Students need recognition For higher education
The objective of this study is to ascertain the influence of internal and external environmental and marketing
stimuli on students’ need recognition to study at private colleges in Malaysia. Eight hundred and eighty eight
students who were enrolled in 72 multi-disciplined private colleges participated in this study. A two-part
questionnaire comprising selected background data, and internal and external stimuli promoting students’ need
recognition was used. Internal stimuli comprised an individual’s past experience, characteristics and motive.
External environmental stimuli encompassed family, reference group and social class; while external marketing
stimuli include the quality of programs, promotion, pricing, distribution, lecturers, processes and physical
resources. The results indicate that external marketing stimuli have the highest influence on students’ need
recognition (lecturer’s quality – 76%; program quality – 74% and quality of physical resources – 73%), followed
by external environmental stimuli (family – 70%), and internal stimuli – 65%. These findings will enable private
colleges to formulate effective marketing strategies emphasising students’ need recognition and family influence,
which will allow them to maintain a sustainable competitive edge over their competitors in this dynamic and
highly competitive industry.
Individual motive (internal input variable), family (external input variable: environmental
stimulus), quality of programs, quality of lecturers, as well as quality of physical resources
(external input variable: marketing stimuli) were perceived by students as triggers of need
recognition for higher education at private colleges. This concurs with the literature reported
by Assael (1998) and Schiffman and Kanuk (2000).
The external marketing stimuli was perceived to be most influential in stimulating
students’ need to study at private colleges. The three marketing stimuli namely quality of
lecturers, programs, and physical evidence were rated higher than the internal and external
environmental stimuli, thus reinforcing the importance of marketing stimuli in triggering
need recognition among students of private colleges. This implies that marketing stimuli are
powerful tools that can be used by private colleges to stimulate need recognition among
potential students. As such it would be critical for private colleges to review and reformulate
their marketing strategies to maximize their impact to stimulate students’ need recognition
and choice of private college. It is also imperative that management of private colleges
communicate these strategies to potential students and their parents. This is because the
choice of college is not an individual’s decision but one that involves a decision making unit
(DMU) that comprises potential students and their families. As this study is exploratory, it
would be more conclusive if further empirical studies could establish the magnitude of
influence these internal and external factors have on students’ need recognition, and how
private colleges’ marketing efforts could impact students’ need recognition
