Credibility, Ethics and Sustainable Marketing in Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Consumers are getting increasingly sophisticated as a result of the dizzying change occasioned by incessant advancement in technology. Similarly, consumers' needs have become cosmopolitan. Higher education institutions offering similar products or programs are feverishly competing for students' attention by using different marketing strategies such as manipulated data, deception, communication skill or oratory and attractive bulletin. Literature indicates that some of these strategies are unsustainable because they cannot ensure regular student enrollment in the long run. Moreover, credibility and sound ethical behavior are less adopted as marketing strategies for wooing students for admissions. This study examined how the application of a marketing strategy that is predicated on credibility and ethics could enhance higher education institutions' student enrollment. The study was based on review of extant literature in marketing, sustainable marketing, credibility and ethics. It found that credibility – true and trustworthiness of marketing information and sound ethical practices of integrity, rightness and fairness in higher education institutions marketing are sustainable strategies that can ensure constant attraction of prospective students. The study concluded that higher education institutions' marketing must place emphasis on credibility and ethical behavior. The study concluded that marketers of higher education institutions in Nigeria must base their marketing on credibility and be grounded in sound ethical practices to ensure constant favorable flow of students into their institutions.