Exploring the Impacts of Marketing Structure on Enrollment Yield in Higher Education

The ever-expanding role of marketing and its increasing influence as a primary driver for colleges and universities to grow awareness and consideration, invite applications, and deliver enrollment yield is more critical and relied on than ever. The marketing function's rise to prominence in higher education is fueled by many external forces, including declining federal and state funding, rapid technological advances, changing student expectations, the precipitous reduction in numbers of potential college-aged students, and what this study refers to as the four Cs facing higher education. These include consumerism, commoditization, commercialism, and corporatization, each with its own set of unique challenges and opportunities from which marketing is viewed as a primary solution. In this research, a bounded case study approach is employed to look intently at the critical aspects of marketing structure, alignment, roles, strategic focus, tactical execution, and the brand management principles that have assisted a comprehensive, Carnegie-classified R2 (High Research Activity), doctoral-granting national public four-year university in growing enrollment yield in light of ever-changing marketplace challenges, many of those unmasked during the recent pandemic. The study findings highlight how the alignment of roles and responsibilities within a structure, an operative environment that is reflective of the institution's culture and allows for the illumination of the brand's core personality, tone, attributes, and dimensions, can create a powerful asset to combat the external;marketplace dynamics. This study offers an emergent framework as a unique model for colleges and universities to assess and analyze their marketing structure, operative environment, role, and responsibility stratification, and how the consistent articulation and purposeful management of the institution's brand can be optimized for competitive advantage. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]