THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY

ENGLISH FACULTY

GROUP 7
TOPIC: WHICH MARKETING TECHNIQUES CAN BE USED TO
RECRUIT STUDENTS TO A UNIVERSITY? WHAT ARE THE
BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS OF EACH TECHNIQUE?

Class: Business English 2.1

Code: 2185ENPR5211

Lecturer: Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc

Ha Noi, October 2021

 MEMBERS AND DUTIES OF GROUP 7

Evaluate
the level of
No. Full name Student Code Duties
work
completion

Thuong Mai University and

30 Ngo Thi Thoa 19D170182 the application of A
marketing techniques

Nguyen Thi Thoa

31 19D170252 Social networking A
(Leader)
- TV- advertising
Nguyen Thi Hong
32 19D170113 - Mailshot A
Thom
- Powerpoint

- General definitions
33 Hoang Thi Thu 19D170253 A
- Telemarketing

- Sponsorship
Nguyen Thi Thuy
34 19D170255 - Introduction, Conclusion A
(Secretary)
- Complete word

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 OUTLINE OF THE PRESENTATION
A. Introduction......................................................................................................... 3

B. Content of the presentation...................................................................................3

I. General definition...............................................................................................3

II. Marketing techniques used to recruit students and their benefits and
drawbacks..............................................................................................................4

1. Telemarketing................................................................................................4

2. TV- advertising..............................................................................................5

3. Mailshot.........................................................................................................7

4. Sponsorship...................................................................................................8

5. Social networking........................................................................................10

III. Thuong Mai University and the application of marketing techniques..........11

1. Traveling shows..........................................................................................11

2. Social media................................................................................................12

3. Sponsorship.................................................................................................13

4. Achievements acquired...............................................................................14

C. Conclusion..........................................................................................................15

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A. Introduction
In recent times, the admission of universities has always received the attention of
many people, especially parents and students. Instead of passively waiting for students to
come to schools like many years ago, schools have gradually turned to use marketing
strategies to attract students. Along with the strong development of the Internet, the trend
of applying digital marketing tools at universities is becoming popular, to create a
competitive advantage for universities, improve their position. Along with the strong
development of the Internet, the trend of applying digital marketing tools at universities is
becoming popular, in order to create a competitive advantage for universities and
improve their position in comparison with other schools, and at the same time better
attract the number of students enrolled at the school.

The use of marketing methods to attact students to enroll in colleges has increasingly
gained popularity among institutions today. Each school will have its unique set of
strengths and methods for selecting the top pupils. So what are those marketing
techniques and what do they mean in terms of student recruitment, as well as what are the
disadvantages of each strategies?

B. Content of the presentation

I. General definition

Student recruitment is the process of searching for prospective students and

encouraging them to apply for the educational programs of the university. It requires
most of the attention in schools as it will determine the quality of the applicants who will
study there. Furthermore, it also plays a very important role in helping to achieve the
prestige of an institution. Each year, thousands of universities compete to recruit highly
motivated students, who can add value to their institutions and who have the required
qualifications to succeed further.

But how can they appeal to the best students?

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 Student recruitment has never been easy but with outstanding and clear strategies, it
has become easier. By singling out some marketing techniques, focusing on its key
strengths, and developing a program-specific target, universities can reach out to
prospective students more effectively, and make them enroll. Almost every higher
education institution now uses some marketing techniques to recruit prospective students.
The techniques are possible to promote the school's brand to potential students within not
only a country but also reach out to the world.

There are many marketing techniques such as telemarketing, TV- advertising, social
networking, traveling shows, free holiday or weekends at the university, etc. However, in
this presentation, our group only focuses on some main techniques: telemarketing, TV
advertising, mailshots, sponsorship, and social networking which universities often use as
well as give some benefits and drawbacks of each marketing technique.

II. Marketing techniques used to recruit students and their benefits and drawbacks

1. Telemarketing

Normally, the enrollment of students needs a good marketing plan to attract the
students to enroll at their college. Firstly, we shall cover one of the college's techniques
used to attact students, which is telemarketing. Telemarketing can be defined as an
activity that uses the telephone or other tool to connect to a telecommunications network
to reach a consumer for marketing, selling goods, advertising, and services to expose the
product and service to customers and potential customers.

With telemarketing, universities can easily connect with prospective students. It

allows university representatives to answer any questions or concerns that students might
have about the school, teacher, major or extracurricular activities. This helps students
have an overview of the school and creates priority when enrolling. Therefore, an
effective telemarketing campaign can enhance recruitment and enrollment goals while
addressing the informational needs of potential students through personal one-on-one

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contact. Besides, telemarketing can allow connection from a distance. Institutions could
potentially reach people on a national and global scale instead of just locally.

Another advantage of telemarketing is that it is easy to implement. Universities can

connect more students in less time because lists of students’ phone numbers and other
contact information can be purchased.

On the other hand, telemarketing has some disadvantages. A main disadvantage of

telemarketing is that it is considered a nuisance. Customer reactions are not always
friendly, as bad experiences with telemarketers contribute to the negative stereotype. The
negative image of this form may tarnish the reputation of the school. Moreover,
nowadays, more people are using technology to screen out telemarketers and other
unwanted callers. This limits the total number of students that universities can reach
through telemarketing.

To sum up, despite having some disadvantages, telemarketing plays an important role
in finding potential students for universities. Thanks to telemarketing, schools can
understand the needs and points of students based on their advice. It is one of the
important stages to attract students.

2. TV - advertising
Television advertising is a short-time television commercial produced and paid for by
an organization. In the education sector, TV advertising has a long-standing. This
advertisement uses inspirational and promotional content. It typically emphasizes
university brands, career and job prospects, playing a critical lead generation role in their
institution’s marketing efforts.
This advertisement was popular in the last decade (2010-2019 period) when devices
such as smartphones, computers... or social networks had not yet developed strongly. At
that time, this was an extremely effective communication method of famous universities
when they wanted to increase brand awareness to attract the brightest students. 
For example, The Open University in the UK has launched its first TV ad since 2016.
It was created by Havas Helia, told the story of three people who have changed their lives

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by studying at The Open University. It was shot in reverse and opened with a man taking
his first class as a teacher and ends with the moment that all three protagonists were
inspired to apply to The Open University. At that time this ad reached 75% of the UK
adult population. This inspirational video boosted the university's brand when it was
shared widely.
Using TV-advertising brings many benefits. Firstly, it easily reaches all potential
students on a large scale and in a short time. In the growing digital age, every family has
at least one television. Therefore, television advertising is an effective way. According to
results from research by Barnes & Noble College Marketing (BNCM) study released in
August 2012: "42% of American college students say that TV advertisings are the most
effective type of advertising". It can be certain that a video or a short broadcast on
television gives a much more vivid look than static information. It also helps to transmit
information about the school to a wider variety of classes in the family such as parents,
siblings, etc. They are the ones who influence the student's decision to choose a
university. Moreover, these promotional videos or broadcasts are usually short in length
of about 40-60 seconds for an advertisement or about 2-3 minutes for a broadcast. It also
has most of the useful and official information. Therefore, these potential objects do not
need to spend time sifting through the information and save a lot of time for them.
In addition, it can create high brand trust. Viewers often tend to trust television more
than other mediums. Moreover, with such a wide market, it will help universities improve
brand awareness effectively. This is almost ensured that it will increase after a TV ad
campaign. It helps to build a better brand for the university and improve the prestige,
position, and image of the university in the hearts of parents or students.
Besides the benefits, telemarketing also has its disadvantages. If you want to produce
a quality commercial, you have to spend money on related stages like production includes
hiring scriptwriters, editors, or advertising agencies… It's certain that you also have to
pay the cost for the airtime on television. The more ads appear, the more you pay.
Additionally, it is difficult to answer questions on time. It can be seen that TV
advertising only provides information in one direction from the school side. Students and

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parents receive input information without being active in the output information. This
advertising makes information exchange and interaction difficult. Because the school
cannot directly approach and answer all questions for students and parents.
3. Mailshot
A mailshot is an e-mailshot or a paper mailshot that is sent to many people at once
time by post or email. It has been used as a direct marketing medium for many years as
an effective way of easily reaching customers at an affordable price. Until now, mailshot
is still an effective and quite popular marketing method of universities with low cost. The
only difference is in form. For example, in the past, mailshots that universities sent to
students were usually in the form of postcards containing photos of the school, related
information and they were sent by post. Today, due to the development of technology,
mailshots are designed to be more diverse and creative and they can be sent by email.
This advertising is used when universities have information about potential students who
want more information to decide to attend these universities.
One of the most noticeable benefits of mailshot is cost-effective and does not require
a large investment, especially when compared to digital advertising. Not only it can be
made transparently at an affordable price, but also it is very economical to send and
distribute them especially if you choose to send them in bulk. Besides, it also can easily
be designed online for free on supporting apps like Canvas, etc.

Another advantage of using mailshot is that it is easily track, measure, and answer
questions. Unlike TV ads, when universities do not know the exact number of people
reached, mailshot will help them determine the number of mailshots sent. They can make
statistics on how many people have received this information, so it is easy and quick to
evaluate the effectiveness of this marketing method after the end through measuring the
response rate. In addition, on mailshots, most of them leave their email address and
phone number. Therefore, if students are interested in the school or want to know more
information about the school, students can directly contact or send feedback. They will
certainly be answered directly in a short time.

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 On the other hand, mailshot has its drawbacks. Firstly, it makes people feel invaded
about privacy. Mailshot recipients may consider this is an invasion of privacy because
sending mailshots to them requires the university to collect, or even purchase,
information related to them. They feel their personal information is leaked so they
become frustrated. Furthermore, using mailshot is unfriendly to the environment.
Because recipients may not care about them and consider them "junk" mails. Sending
hundreds or even thousands of letters to the target objects causes waste and harms the
environment.

4. Sponsorship

Besides using telemarketing or mailshot, sponsorship is also considered an effective

strategy to recruit students. As we know, sponsorship is the act of supporting a person,
organization, or activity by giving money, encouragement, or other help. Sponsorship is
defined in the realm of education as the act of providing money or other financial support
policies and equipment to students. Sponsorship in enrollment is currently one of the
most popular ways for attracting students to apply to the institution. It could be the
creation of appealing scholarship funds or programs that provide financial assistance to
students to aid with living costs and other expenses while they are in higher education. It
also refers to acts such as tuition fee reductions, scholarships for low-income students,
and loan policies for poor students.

Using sponsorship as a marketing strategy has brought success in the recruitment of

universities. Several universities have attracted a lot of good students thanks to tuition fee
waivers and scholarships. For instance, Thuongmai University spends more than 20
billion VND each year to award scholarships to encourage learning for its students.
During the Covid 19 pandemic, many schools have also supported students by lowering
tuition costs while students study online. For example, Thuong Mai university has
reduced tuition fees by 5-7%, the Post and Telecommunications Institute of Technology
deducts more than 6 billion VND from the Student Support Fund with a support level of
500,000 VND/student for about 12,000 students. Hanoi University of Civil Engineering

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has also supported students by giving food to those who have been stranded in Hanoi
during the social distancing period.

These support policies not only show the university's humanity, the sharing and
support of the schools for students but also help enhances the school's reputation and
position. Moreover, it also helps to create higher competitiveness compared to other
schools.

Currently, university tuition fees are increasing rapidly, yet opportunities for
disadvantaged students with strong academic achievement to attend quality colleges are
dwindling. The implementation of these policies has made it possible for underprivileged
students or students in challenging situations to have the opportunity to study. This policy
also helps reduce pressure on study and living costs for them. At the same time, it also
promotes, supports, encourages students to develop their talents.

Sponsorship offers several advantages, but it also has some drawbacks. Supporting
students is still tough due to a lack of financial resources. This income source may not be
sufficient to cover students' educational and lifestyle demands. Moreover, in some cases,
many students enroll in a school solely because of an attractive scholarship or support
funds, but they do not truly love the school, do not truly have passion. To pursue to
dream of education, they have no other better choice because their family situation is too
difficult. For example, a small number of pedagogical students, when asked, said that
they do not really like the teaching profession. But because of the support of more than 3
million dong/month, they signed up for this industry to reduce the financial burden for
their family.

In short, although I admit that there are some minor drawbacks this method can
create, I firmly believe the benefits are more remarkable. The proof is that most
institutions have scholarship funds for students and other monies to assist poor students.
Because, as you know, Vietnamese people have a tradition of mutual affection, so the
establishment of these funds is a tribute to individuals sharing.

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5. Social networking

One of the most effective marking techniques is using social networking to recruit
students. With the development of society, social networking is becoming an essential
part of our life.  Many universities have taken advantage of social media to find and
recruit their students because of its benefits, however; it also has some drawbacks during
the recruitment process. 

The presence of colleges on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, among other social
media platforms, has allowed students to connect with their college environments before
ever setting foot on campus. Universities begin to post many benefits or describe their
studying environment on social networking to attract students, which helps universities
save a lot of money in marketing their schools. Universities often create groups on social
media such as Facebook for students to enter into discussion or ask some questions.
Besides, professionals in universities can make a webinar to provide information to
students without costing too much expense. Instead of holding or taking part in an “open
day” which costs a lot of money and time to prepare, the social media technique is a good
idea for every university to attract new students. Through social
networking, Undergraduate students of each school can be on behalf of their university,
answer the questions from the student who wants to enter the school in the future. In
addition to using these platforms to increase students, many institutions of higher
education use social media to raise awareness and recruit new students. Through Twitter
and Instagram hashtags, and Facebook campaigns schools can promote themselves in
new and more effective ways.

For example, in Viet Nam, many universities create an official fan page and group
for students to share information about recruitment of the school such as the fan page of
Thuong Mai University is “Dai hoc Thuong Mai”, group for recruitment is “Tan Sinh
Vien Dai Hoc Thuong Mai” or the fan page of Foreign Trade University is “Dai hoc
Ngoai Thuong” and the group is “K60- Dai hoc Ngoai Thuong (FTU)” and other
universities. 

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 However, social networking has many disadvantages to universities in recruiting
students. Firstly, it is difficult to control fake information from unofficial groups because
people can create a group easily; many fake groups on social media have been made and
have posted fake information about universities.

Secondly, the students cannot make the question in person, and they have to wait for
the answers from the university, which they want to apply. For example, recently,
Thuong Mai University warned students not to join the fake group, which informed them
that they would hold a talk show of Viettel to a faculty of the university. The fake news
can have negative effects on the university and decrease the school’s reputation. 

III. Thuong Mai University and the application of marketing techniques

Have you ever wondered why you chose Thuong Mai University to apply that year?
At that time, as a high school student, what did you know about the school, and where did
you get that information? Recently, while learning about marketing techniques, I realized
that these marketing techniques have played a huge part in bringing us closer to this
university and making the decision to choose Thuong Mai University when applying for
a college.

In recent years, our school – Thuong Mai University has achieved many good results
in enrollment work. Much of these activities for enrollment of the school are supported
by marketing techniques. Thuong Mai University uses flexibly and quite a variety of
marketing techniques in its enrollment activities, of which the three most used techniques
are traveling shows, social media and sponsorship.

1. Traveling shows

Firstly, we will talk about the marketing strategies known as traveling shows. Every
year, starting from the beginning of April to June, Mr. Nguyen Viet Thai - the head of the
Department of External Relations and Communication, together with other teachers in the
admissions committee and juniors who are good at communication activities will go to
high schools in the northern provinces such as Bac Ninh, Nam Dinh, Hai Phong,... to

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organize enrollment counseling sessions for students in those high schools. At such
admissions counseling sessions, teachers and juniors will introduce the school's year-by-
year enrollment methods, answer questions from candidates about types of training,
majors, the curriculum of each major, the fields of instruction of the school, even the
tuition fee and scholarship policy in order to help these candidates have more necessary
information about the school and can choose Thuong Mai University to register for
admission.

Not only that, the school's admissions committee also participates in careers guidance
and admissions counseling days that are organized by businesses or universities and
Ministry of Education and Training in cities across the country. These admissions
counseling days are held like this, it will attract the attendance of a lot of high school
seniors who are about to enter college and even their parents who are looking for a
suitable university for their children. Therefore, the school's admissions committee will
open counseling booths, prepare leaflets with necessary information about enrollment
methods of Thuong Mai University to distribute to these attendees and conduct direct
counseling for them. This not only helps answer questions of candidates who want to
apply to TMU but are wondering about procedures, time, admission methods, etc but also
helps attract the attention of candidates who do not know anything or know only a little
bit of information about the school. It contributes to allowing our school to be known and
received more interest from students and their parents.

2. Social media

Another effective marketing method is using social media. As you know, our school
– Thuong Mai University uses many social media. These media, not only used to provide
necessary information for students in the school, but they also become an effective tool to
support the school's enrollment work. It allows the university to connect with high school
students across the country include candidates who are preparing to take the college
entrance exam this year and even students who will take this exam in the coming years
and their parents.

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 Thuong Mai University has many fan pages on popular social networking platforms
such as Facebook, YouTube, etc. With Facebook, the school has two main fan pages that
are “Thuong Mai University” and the “Admission of Thuong Mai University”, which
receive a lot of likes and interest. Along with that, there are separate fan pages of each
faculty and many other fan pages set up by seniors to exchange and share information.
On the YouTube platform, TMU also has a separate channel called “Thuong Mai
University Official” with a high number of channel subscriptions. Besides, it is also built
websites where you can look up information related to the school's admissions direction.
These fan pages and channels are the places to post all the enrollment information of the
school. On the main fan page, “Thuong Mai University” will continuously update
information about the enrollment method each year, including types of training,
admission criteria, admission form, application time and some others. The private fan
page of the specialized faculties also posts information to introduce the majors of the
faculty, the curriculum of each major, job opportunities after graduation, ... and share the
admission posts of the school's main fan page. The questions of the candidates will also
be answered when inboxing these fan pages. Videos introducing the school and its
specialized faculties are also posted here for candidates and their parents to watch and get
more information about TMU. When a new enrollment season is about to begin, the
school will organize a lot of enrollment counseling live streams that will be broadcast on
the school's fan page and YouTube channel. In these live streams, there will be the
participation of school leaders, heads of specialized faculties, sometimes even successful
alumni of the school to answer in detail all questions of the candidates about a particular
specialty. Most of these live streams will attract a lot of views, the school's admissions
committee has affirmed that this is an effective way for both the school and the candidate
to reach out to each other because as you know, social networking platforms are growing
and becoming more and more popular.

3. Sponsorship

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 In addition to the two marketing techniques mentioned above, sponsorship is also a
marketing technique that Thuong Mai University chooses to support enrollment. Most of
Thuong Mai University's sponsorship activities are for humanitarian and charity
programs, which will help increase the prestige and reputation of the school, contributing
to building a good image in the eyes of the public and thereby allowing TMU to receive
more interest.

It seems that every year Thuong Mai University sponsors and donates to notable
charity programs. Especially in recent years, when COVID-19 raged, more and more
meaningful programs and activities were organized to help reduce the adverse effects of
the pandemic, the school always supports these activities. TMU has participated in
fundraising and sponsored the program "Computer for Children" with the amount of
176.400.000 VND to support online learning of students with difficult circumstances
during the epidemic period. Moreover, in response to the construction of a vaccine fund
for covid-19 prevention and control, the school recently donated 200 million VND to this
fund. Not only that, during pandemic outbreaks, TMU has shown its interest by donating
rice, medical equipment, masks, and even money to field hospitals in Hanoi city. Not
only during the epidemic period, in the past, every year, the school strongly responded to
large-scale charity programs. For example, the sponsorship of teaching and learning
equipment for flood-affected area’s schools in the central provinces, donating for
programs to help poor students to overcome difficulties and many more.

After those sponsorship activities, representatives of school leaders will often be

interviewed by reporters of newspapers and popular news broadcasts on TV. As a result,
the school has built a beautiful and humane image in the public's eyes and TMU is more
and more known. All of these have greatly helped the school's annual enrollment process.

4. Achievement

As a result of the use of marketing techniques, TMU has achieved amazing results in
its admissions work in recent years. The first thing to say is that the number of applicants
to the school increases sharply each year and there are years of record highs. Last year,

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with 42,306 applications, TMU ranked 4th in the top 15 universities with the highest
number of applications. Moreover, the number of applicants according to the school’s
combined admissions methods also increased, creating a clear change compared to
before.

Secondly, the school's benchmark also increases year by year in all majors. Although
this is also influenced by the difficulty level of the university entrance exam from year to
year, TMU is still among the top universities with high benchmarks for all majors,
especially marketing and logistics - which with benchmark reach the top among
universities offering these majors. This allows the school to screen and select more
quality input, contributing to the training of excellent students to serve the country.

Finally, TMU has been included in the list of top business schools in the country.
Based on the benchmarks of universities for business schools, TMU ranks third among
schools in Hanoi, just behind National Economy University and Foreign Trade
University. This is truly a valuable achievement that has been achieved thanks to the
school's efforts in enrollment.

C. Conclusion
In conclusion, the use of marketing techniques plays an important role in recruiting
students to enroll. Each marketing techniques has its advantages and disadvantages. So,
universities need to consider choosing appropriate and effective marketing tools.

Researching the needs of potential customers, universities also need to apply

technology to be able to reach and connect with future students. Through digital
marketing tools, reaching current and potential students is more direct and faster than
ever, helping university admissions. Therefore, the use of digital marketing methods is an
inevitable trend for every university in Vietnam today.

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 LIST OF REFERENCES
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https://penji.co/marketing-strategies-for-universities/?
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TM

2. Xu hướng ứng dụng Marketing kĩ thuật số tại các trường đại học ở Việt Nam

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5. TV Advertising for Branding and Lead Generation in College Recruitment

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6., Advantage and Disadvantage of Telemarketing

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https://howandwhat.net/advantages-disadvantages-telemarketing/?
fbclid=IwAR3IPaAyIyGIpALKf7RtVA3KeYb9ZBTmDXgZKFPmhw8FteBSsdoDrhTZ
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7. Advantage and Disadvantage of Telemarketing

https://bizfluent.com/info-10000973-advantages-disadvantages-telemarketing.html

8. Why your Marketing Plan Should include Sponsorship

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9. Trường Đại học Thương mại hỗ trợ cho sinh viên vùng lũ

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10. Fanpage của Trường Đại học Thương mại

https://www.facebook.com/thuongmaiuniversity

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