Service Strategies for Higher Educational Institutions Based on Student Segmentation

Over the last decade, higher education institutions in the U.S. have faced increased competition and expenditures coupled with declines in financial support. Furthermore, they often have been forced to cater to the needs of an increasingly diverse group of students and must design service strategies based on the unique needs of each group. This paper advocates the use of target marketing principles to effectively and efficiently allocate resources among the various groups. Student registration data from a large, urban, public university, which is routinely available at little cost, is used to identify five student segments. These segments include traditional students, non-traditional students, a sizable international student segment, a graduating segment, and a group of transferees. The unique needs of each segment are identified and appropriate service strategies are formulated for each segment. The diversity of the segments establish the utility of using target marketing principles for designing service strategies and the viability of using registration database for such a purpose.