Marketing Distance Education Programs: Building a Customer Orientation

Abstract

This chapter attempts to put forward the customer orientation in designing online education (OE) services. The study also tries to reflect an in-depth understanding about the vital role of marketing practices on the online education programs (OEPs) and to show the online education administrators coordinators and practitioners the significance of building customer orientation for distance education courses. For this purpose this chapter ties the key titles of marketing area of knowledge and relevant literature on OEPs. Customer behavior in OE services positioning OEPs branding pricing and promoting of OE services designing a customer oriented online environment and managing customer interactions and people factor in OE services are the issues covered throughout the chapter. This marketing and customer orientation can be particularly significant for education industry where marketing applications and culture are not well established and appreciated. The chapter argues that OE service providers require well designed marketing strategies and should differentiate the institution and the programs from competition. Hence designing successful OEPs relies heavily on building an organization-wide customer orientation and a significant marketing perspective.