary data were employed to get
general ideas about Advanced Educational Programs, including:
-

Information about Advanced Educational Centre (introduction,
admissions, and course programs) on the official website at

-

www.aep.neu.edu.
Activities of Advanced Educational Programs on the official

-

Facebook Fanpage at www.facebook.com/aep.neu.edu.vn
Advanced Educational Program internal magazine “AEP World

-

Magazine”
Online articles related to Advanced Educational Programs (See

-

References).
Records, documents, and personal contacts acquired from Advanced
Educational Program Office Building.
Although secondary data are time-saving, economical and highly

accessible, its inappropriateness raised the need to conduct a primary
research to get better information.
IV.2.2. Primary data
Primary research were undertaken after some insight into the issue
has been gained by reviewing secondary data or by analyzing previously
collected primary data. It can be accomplished through various methods,
including questionnaires and telephone interviews in market research, or
experiments and direct observations in the physical sciences, amongst
others.
In this study, this step took about two months and the primary data
were gathered through online and offline questionnaires. There are 06
questions of various formats, namely multiple choices, rankings, Yes/No
questions, and additional opinions were allowed with blank spaces.


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Basically the questionnaires contained similar questions for all three
groups of respondents (AEP students, senior high school students, and
parents). However, there were still modifications to fit each group.
The questionnaire had two versions: online and print.
 Online questionnaires: were designed with Google Forms and

published since February. 32 respondents of this version were all
current students of Advanced Educational Program. They were also
friends of the research team, who were suggested to participate in
the survey, not by a random pick-up. The results of online
questionnaires were stored on Google Drive.
 Print questionnaires: accounted for the majority of collected
questionnaires (413/445).
For AEP students, questionnaires were distributed in class units,
which meant from the research team to class monitors, and then to
class members. Next, questionnaires were collected from class
monitors, either within the day or 2-4 days after. In total, 05 classes
of Intake 54 and 10 classes for each of Intakes 55, 56 got involved in
the survey.
For senior high school students, two ways of distributing were
applied. Firstly, the research team stood at particular high schools’
gates to give questionnaires during break times, then collected the
questionnaires right after that. Secondly, questionnaires were given
to other students that they knew (any high school was acceptable),
and collected days later.
For parents, the only method was to asked students of Advanced
Finance 54A to hand the questionnaires to their parents, and brought
it to class for collection


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IV.3. Data analysis
After being collected, the questionnaires underwent the first step of
checking and editing; invalid responses were eliminated and some others

were modified where needed, while at the same time, it is made sure that
no changes in the results are made. In the next stage, all the data, both
online and offline were inputted, analyzed, and calculated.
Considering between different statistical softwares like EXCEL,
STATA, and SPSS, etc., we agreed on using EXCEL. The reason is its
easy-to-use functions, which are convenient for data entry and rows and
columns manipulation prior to statistical analysis, and it is a hundred per
cent suitable for the scope of this study with around over 600 responses.
First, for the closed-ended questions, equivalent statistics were
produced by using EXCEL through a process of coding, wherein numeric
or alpha information is assigned to question responses that do not
ordinarily returned in that format, in order to enable analysis. With
counting functions, the popularity of channels was calculated through
multiple-choice questions (Questions 1, 2, 3). This was then converted into
percentages. With averaging functions, the quality and importance level of
factors was calculated through questions that required marking (Questions
4, 5, 6). All the numbers calculated were ranked in descending order. At
last, the results were arranged in tables and graphs for better observation.
By means of this method, the study could draw some overall comparisons
between different channels and marketing communications, and jump to
the conclusions in the last part of this paper. Besides analyzing data with a
qualitative tool like EXCEL, through discussion and common logic, the
study also figured out some points illustrated by the data.


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Furthermore, the open-ended questions with the option “Other”,
where the respondents brought to light new opinions and ideas, are set
aside. Promising and practical responses were then filtered and collected

for references in making prospective recommendations.

V. MAJOR FINDINGS
V.1. Analysis of Advanced Educational Program’s Promotion Mix
To begin with, based on questions 1, 2, 3 of the questionnaire, the
popularity as well as quality of each promotion channel, according to
respondents, is revealed.
V.1.1. Advertising
V.1.1.1. An overview
Advanced Educational Program currently implements four major
advertising channels:
 Hanging banners, posters, and placing standees for promoting

events, such as the ‘Open Day’ for high school students, the
‘Orientation Day’ for AEP’s newly-enrolled students, AEP’s extracurricular activities, etc. (both before and after the national
university entrance exam).
 Handing out leaflets and booklets on the program at the NEU’s
campuses (both before and after the national university entrance
exam).
 Handing out leaflets and booklets on the program at high schools
(before the national university entrance exam).


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 Attaching leaflets and booklets on the program with the NEU’s letter

of enrollment invitation (after the national university entrance
exam).

V.1.1.2. The popularity of Advertising tools
Before the University Entrance Exam
Marketing
communication

Advertising

Channels
Banners, posters,
standees
Flyers distributed
at high schools
Flyers distributed
at NEU

No. of Percentage Ranking
students
(%)
142

23.5

6

127

21.0

9

117

19.3

10

Figure 1. Advertising tools through which AEP students learn about the program after
the UEE (Source: survey)

For AEP students, the most popular channel of advertising is via
banners, posters, standees for promoting events, accounting for 23.5% (142
students) and ranked 6th among all sixteen channels. Meanwhile, leaflets
and booklets distributed at high schools and the NEU’s campuses are not
as popular, accounting for 21% (127 students), ranked 9th , for the former,
and 19.3% (117 students), ranked 10th, for the latter.
For high school students, the proportion of students heard about
AEP via the first three channels accounts for 35.1% (40 students), 29.8%
(34 students) and 19.3% (students), ranked 6th, 7th and 10th respectively
among all sixteen channels.


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After the University Entrance Exam
Marketing
communicatio
n
Advertising

Channels

No. of Percentage Ranking
students
(%)

Banners, posters,
standees
Flyers distributed
at NEU
Admission letters

164

27.1

2

150

24.8

7

155

25.6

4

Figure 2. Advertising tools through which AEP students learn about the program after

the UEE (Source: survey)

Contrary to the situation of advertising channels used before the
national entrance exam, that of such channels used after the national
entrance exam are one of the most vital among all sixteen channels.
Specifically, of all students aware of the AEP after the national
university entrance exam, in descending order, 27,1% (164 students) heard
about the AEP via banners, posters and standees for promoting events,
ranked 2nd, 25.6% (155 students) via leaflets and booklets attached with
letters of enrollment invitation, ranked 4th,, and 24.8% (150 students) via
leaflets and booklets distributed at NEU’s campuses, ranked 7th.
Through the figures shown above, it is clear that advertising
channels have not reached as wide a customer base before the national
university

entrance

exam

as

the

other

channels

of

marketing

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communications while the opposite occurs after the national university
entrance exam. In such situations, among various reasons, it is most likely
due to the sites, at which banners, posters, standees, and even leaflets and
booklets being invisible to the majority or to those who are not NEU
students.
V.1.1.3. The quality of Advertising tools
Notwithstanding their popularity for reference among students after
the national university entrance exam, such channels are not as highly
rated by most students as the other twelve channels.
To be specific, the worst in the four advertising channels and also in
the whole sixteen channels are leaflets and booklets distributed at high
schools (rated at 2.77 out of 5, ranked 16th). Similarly, leaflets and
booklets distributed at NEU’s campuses are only rated at 3.08 out of 5,
ranked 13th.
The inefficiency of these two similar and common channels is
probably down to the lack of useful information on such leaflets and
booklets. The only advertising channel that makes it on the top 5 most
highly regarded channels is leaflets and booklets attached with letters of
enrollment invitation with a score of 3.45 out of 5, ranked 5th. The other
channel – banners, posters and standees – is ranked 7th with a score of
3.42 out of 5.
V.1.2. Public Relation
V.1.2.1. An overview
There are four PR channels that Advanced Educational Program is
conducting, consisting of:

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 Career orientation conferences for Grade 12 students (before the

national university entrance exam) at high schools.
 Open day in August (after the national university entrance exam).
 Open day on NEU’s enrollment day in September (after the national
university entrance exam).
 Information for parents at annual Parent-Teacher Meetings (before
the national university entrance exam).
V.1.2.2. The popularity of Public Relation channels
Before the University Entrance Exam
Marketing
communication

Channels

Orientation Days
for senior high
Public Relation school students
Parent-teacher
meetings

No. of Percentage Ranking
students
(%)
115

25.6

3

20

3.3

13

Figure 3. Public Relation channels through which AEP students learn about the
program before the UEE (Source: survey)

The career orientation conferences is regarded as one of the main
sources of references for the AEP students, when 25.6% of the AEP
students (155 students) hearing about the AEP via this channel, ranked 3rd
among the whole sixteen channels for students before the national
university entrance exam.
Another PR channel available before the national university entrance
exam is the information for parents at annual Parent-Teacher Meetings.
Yet it accounts for only 3.3%, ranked at the bottom, this channel is in fact
for parental consultation only.