Marketing of Educational Services and School Image of Private Secondary Schools in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of marketing of educational services on school image of private secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. To achieve this purpose, five specific objectives, five research questions and five null hypotheses were formed for this study. The study adopted the correlational research design and the population was all 495 principals in the 495 private secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State. However, a sample size of 221 principals drawn through multi-stage sampling procedure was used as participants. A self- developed questionnaire named “Marketing of Educational Services and School Image Questionnaire” with reliability of 0.74 was used for data collection. Out of the 221 participants sampled, 213 principals participated in the study. The hypotheses were tested using linear regressions at 0.05 alpha level. The findings indicated that product (people, process and physical evidence, price (fees charged), place (location) and promotion have significant impact on school image of private secondary schools. Based on the findings, conclusion was made that marketing of educational services significantly impact school image of private secondary schools. It was recommended among others that owners of private secondary schools should adopt product (people, process and physical evidence), price, place and promotion in marketing their schools because these marketing elements would make their schools to have good image and make prospective customers to be aware of them.