Abstract

Advertisement is a marketing tool used by businesses to make their products and services known to the general public. The success of a business today depends on the effectiveness of their marketing campaign. The aim of the paper is to assess the impact of Advertisement on enrolment in higher professional institutions in Cameroon: the case of FUNIC. This study is relevant as it seeks to achieve the following objectives; to determine the advertisement strategies used by FUNIC Buea, to determine the impacts of advertisement on FUNIC and finally to determine the problems FUNIC Buea faces in its advertisements. These objectives were achieved using both primary and secondary data. Questionnaires were produced and administered to a sample of 60 participants. Findings from the study show that advertising is a vital tool used in attracting students into and institution. This therefore means that institutions should engage in effective advertisement campaigns and evaluate to find out if the advertisement was effective or not. Recommendations such as making sure the advertisement campaigns of institutions are measured were made.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

Education leads the whole society towards civilization and sophistication. It is education which fosters innovation and renders peace in the whole society. It inculcates in human being’s better attitudes, behaviors and cognition and distinguishes them from other creatures on the basis of these attributes. Basically, it focuses on the individual’s growth and development in society. Without recognizing the importance of schools in the society, the recognition of importance of education would be incomplete. As education is inter-related with individuals’ growth and development in the society, in the same way schools are inter-related with education, due to this reason schools play a key role in spreading the light of education throughout society (Wolcott, 1983).

Parents are always on the lookout for good schools that can provide the best education to their children. In order to attract students schools are also on the lookout for creating awareness about their institutions. For individuals’ awareness and perception, the education providers/schools proprietors are in need of good promotional strategies that can enhance the reputation of their schools. But the question is which promotional activities can be used to promote quality-oriented education in the society? This question becomes even more pertinent when the major proportion of the schooling system of a country is in the hands of the private sector. Marketing of services especially education marketing has dramatically advanced from the previous ten years. The marketing plans focus on both students and institutional needs (Russell, 2005).

The schools are the best places which provide an educational environment in the formal way. A school being a social system has all parts being interdependent. Creating changes in one part would reflect changes in other parts as well (Pinnell, 1985). To bring quality of education in the existing educational environment, it is crucial to enhance the competition within private schools so that the quality of education is enhanced. Due to the increased competition, the schools will enhance the quality of their main service “education” and for that purpose, they will use better promotional activities to attract students for enrollment. Since this rivalry requires designing programs and selling them to parents or students to enhance enrollments, educators around the world now attend special seminars and conferences to give them direction and supervision in the marketing of education (Rotfeld, 1999). Increased competition and promotional activities would serve as a check upon the school’s performance. Consequently, the whole environment will be supportive for quality education and ultimately the whole nation would benefit from it.

Although Cameroon boasts a sprawling cache of junior academic institutions of excellence, higher institutions are rather insufficient. There are eight state-run universities in Buea, Bamenda, Douala, Dschang, Maroua and Ngaoundere and Yaounde I & II. There is a handful of thriving private universities such as the Bamenda University of Science and Technology (BUST), International University Bamenda, Higher Institute For Professional Development And Training (HIPDET)Bamenda and the Fotso Victor University in the west province.

The University of Buea is the only Anglo-Saxon style university,the University of Bamenda which went operational in 2011 is bilingual, Cameroon has one English University. The rest of Cameroon’s six state-managed universities are run on the francophonie model, although in principle, they are considered to be bilingual institutions. Cameroon’s universities are strictly managed by the central government, with the pro-chancellors and rectors appointed by presidential decree. The minister of higher education is the chancellor of all Cameroon’s state universities.

Compared with neighboring countries, Cameroon generally enjoys stable academic calendars. In all, Cameroon’s higher education has been a success since independence, with thousands of its graduates mostly consumed by the national public service. Since the 1990s, with economic crises, a new trend has been for hundreds of university graduates leaving the country for greener pastures in Western countries. Since this graduates are going out looking for greener pastures or for studies, universities should implement some of those courses learned out there such as digital marketing so as to develop our country even before 2035 that has been spoken of. These students go out and apply their skills in countries that have been developed already, instead of staying home and making things better. The government is doing little or nothing to curb this brain drain.

Nonetheless, an emerging number of private higher technical institutions of learning like the Fotabe University, Rome Business School Cameroon, the Catholic University, American Institute of Cameroon AIC, Nacho University, Maaron Business School, Fonab Polytechnic, and many others are beginning to reshape the predominantly general style of education that for over three decades has been the turf of most students in Cameroon. These professional higher institutions of learning have emerged to train Cameroonians to become job creators and not job seekers.

The advertiser’s primary mission is to reach prospective customers and influence their awareness, attitudes and buying behaviour. They spend a lot of money to keep individuals (markets) interested in their products. To succeed, they need to understand what makes potential customers behave the way they do. The advertiser’s goals is to get enough relevant market data to develop accurate profiles of buyers-to-find the common group (and symbols) for communications this involves the study of consumers behaviour: the mental and emotional processes and the physical activities of people who purchase and use goods and services to satisfy particular needs and wants. Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor (Kotler, 2010). There are various forms of advertising like informative advertising, persuasive advertising, comparison advertising, and reminder advertising. Informative advertising is used to inform consumers about a new product, service or future or build primary demand. It describes available products and services, corrects false impressions and builds the image of the company, (Kotler, 2010). Advertising can be done through print media which includes newspapers, magazines, brochures, Audio media for example Radio, and visual media which includes billboards, and television (Kotler and Armstrong 2010).

Sales performance describes the trend of collections in terms of revenue when comparing different periods (James Randall, 2001). The sales may be in form of offering products or services to consumers. A service is any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in ownership of anything (Kotler, 2010). Sales volume is the core interest of every organization and is based on sales and profit. When volume goes up profits rises and management in organizations is made easier.

1.1.1 Background of the case study

Fotabe University is a world class higher education and vocational training institution that was created to empower young people to become entrepreneurial leaders in the African continent. By leveraging on technological advancements, partnerships with employers, hands on training and a focus on skills development, FUNIC is trying to close the gap between the word of leadership and entrepreneurship.

Fotabe University is leading the way in a new approach to higher education and vocational training in the 21st century. FUNIC offers accredited undergraduate, postgraduate and executive programs in a unique and innovative manner.

The proprietor of this citadel of learning happens to have studied in Italy where private higher institutions are so many and most of these private higher institutions compete favorably with the state universities. Inspired by the success registered by these private institutions, she returned to Cameroon in 2013 with the aim of setting up a private institution of learning. Luckily she returned to Cameroon when the liberalization and professionalization of higher institution in Cameroon was already achieved few years earlier. Fotabe University College is an entrepreneurial institution which seeks to close the gap between the job market and Africa as a whole.

FUNIC is the first entrepreneurial institute in the republic of Cameroon. FUNIC seeks to close the gap between education in Africa and the job market. The value of FUNIC is placed on its SCHOOL –TO-WORK (S2W) program. S2W is an innovative one year leadership and entrepreneurial training program, created out of a burning desire to train young people for insertion into the job market and to occupy leadership positions as entrepreneurs and corporate employees.

All students on the S2W specialize in any one of the following programs available for specialization which includes; THE HIGHER NATIONAL DIPLOMA, THE NATIONAL VOCATIONAL QUALIFICATION, OR THE PROFESSIONAL ADVANCED DIPLOMA. The minister of Higher Education in April 2015 gave the authorization to create after a powerful visit by the delegation of higher education. In 2015 the minister of higher education gave the authorization to open with the under listed references;

FUNIC is authorized by the government of Cameroon Authorization number 165/MINEFOP/SG/SG/DFO. The coming into existence of this great citadel of knowledge, wisdom, and entrepreneurship is the single initiative of MRS FOTABE ELMINE EKALI; she is the president of the Institution.

1.2 Statement Of The Problem

There are several public and private higher institutions of learning in Buea, these institutions include: FUNIC, Higher Institute of Management Studies (HIMS), Higher Institute of Business Management and Technology (HIBMAT), Higher Institute of Professional Studies (HIPS) etc. These higher professional institutions offer a wealth of programs which are yet to be known by the public. Advertisement creates awareness of these programs to the public but it hasn’t been effective for these institutions due to improper advertisement campaigns produced. It is through advertising that potential customers of a product fall in love with the product and become actual customers.

As Buea hosts numerous higher professional institutions, many students leave different parts of the country to pursue their higher education studies in Buea. These have led to an increase in competition as the different higher institutions fight to admit a greater number of students. The problem of unfair and aggressive competition from other institutions, the quest for students pushes some of these higher institutions to be unfair and cruel during advertisement. Some go as far as tearing brochures of other institutions, spreading false rumors about other institutions and paying for the removal of banners at night. It is worth noting that, for advertisements to be effective, it entails the spending of a huge budget by the advertising institution.

As Organizations spend heavy budgets on their promotion strategies to attract the consumers and to influence their buying behavior, this advertisement sometimes fail to convince consumers and do not persuade their purchase intentions due to its non-effectiveness. They need more effective advertisements and a proper evaluation of their marketing efforts. All these problems have led us to finding out the effects of advertising on enrolment in higher institutions of Learning, the case of FUNIC Buea.

1.3 Research questions

The main research question for this study is: what is the effect of Advertisement on enrollment in Higher Professional institutions in Buea?

Other research questions include;

1. What are the advertisement strategies used by FUNIC Buea?
2. What is the impact of advertisement on enrollment of FUNIC Buea?
3. What are the problems FUNIC Buea faces in its advertisements?