Abstract
This research was conducted with the aim of analyzing the dimensions and components of educational marketing in the education organization. The qualitative research method focuses on a data-based approach. The statistical population included specialists, professors, and knowledgeable experts in the fields of business management and educational management, 13 of whom were selected through purposive and judgmental sampling. The data collection tool was a semi-focused interview, which was analyzed using MAXQDA software and the coding method. The analysis of the interview texts provided 41 indicators that were included in the framework of the pillars of the paradigmatic model of educational marketing in the education system. The findings showed that the concept of educational marketing in the education system included the components of the rupture of the demand for education market, the suppression of the supply of education market, the increase in the class gap, the increase in the intergenerational gap, the rupture of hope for the future, the increase in the intragenerational gap, politicization, the focus on customer personas, the production of customer-oriented content, the reconfigurable education system, relationship marketing, participatory marketing, the disappearance of the program-oriented education system, and the emergence of the market-oriented education system. Also, educational marketing itself was affected by causal conditions (4 concepts in the form of 2 categories), contextual factors (4 concepts in the form of 2 categories), intervening factors (7 concepts in the form of 3 categories), pivotal factors (13 concepts in the form of 3 categories), strategic factors (8 concepts in the form of 2 categories), and consequential factors (5 concepts in the form of 2 categories).
Introduction
Education in its general and specific sense plays a major role in the development of human capital, as it can be noted that one of the fundamental factors in the growth and development of a country is education; if there is growth in its quantity and quality, the development of the country can be expected; but the duration of these factors depends on management companionship (Haji Rasouliha et al., 2021). Educational organizations, as the most important, most effective and widespread organizations that are responsible for the formal education and training of individuals in society, and are of particular importance as providers of human resources for other organizations (Nur Rohim, 2019). In this regard, schools and institutes, as the basic pillars of formal education, strive to achieve the goals of education and training. Educational organizations and schools of every society, like other organizations, pay special attention to it in order to achieve the goals of their organizations, and this issue provides the basis for investigation and study (Hoy, 1985; Barati, 2018). Whenever the word competition becomes more prominent in an industry, the issue of marketing will also be more important there. The country's education industry is no exception to this rule; and with the increase in the potential of education in recent years, competition among the players in this industry has also increased (Lim et al, 2020). A review of existing research shows that marketing in the field of education in general and especially in education has received less attention and has also been neglected in domestic research. On the other hand, according to the report of the Higher Education Committee of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, due to the negative population growth, we will face severe vacant seats in schools in the coming years (Haji Rasouliha et al., 2021). Therefore, considering that non-governmental schools are run based on the per capita tuition they charge students, they need to attract as many students as possible and market themselves. Therefore, non-profit, online, and smart schools should seize this opportunity and compete with other schools in attracting students and educational marketing (Arab, 2016). The present study aims to present the criteria for selecting schools by students and the factors affecting educational marketing (causal, contextual, and intervening conditions, etc.) in the form of a model, and to identify the information sources used by students to select schools and to provide solutions for better competition in the field of education. Accordingly, this study attempts to answer the question: What are the dimensions and components of educational marketing in the education organization?
Theoretical foundations
Educational marketing:
The role of educational marketing in education as an institution that has the largest share of education in society from different ages in the most basic concepts seems very vital and necessary (Babaee Kasmaee & Nadi, 2018). In the future, educational marketing is definitely an important aspect of educational management. Currently, much literature in the field of educational marketing is characterized by ideas, suggestions, guidelines and strategies that are determined based on marketing models formed from non-educational environments. Education can be seen as a service (Abbasi Niko, 2015).
Educational organizations, given that they are service organizations in nature, were lagging behind in the field of marketing or did not use it and considered it unnecessary or costly. Apart from this, educational organizations are increasing their problems by using traditional marketing methods (Haqtalab, 2010; Ramezani et al., 2019). As competition among different organizations, including services, has increased, productivity and quality have increased; reforming and improving the marketing system is inevitable. Educational organizations are faced with three important tasks in the field of marketing. They must increase their competitive differentiation, service quality and productivity as much as possible (Watson, 2008; Teräs et al., 2020).
Talebi et al., (2023) in a study explained human resource competencies with an educational services marketing approach. The findings showed that the competencies of "time management" and "creativity and innovation" had the highest effect extent of 0.584 and 0.538, respectively, and the competencies of "listening skills" and "analytical power" had the lowest effect of 0.285 among the key competencies. Al-Hayaari (2022) also conducted a comparative study of the opinions of managers and customers of educational services in his study. The results obtained indicated that there is a significant difference between the views of managers and customers in five dimensions of the marketing mix factors. In particular, in the product mix, it was observed that customers, contrary to the managers' opinion, considered the suitability of the course to the needs and the instructor's brand to be more important than the institution's brand; and in the price mix, considered the method of payment to be more important than the discounts offered.
Research methodology
The research method is qualitative. A purposive sampling method was used to select the sample. The sampling method was snowball. The experts were experts in the fields of business management, strategic management, and educational management. Sampling adequacy was achieved based on data saturation. The data-based method was used to analyze the data. To calculate the reliability of the interview with the intra-subject agreement method of two coders, one of the professors familiar with the data-based technique was asked to participate in the research as a secondary coder.
Research findings
Based on the analysis conducted, out of 13 interviewees, 11 were male and 2 were female. The majority of the individuals (53.9%) were in the age range between 40 and 50 years. Most of the individuals had work experience between 11 and 20 years. Individuals with a doctoral degree (15.4%) and individuals with a master's degree (84.6%) constituted the causal conditions of the model. 4 subcategories in the form of 2 main categories: disruption of the demand for the education market and suppression of the supply for the education market formed the underlying factors of the model. 7 subcategories in the form of 3 main categories: disruption of hope for the future, increasing the intergenerational gap, and politicization formed the interfering factors of the model. 13 subcategories in the form of 3 main categories of customer persona focus, customer-centric content production, and reconfigurable education system formed the core category of the model. 8 subcategories in the form of 2 main categories of relationship marketing and collaborative marketing formed the educational marketing strategies. 5 subcategories in the form of 2 main categories of the disappearance of the program-oriented education system and the emergence of the education system formed the consequences of educational marketing.
Conclusion
This research was conducted with the aim of investigating and identifying the dimensions and components of educational marketing in the education organization. The existence of gaps and discontinuities in the demand for education among students causes different behavioral tendencies to arise at different levels of education. This stems from the decrease in demand for essential education services. The decrease in the supply of essential education services is also one of the limitations that has provided the basis for the formation and creation of demand for educational marketing. The use of experienced and educated professors in this field is one of the main methods of attracting audiences and customers, which is of great importance in this sector. Producing customer-oriented content can play an effective role in attracting audiences. Expanding education supervision in students' lives and expanding education communications with students' parents allows important information to be collected about students' academic and personality needs. These results are consistent with and supported by the findings of Ramezani et al., (2019) and Abin & Sujianto (2022). They acknowledged in their research that the gap in the supply of educational services has caused students to adjust their demand for educational services. On the other hand, school educational policies can have a significant impact on reducing this trend.
The results of the present study were obtained solely by relying on the views and experiences of experts in the target statistical population, which may limit the theoretical generalizability of the research findings to the entire country. Therefore, this problem can be resolved by obtaining the scientific opinions of other experts.