In this report, there are 83% of prospective students have been using social networks as channels to research information about study abroad procedure.. Social networks are proving an in
GENERAL INFORMATION
Introduction
Nowadays, social network has developed very widely and strongly It allows people to connect with family, friends, to share all information with all users The innovation of technology has playing a key role and a powerful tool in influencing and changing behaviour of consumer Social network has become more and more popular as the daily life, so these tools has been perceived as sources for customer to search information about products or service during their buying decision process (Sinem Ozer, 2012) They use social network to share information, experiences, advice, reviews … that are interesting to their connected users (Friends, followers…) It can be helpful sources and may influence consumer’s purchasing process (Seaman, 2013) More over, it also is one of the most effective marketing and business development tools in recent century And because customer use information on social networks as the instruction/ guideline for their decision process and this tool is also used as advertising channel for enterprise to market which in turn can help them gain more business opportunities and potential customers (Seaman, 2013)
On another hand, the number of population all around the world are using internet and social network have increased by 21% since 2015 and it was 2.8 billion users reported globally in 2017 (Kemp, 2017) Social network has been changing the way people communicate, gather information and inform their decisions For young students and even modern parents in particular, social network is principle means of gathering information and communication with peer to peer (Kemp,
2017) In this report, there are 83% of prospective students have been using social networks as channels to research information about study abroad procedure Along with the trend of globalization and the development of science, technology internet, especially social network, study abroad has become an indispensable need for many young generations to realize the “Global Citizen” dream and it will expand their knowledge beyond their traditional educational style and their current world This is an opportunity to raise students' awareness of the many cultures of the world that can contribute to create many individuals with a broader understanding of today's society rather than limiting within the traditional education system at their home country (Johnson and Stewart, 1991) Kinginger (2007) considered that students who have studied abroad often demonstrate the development of cognitive and creative thinking that surpasses the ability of students with only have educational experiences in their home country
One of the reasons why studying abroad is becoming increasingly important is that globalization has opened up international employment opportunities Qiang
(2003) observed that there is a noticeable increase in the number of international labor recruitment due to globalization This creates a need for competition in the international labor market which affects many students in seeking opportunities to enhance their career prospects by achieving high quality education with qualifications which are recognized around the world (Mpinganjira, 2009) Up to now, the concept of overseas study has been developed and it seem to be potential service business Overseas study has been becoming the educational activities
The innovation of social networks has influenced enterprises to discover effective ways to communicate with their potential consumers This marketing has been extending to education consultancy that attempt to influence parents and students’ choices Morris (2012) demonstrated that social networks were used by students to assist in the university choices Social networks are proving an influential way of providing a platform for potential students to gather information and inform their choice about study abroad and destination (We are social report,
2017) Students can use a variety of information sources to do decision-making These include the internet, social networks, newspapers, word of mouth, education consultancies and government sources (Poonam and Madhu, 2015) Despite this wide diversity information sources, overseas students had limited knowledge to choose the courses to study and job prospects on completing a specific program (James et al, 2013) Therefore, they really need a professional advice and guidance to make final decision As Morris (2012), he said that social network is used by students to assist in the university decision making process So social network has potential for education agency to grow visibility and attract more prospective students (Zinck and Constantinides, 2011) Therefore, social network has appeared to have much potential and promise, it will be determined what role social network plays in student’s decision of education consultant agency And from the increasing demand of studying abroad in Vietnam leads to strong development of education consultant agents to help student on preparing full study abroad procedure And because of big opportunity of study abroad business now so many Agents are opening in Vietnam, it creates the dynamic market and stressful of competition OSI Vietnam (One Step International Education Consulting Co., Ltd) is one of the companies that their service is oversea study service are facing with their own challenge to adapt to the booming of technology nowadays to keep growing and replace another proactive approach strategy to prospective students through social networks
Although OSI Vietnam has been established in the market for a long time (over 20 years), but company has not been prominent and successful, as well as not well known OSI Vietnam is a small enterprise, there have only 12 employees’ unreasonable job allocation, and each employee must occupy multiple positions (as consultant, customer service, marketing, cashier, international relationship ) resulting in low marketing effectiveness Employees are primarily trained in professional counseling, customer care by telephone but lack of marketing training The lack of a specialized marketing department has led to ineffective publicity of the company image; the staffs disregard the marketing function that only focuses on the processing of the visa application Because it is a small company, marketing budget is very low, so it is not suitable for communication activities, organization of seminars, events Accordingly; the company now needed a marketing plan both less costly but still effective
Even though the company has website: www.osivietnam.com and fan page on Facebook but does not regularly update, refresh the content as well as do not have specialists in charge so it does not bring effective marketing for the company They only had ineffective marketing policies like annually; the company coordinates with the Thanh Nien Newspaper to participate in the graduating season consultancy program Although effective immediately at that time but does not bring long-term and stable effects
Furthermore, the competitors are using social networking and marketing online very strong so there is fewer customers know and willing to choose OSI Vietnam and traditional approachment strategy has become passive and outdated so the company need to think about changing and replacing the marketing plan as soon as possible or they will decrease day by day
Because of many trouble with the business of OSI Vietnam currently when they cannot get new customers by world of month based on relationship and traditional ways as Director of OSI Vietnam recognized that it is the passive approachment, and they must change to adapt to the modern human world changing day by day, if they are not smart they will be left behind and disappear amidst a very dynamic competitive environment Author, who used to work in OSI Vietnam, grew with them and OSI as her second family, she wants to do something that as the strongest action to make them pass through their difficult period time As discussion with board director, the company really needs a marketing department but as the beginning their budget is still not too much, so author will consider and found that social networking marketing now is very effective tool for them to spread OSI Vietnam image to the new horizon of social community
And author chose OSI Vietnam because author used to be counsellor of that company, so I know they are lacking the marking strategy even their service is good but without advertisement they will lose their business to other competitors So, next section author will introduce about OSI Vietnam and their problem that need to have solution for marketing campaign as the reason why author do this research to help them issue their current problem Whether social network has a great impact on customer’s making process and there have many researches about this issue but until now there are no specific studies for this field in Vietnam So, in this study, author chooses the topic “ The impact of social network to student’s choice an
Education consultant agency: Solution of marketing on social network for OSI Vietnam”
Research objectives and research questions
Research’s objective is to indentify the way that social network influence to students on making decision when they are finding education consultant agency for their studying abroad process
Related to research’s objectives, the questions are set as follow:
1 How does social network impact on student’s choice?
2 What social networking sites do students use to search education consultant agency?
3 Which social networking sites influenced student’s decision making?
Scope of research
- Students: who have already had student visa to study abroad by Education consultant centres They have gone through the selection process to make final decision, therefor understand them will help author find out which factors have brought the highest efficiencies and how social network plays a role and which social networking sites they have used in the process of their choice In this thesis, author will focus on students who studied in USA, Canada and Australia
- OSI Vietnam Staff: They know the problems and the needs They have more efficient marketing campaigns to attract more students and develop their business
- Education counsellors: author chooses to interview because they are working in the company where has been running marketing online so that we can see more clearly the effective of social networking marketing Then give solution from their experience to help OSI Vietnam develop their marketing strategy
- Parents: they have the most influence on student on their study abroad decision According to research of McFadden (2015), there is nearly 60% of prospective students report they research schools with their parents, and 61% of parents said that they will made the final decision
In this research, author has used both primary and secondary data sources Secondary data: all information was founded on books, magazines, internet and Primary data: has applied survey method through questionnaires
Semi structure interview’s objective is exploring the insights and specific information
In this study, author choose direct interview one by one with 4 kinds of research objectives to take their opinions to devote into the research as much ideas from many different subjects, there are 13 participants accept to join the interviews:
- Students: who are international students in USA, Canada, they are the persons that successful student visa by OSI Vietnam Author contacted them for inviting the interview and made the conversation one by one on Facebook messenger, Zalo, Skype… They are very happy and satisfied with OSI Vietnam and promise to share every promotion from OSI Vietnam on social networks
- Parents: author made interview with 2 parents who are working with OSI Vietnam for their children to study abroad They knew OSI through their friends’ introduction and they also said that without someone told them that company then they will not know who they are and never come so they totally agreed that OSI should have marketing to promote their brand to many people especially on social network
- Board of director of OSI Vietnam: director of OSI Vietnam and Office manager discussed about the lack of marketing campaign of the enterprise and they are facing with loosing many students and they demonstrated OSI must change to adapt to new technology era That why they accept author to do the thesis with using it as the real case
- Reference from the marketer and counsellor from other Agents: These people have experience of marketing on Education field in other Agents, they are even established later than OSI Vietnam, but they are now even growing faster than OSI because they have the active approachment on social networks where have a whole world community They gave author many ideas about how to do marketing on social for studying abroad demand
The interviews took around 30 minutes to 45 minutes, and some trouble with the time zone and internet so some of the records were not good but after that author also re-contacted for completing the transcript versions Through the time doing my thesis, author is in rush season at working so she had travelled a lot But after all, she tried her best to complete thesis on time
This study uses combination of qualitative Qualitative research is the method with collecting information without numerical form and it usually related to the emotions of human, or behavior Discovering the experience of participants in a qualitative study is viewed as a phenomenological approach Furthermore,
Qualitative research is suitable to answer the question of “How” and “Why” (Hennink et al., 2011)
Since this is an appropriate way, the attitude, value and behavior of the research should be acknowledged at the beginning of the research, but should be part of the research A perfect example of qualitative research is group interviews and structured questions with open responses that generate qualitative data These open- ended questions allow respondents to express and answer in-depth questions in their own words rather than the words of researcher feeds These answers help the researcher gather in-depth analysis and the real understanding of the respondents about the research problem However, this method can take quite long time and respondents are very limited because they can only be considered in such a study (Palys and Atchison, 2014) As Palinkas and partners (2015), the qualitative research method is an exploratory study The primary purpose of qualitative research, as assessed by Flick (2015), is to better understand the reasons, opinions and motivations of research Karlsson (2016) argues that some trends are discovered by researchers with the use of qualitative research There are several methods used in qualitative research where the study is unstructured and semi structured (Robson and McCartan, 2016) The most common qualitative studies are interviews Whatever technique is selected by the study of research for qualitative research should provide the ability to provide insight from the inner core of the problem for this study This insight may include the responses of the participants, their comments or ideas (Taylor et al, 2015)
In this study author choose the choice model of Engle, 1995; Kardes, Cronley, Cline (2011) as her main model to follow and give more finding about how social networks can be effective on each step There are five steps: Need; Information search; Evaluate of Alternative; Purchase decision and Post purchase Following five steps, it has their own factors that can be the reason for further steps and final decision
Finding of this research found that effect of social network will be strong on step 2 (Information search) and step 3 (Evaluation of Alternative) because students will nearly 100% go to internet and social network for seeking and taking all their concerns so every positive or negative recommendation will be their issue On Step
1 (Need), the effect just medium since what they see on social network with good performance then will be their motivation to know exactly what they want and where to go Going to step 4, it just the most depends on actual service and consultant skill of Agents and how much they give their customers belief then more opportunity of business they can win The last step (Post purchase) will close for decision making process of this person but will be the next beginning steps of other students
Outline of research
2.1 Overview of the trend of studying abroad
According HSBC Group (2017), the trend of studying abroad is growing rapidly In particular, the highest result is belong to Asian parents, who tend to consider sending their children to overseas study more than other countries The results show that Asian students make up 53% of the total number of international students
Table 2.1 Pparents consider overseas study (HSBC, 2017)
The percentage (%) of parents in this country will consider their offspring to study overseas
LITERATURE REVIEW
Overview of the trend of studying abroad
According HSBC Group (2017), the trend of studying abroad is growing rapidly In particular, the highest result is belong to Asian parents, who tend to consider sending their children to overseas study more than other countries The results show that Asian students make up 53% of the total number of international students
Table 2.1 Pparents consider overseas study (HSBC, 2017)
The percentage (%) of parents in this country will consider their offspring to study overseas
In top five of the highest proportion countries / territories that parents considering there are four countries / territories in Asia, indicating a strong desire to study in the region Indonesia, 61% (up 1 %), China: 59% (up 15%), and Hong Kong: 52% There is a similar trend in Vietnam, with a significant number of 63,703 Vietnamese students pursuing undergraduate and postgraduate programs around the world In general, the trend of overseas study is continuing to increase Compared to just 2.1 million in 2001, the number of undergraduate and postgraduate students in the world in 2017 has reached more than 4.6 million (HSBC, 2017)
IIE (Institute of International Education) estimated that in the 2016/2017 academic year, the United States had attracted 1,078,820 undergraduate and postgraduate students, the United Kingdom had nearly 497,000 international students, France 310,000 and Australia 292,000 (IIE, 2017)
Table 2.2 Destinations preferred by parents (HSBC, 2017)
Destinations preferred by parents when considering their children to study oversea in 2017
New Zealand 5% The ranking also reflects the choice of the Vietnamese students According to HSBC data (2017), the top five destinations for overseas Vietnamese students are USA (19,336), Australia (13,147), Japan (6,071), France (5,284) and United Kingdom (4,236) (HSBC, 2017) Furthermore, related to International student survey (ISS) 2018 (Nicol, 2018), there are more than 80% of potential students who are looking at studying oversea in 11 European countries go through social network when choosing and applying University It is the channel that students collect information and discussion with their peers The survey also show that Social networking sites and social networks are the place that 65% students find information before deciding an inquiry about overseas study and 27% students refer when applying, 20% of collecting information about travelling abroad plan after getting offer and 20% find out solution to get the offer (Nicol, 2018)
Figure 2.1 Social Network as part of the research process (Nicol, 2018)
In this survey, Nicol (2018) affirmed that even Parents, Family, friends, Education counsellors… are particularly influential on student’s choice of oversea study but surely that students themselves are the most important deciding so certainly, it is crucial that education company listen to viewpoint of prospective students carefully can help increase rating of satisfaction and perception of students Anyways, Nicol (2018) still identified that Students believe and trust information’s sources from Education Agents (47% agree) when they considering and choosing higher education in overseas country
Figure 2.2 Students believe and trust Agents (Nicol, 2018)
Following result of ISS (International student survey) 2018, (Nicol, 2018) 48% students said that Agents are useful for them and 34% agree Education agents had influenced their choice of school and 27% influenced choice of destination And as a fact that author see that Education consellors play as key role of the choice of students and the potential of this business is very high if agents can approach and have the right strategy of marketing to recruit international students An undeniable fact that Education agents are part of many international University for their recruitment, especially for international students when seeking visas And ofcourse agents face with many challenges (Nicol, 2018) That why, now in the century of increasingly competitive global Education market, especially in Vietnam that competition is becoming more stressful than ever when the number of consulting for studying oversea service centres continues to increase (Tran Thi Phuong, 2019) as below chart of the number of Vietnamese Education counsellor centres from quarter III, 2017 to the first month of 2019
Figure 2.3 Vietnamese Education Agent (Tran Thi Phuong, 2019)
Quarter III, Quarter IV, Quarter I, Quarter II, Quarter III, Quarter IV, January,
Among thousands of Agents in Vietnam, OSI Vietnam is one of the companies that their service is oversea study service are facing with their own challenge to adapt to the booming of technology nowadays to keep growing and replace another proactive approach strategy to prospective students through social networking maketing channels In addition, author chose OSI Vietnam because author used to be there counsellor, so I know they are lacking the marking strategy even their service is good but without advertisement; they will lose their business to other competitors So, next section author will introduce about OSI Vietnam and their problem that need to have solution for marketing campaign as the reason why author do this research to help them issue their current problem.
Introduction about OSI Vietnam
One Step International Education Consulting Co., Ltd (OSI Vietnam), operating based on a license issued by the Department of Planning and Investment of Ho Chi Minh City, specializing in education, tourism, immigration, foreign investment OSI Vietnam is representative for many Language Institutes, Secondary Schools, High Schools, Colleges, Universities … in many countries where have high education such as: USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore… OSI Vietnam is a professional Company in consulting school, major, state for students to attain the best choice of studying abroad plan In addition, preparing documents for enrolling school and applying visa are important parts that demand knowledge, experience, and skill from advisors in order to have the best outcome OSI possesses a strong, professional, and a devote personnel’s who conduct files and obtained well-training and practical program for each case, (OSI Vietnam report,
2018) At OSI Vietnam, these have four core values are pursued and implemented consistently throughout its more than 20 years of operation: "Transparency - Professionalism - Experience and Trust."
Director said that transparency at OSI Vietnam can understand as the work, sequence of the most detailed, and scientific consultation process The financial statements are always clear, detailed from the beginning All the company service's fees, the relevant agencies as stipulated, especially the tuition fees from the school, living expenses are always have clear invoices The professionalism of OSI Vietnam is reflected in the extensive knowledge of the consultants on professional knowledge, social knowledge as well as culture and customs of many countries
Besides, understanding the psychology of students, parents to encourage, warn and even strict, do not compromise with any situation does not match With the experience of a close and dedicated team, OSI Vietnam will help the students's overseas study plans are sure to be smooth and favorable OSI Vietnam has established trust relationships with major partners in the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, … (OSI Vietnam report, 2018) With over 20 years of practical experience and commitment, OSI Vietnam has helped thousands of young people obtain visas for US and other developed countries In recognition of these efforts, OSI Vietnam was honored in 2013 for the "Top 50 Trademarks - Famous Brands" Award organized by Vietnam Intellectual Property Association and Award for Education Development (2015) with the title "Prestigious Education Organization" awarded by the Association of Vietnam Study Encouragement OSI Vietnam is also one of the 300 representative enterprises of Ho Chi Minh City to participate in "Cooperation with the city of innovation" in August 2016 (OSI Vietnam report, 2018)
According to OSI Vietnam, the number of studying abroad cases and successful student visas as below table:
Table 2.3 Studying abroad cases (OSI Vietnam report, 2018)
Year Study abroad case OK Visa case
Figure 2.4 Studying abroad cases (OSI, 2018)
Based on the summarized data on the number of studying abroad applications were conducted by OSI over the years, we see that from 2007 to 2010, the growth rate is strong; from 208 cases in 2007 to 2010, it increased rapidly 4 times After that from 2010 to 2014, the number of studying abroad records increased but not much It is worth noting that the decline from 1146 cases in 2014 until 2017 it was only 894 cases However, a good signal in 2018 when this number increased again, higher than 2017 is 224 cases (OSI Vietnam report, 2018)
The Period of beginning to 2010:
Based on the report in 2018 of OSI Vietnam, from the time of establishment, OSI Vietnam mainly advertises in newspapers and available relationships The company has absolutely no marketing department, most customers get through the introduction of those who have been working with the company, this way of doing business has partly helped the company to grow sales quite well Moreover, the number of people who know the company was increasing The main customer of this period was the parents who intend to send their children to study abroad
The revenue of company increased steadily but at medium level and there was no breakthrough and almost access to customers only through the traditional way of word of mouth marketing on existing relationships (OSI Vietnam report,
At that time, everyday company only had around 10 cases came to do study abroad consultant The number was decresing; it was a big challenge for board of enterprise Since they were facing with a big competition from the market when the education agency has increasing so fast and they did a lot of promotion to attract students and parents Especially they appeared with a very large output on social networks The company report (2018) also showed that OSI Vietnam was slowly falling behind competitors when the approachment to customers has become outdated and no longer widely influential While social networks have been gradually replacing the traditional way of accessing information and marketing, OSI retained the old form of word of mouth and newspaper even almost University and other Education company in the world have applied social network marketing for a long time Frankly speaking, without the right marketing strategy, it will be difficult for OSI Vietnam to expand their business (OSI Vietnam report, 2018)
Recognize the importance of marketing, especially in the digital age, the Board of Directors decided to run a social network marketing strategy They joined Facebook and had their own Fan page to connect with all students and relationship They got very good significant of increasing followers on Facebook, they came and contacted with OSI Vietnam for consulting So on, the business is growing again Following the successful of new marketing plan, OSI Vietnam are setting up and widening the online, especially social marketing, recruit new specific marketers (OSI Vietnam report, 2018)
- Professionalism, dedication, reputation and enthusiasm
- Company have loyal customers and very good relationship
- Interconnection with many prestigious universities and colleges from USA, Canada,
- Company has experienced staffs, high qualification, good consulting skills, dedicated, thoughtful
- Good services: strongly support students not only during the application process but also after successful visa (immigration procedure when students go abroad, accommodation arrangement, renew visa, …)
- The percentage of successful visa is high
- There are no marketing department
- Have not focused on promotion to raise up their own brand and image
- The way to reach potential students is somewhat passive, based only on word of mouth and referrals from existing customers
- The website is not popular, not attractive and not regularly updated hot news
- Company has not been active on Social networking sites
- They have not much budget for marketing
- Globalization and integration open many opportunities for
Education, especially oversea study market
- Young generations now use internet and social networks as their source to find information and sharing their experience
- More and more Vietnamese parents and students want to study abroad
- Online marketing is becoming easier during the 4.0 technology period
- The marketing online of competitors are very strong in not only Local Vietnam but also International Universities and agents.
Social network
In the modern life, when the internet is become more and more popular and customers usually use internet as the tool to search information, communicate and shoping online or find sevices It is easy to stay connected wherever and whenever people are due to worldwide is increasing with using smartphones and mobile devices The advances in Information technology is helping to migrate enterprise and consumer relationships to interactive level Moreover, giving the customers opportunity to voice their opinion will not lead to positive word of mouth and can threaten the enterprise’s image and reputation with their customer (Wilson, 2012)
Today’s digital age, the Internet has more advance and the power and importance of social network platforms, conversations and engagement are increasing and traveling at unprecedented speeds It was generally agreed that social networks marketing has involved the spreading of marketing massages through viral marketing, and surely that receivers will interest to pass along these massages to their relationships (Kaikati, 2004) Multiple social networks such as Youtube, email communication, and many others kinds of electronic media are used in this process
In fact, most of the Viral Marketing campaigns are focused on spreading the company's message through the popular social networking platforms such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Linkedln, Enterprises wishing to integrate a social network program into their marketing strategy and they see that social network is changing the decision-making process in the buying behavior of consumers (Constantinides and Stago, 2012) Social network has reduced the power of traditional marketing so that marketers are forced to find new ways to reach potential customers and communicate with them (Parise and Guinan, 2008) However, marketing communications is an extension of online communication and only succeeds when it is based on solid foundations: products are innovative and high quality, market-oriented organizations and websites are well-designed (Constantinides and Stago, 2012) Social networks where have it members create their public profiles and share all information such as knowledge, experiences, personal information,… Contact with other members to exchange and share the same interests (Cheung and Lee, 2010) Social networks make us have the different thinking about marketing, enterprises and consumers can interact directly and have relationship with one another (Solomon et al, 2010) Digital networks today is not only information access tools, but it als has been interaction tools, which are used by individuals to exchange and share information, contents, opinions… and customers’s behavior will change when they interact with others (Heinrichs et al,
2011) As consumers like to interaction and communication with each other and want to refer advice from different positive or negative products or services, virtual communities will have an impact on consumers' purchasing decisions (Evan et al,
2009) People can gather to share their thoughts, idears, comments on Social networking sites; so it will be the place for marketers to listen and respond to customers, review contents (Weber, 2009), the advertisements via social network, the meassage will reach far more potential customers intended to reach (Weber, 2009; Weinberg, 2009)
Social networks are the platforms where individual can connect with others (Lee, 2013) It was stated by Weinberg (2009, page 149) as “generic terms for sites that are used to connect users with similar backgrounds and interests”
Regarding to research of Boyd and Ellison (2007, page 211), Lee (2013, page 25), social networking sites platforms have few common elements as: “(1) users are able to create interactive and customized profiles within a bounded system, (2) a list of suggested friends with whom they share a connection, (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system”
At present there is no specific research on the constitution of social networks, but with the way it is formed and its operation, the author makes up the constitution of the social network including:
- Node: An entity within a network This entity can be an individual, a business or any other organization
- Tie: is the relationship between the entities There are many types of links in the network In its simplest form, a social network is a single, scalar graph of the appropriate links between nodes We can represent this network with a graph by which the nodes are represented by points and the links represented by the lines
2.3.4 The usage Social network in the world and Vietnam:
As report of Kemp (2018), the number of new users use social network around the world has increased rapidly It is more than 3 billion people use social network for each month Despite a notorious year, Facebook is still increasing 15% compared to the same period in 2017 and reached 2.17 billion users in early 2018
According to statistic of Kemp (2018), Vietnam has more than 96 million people with 35% proportion of urban population The number of Internet users in
2018 reached 64 million this number is over 28% than 2017 There are 55 million users in use social networks, an increase of 20% compared to 2017 Vietnam is not outside the growth rate of digital marketing in the world This report pointed out that on average time that Vietnamese users spent to access internet is nearly 7hour a day and it almost as a daily life of using social network
Figure 2.5 Frequency of internet use (Kemp, 2018)
Due to Social networking sites in Vietnam, the number of active accounts is more than half of the population (57%) and it is becoming the most current communication tools for business Below figure will list 12 currently famous social network platforms in Vietnam The number one, of course, is Facebook, follow by Google and YouTubee (Kemp, 2018)
Figure 2.6 Most active social media platforms (Kemp, 2018)
Online marketing for Education Consultant agencies
Social network will be part of Education Company on their marketing campaigns But until now many enterprises are still not sure the way to begin and how to do it effectively Incentives can be provided for education counsellors to seek information and create dialogues Social network donates variety and flexibility of creative ideas to support advance company’s mission and goals More and more education agencies are discovering social network to be the most effective stools to make their brand awareness, marketing knowledge and customer’s insights However, nowadays, almost universities and colleges are using traditional marketing methods to attract and recruit potential students all around the world by printing magazine, advertisement, brochures (Demiray et al., 2007), broadcast, education exhibition, road shows, public activities (Wernick, 1991) and especially through their local partner agencies This method uses the main technique is “face to face” between counsellor and students
As upon mention about how effective of social network marketing and benefit it brings to enterprise’s business, it is exactly will contribute to education market Indisputable that the improvement and innovation of technology in 4.0 century has strongly affected to education industry Internet and social networking sites play a crucial instrument for higher education sector Nowadays, many
International schools in the whole world are using international marketing through social network to attract international students On another side, students always go to internet for their process of decision making (Gomes and Murphy, 2003) Thus, education marketers to catch their student demand and create strong relationship with their potential student’s nets in competitive higher education sectors (Reddy,
2014) must exploit online marketing British, Australia and Singapore are considering websites as an effective tool (Maringe and Carter, 2007) And for instance, they have many local agencies to push their image and promote themselves Up to date, social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter… support education marketers to market and reach their prospective students Agreeing with this method, Aghaee, (2010) demonstrated that social network was used to support higher education Modern students, of course, they refer digital native, but it is still limitation of negative aspects since it is loss of verbal communication like body language (Aghaee, 2010) so after social network, education consultant agencies will be important persons to give the useful advice to students.
Social networking sites was used by other international students
Social networking has increasingly changed the way students, firms, industries and education institutions conduct their business and spread information (Qualman, 2010) Among its, Facebook is becoming the most popular channels and nearly half of Facebook users are students So, Education agencies must to focus on this channel to reach out more potential students (Reddy, 2014)
In this research, author will study about the most using social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn to understand and think about solutions on its also.
Online communication and Virtual platforms
Education agencies would save money and resources if they use social network and they also reach more potential students For example, Facebook,
Instagram, YouTube can make sure to connect with all prospect students in 24 hours per seven days and it is very accessible As Reddy (2014), now many international schools offer virtual tour by going to their websites Students can find much photography, videos about their environment, facilities, classrooms, programs, library, and stadium Choudaha (2013), stated that videos of institution campus, which posted to YouTube, provided a potential convincing communication Reddy (2014), he also demonstrated it is necessary if Education agency or university open forums for students to discuss all about their issues and desires and encourage them to share opinion or personal views
Understanding about Facebook: it is the biggest social network through out the world It was founded on 04 February 2004 for Havard’s students and then it expanded to everyone until now Components of Facebook are: profiles of person, status, groups, fan pages… In November 2007, Fan Pages concept was launched and created opportunities for many universities to present their schools at that times
2008 there had 420 universities taking advantage of this concept People who are like this page and become their “Fans” will share image of it to their friends and create the viral marketing effect, it means that when the friends see the fan pages, if they like they will be another “Fan” of this organization Students now can join many different groups to interact with others and share experiences or comments and of any topic include whatever they like or unlike Facebook also are using by almost University and school now They open their page for all members to join and upload all information and urgent attentions, study group also very popular now on Facebook In Vietnam, there are many Agents are using Facebook to marketing, they make many livestreams, open new hot contents like Scholarship event, updated visa policy, guidelines for international students, … Then students, who are now living in Facebook’s community they spend almost their time on Facebook will meet the Agents through this channel will not be difficult to understand Saw et al
And how about Youtube: It is the network for sharing videos People can upload and share their video clips on YouTube The audience can give their comments and share their opinions under every video It was founded in 2005 and now is one of the most popular channels related to content from entertainments videos to business and education videos are promoted YouTube is the greatest invention due to it is a platform includes entertainment videos and educational media, which are used by millions of people on over the world Nowadays, YouTube more and more popular and people like to see the dynamic videos because they can not only easy to get information but also they can see and hear the real concept University, Institution and Agents also use it to make videos about their facility, program, activities, communication between students and schools or the real school day of any students thet will steer other people like and follow to make them trust All people now they want to find the videos with sharing the reviews or feedback, if they can see it by the real one and hear what they talking, it will easy to get into audience mineset And because as Saw et al (2012) indicated that students use YouTube for their education purposes Yes, YouTube can be use to be effective channel for Education Agents to do marketing
We countinue with Twitter: It was created in 2006 and it was online news Twitter has an interface that allows users to send and read news or messages from other users Twitter is a text-based that is limited to 140 characters It can be useful in education, both for students and teachers, by facilitating the exchange of information relevant to upcoming events and projects Further more, students can share the important links and mention the due date of their news At the same times, all another users will receive the notification so on they can share, forward or respone to this contents (Jacquemin et al, 2014)
Similar to Facebook or Twitter, it is Instagram, people can create account with has profile and news feed and it is social networking app on smartphone made for sharing videos and photos All users are following an account can easy see the photos, videos or news feed when this account post it to their own Instagram And because Instagram now can be linked to Facebook so students or Institution, especially Education agents can make many hot hashtags along with many photos about International study abroad events, School visit, … which such breaking news hashtags from Agents or institutes related to study abroad or policy changing that students are interested in can be the best way to engage more potential students to follow and share to other people who want to know
One more channel that author want to understand is LinkedIn: This kind of social networking site was designed to create professional identity online and keep in touch with friends; get more professional opportunity, business chance, new ventures, inspirations, insights,… (Reddy, 2014) Profile of member of LinkedIn emphasizes their history and education It requires all members to get pre-existing relationship to join Since this is the professional page so if Agents can live on this, then more international schools can see their profile and link with them for corporation overseas recruitment They can trust profiles in LinkedIn more than others And follow this channel, Education Agents can have potential to reach the high level of recruitment from students who come there to seek the trust company for higher education
Finally, there are many social networking sites that University or Agents can use to attract their prospertive students as author mention above, and each site has different characteristic of doing marketing, marketing must understand these points to make the right contents and stategy, carefully before posting any topic to increase the spillover effects and topical features By this way, they can easier promote their brand name and marketing, advertisements never be redundant, just need to know how to choose the right target, right channel and right topic of interest, they will definitely become famous.
Benefits of social networking for Education
Most previous research showed value of marketing on social network, but a few studies focused on benefit it would take in Higher education recruitment Social network will support Education agencies achieve internationalization based on student support and faculty Therefore, Institutions now are trying to seek the internationalization through social networking sites
Choudaha (2013) pointed out there are at least 4 benefits that social networking can make are relevance, speed, cost, personalization
Relevance: establishing an accessible, effective and easy to use social networking channels with future students will certainly contribute to resource efficiency and cost effectiveness Social network will adapt to student’s preference demand
Speed: provides authentic information and fast paces to meet student’s expectation, decision and perception
Cost: Social network will help Education agencies easy to reach a huge resource of students and spread out their promotion information without using too much money as traditional marketing like events, exhibition, …
Personalization: Student can go through social network to read and view information in their local native language.
Social networking engagement
Students now are typically observed digital natives; they can spend their life in digital environment (Thompson, 2007) Joly (2007) called them as Generation of Social networking According to research of Schoeder and Greenbowe (2009), students are those who frequently take part in social networking activities Thus, it is prime to observe the future students by using social network As statistics of Junco and Cole (2008), there are 72% students indicated that they would be interested in interacting directly with counsellor, 62% like to read school’s profile or prefer the experience of current student at this school by blogs Students also go to social networking sites to collect the content which can useful for them on choosing right school for them (Morris, 2012) Social network provides powerful tools and chances to improve the maketing strategy and recruitment procedure of higher education institution, it will help to accommodate to the changing trend, demand and decision making of future students Nowadays, many Education agencies have used social network to promote their service to prospective students (Reddy, 2014) It is becoming successful and effective marketing tools, thoroughly for the modern young generation
Author is going to follow the concept of student choice, to find what are the most factor that can be student’s motivation to study abroad and which student choice model that author can be used as the basic one and apply to her current thesis Next section will show all those issues.
Student mobility
Starting to understand student’s mobility and their insight desire will help Agents to think about solutions how to stimulate students' curiosity and determination to study abroad Get their insight and find out their expectation will bring more passive business opportunity for Education company An effective process of attracting and marketing students based on Push and Pull factors (Reddy,
2014) So, understand what students want and where they want to go abroad will provide Education consultant centre an important lead on how to design and grow their business The International Universities are attracting students all over the world by using new technique include social network (Choudaha and Chang, 2012) The innovation of social network had significant influence on student’s decision- making process When they are looking for potential institutions, social networks will be used to obtain information
2.9.1 What is Vietnamese student mobility?
Nowadays, the trend of overseas study is developing in many countries in the world, especially among young generation in developing countries who want to go to developed countries to experience and to study in an better education environment So why do Vietnamese students study abroad while cost is expensive, including tuition and living expenses in foreign countries? Even a lot of family put all their savings for so many years to give children the opportunity to study overseas? In this research, author found that despite many reforms and innovations in educational content at all levels; it has not really made a big impact The content of knowledge is still heavy in theory, there is no link between the training objectives with the target of finding job of students The domestic universities do not have the linkage of knowledge, training content as well as not catch up with the foundation of international education It is very difficult for Vietnamese students to transfer or change major Most companies are unhappy with the quality of graduates based on theoretical criteria, practical skills, foreign language proficiency and professional conduct Furthermore, regarding to the Vietnam Labor Market Report
No 16, the IV quarter of 2017, published by the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, (2018) shows that there have 251,3 thousand unemployment are university graduates or higher level and 78,8 thousand of college students
Figure 2.7 Number of unemployed (General Statistics Office, 2017)
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There are increasing the number of competitions among higher education universities and decreasing budgets pressure institutions to grow their recruitment and marketing If in the past, students went abroad need the support by financial aid, scholarship and government student exchange programs, now they are funded by their own family (Choudaha and Chang, 2012) According to the Wealth Report
(2017), Knight Frank said Vietnam is one of the fastest growing super-rich countries in the world as well as Asia Accordingly, by the end of 2016, the number of millionaires in Vietnam has increased to 13,400 people; it is higher than 2015 to 2,200 people (Knight Frank, 2017) Accordingly, the demand for studying abroad is increasing as the Vietnamese economy grows, as the percentage of rich people increases, and the number of families with financial conditions for their children is increase In this study, author saw that one of the most challenge of student’s choice is that they need to choose where they want to attend university or higher education Since after any choice will directly affect their financial, emotion, philosophy for the rest of their life.
Choice
A successful marketing campaign depends on consumer choice behavior Marketing to customers that you do not really understand will not help you go on; The only way to reach and connect with customers, affecting their purchasing decision is to know their buying behaviour It is important to understand where customers like to buy from Understanding the reasons for choosing the current purchase method will be the key to influencing them to change the way they purchase Consumers make a lot of decisions everyday in their life Consumer behavior is summaried in making decision, the purchasing action, it also interaction and the range of experiences which associated with consuming (Schiffman at al,
2008) And consumer’s decision making is the central part of consumer behavior
2.10.1 Institution choice and student’s decision making
In this part will clarify the details of description about five component of student’s choice model as following the study of Engle et al., (1995) and Kotler
(2009) had pointed out the consumer decision making process as the 5 steps:
Figure 2.8 Decision making process model (Engel et al., 1995; Kotler, 2009)
In this study, author choose this model to develop for her research to find out if social networking impact on each step and modify to the current situation of Student’s choice education agency Going with step by step of this model and link to many similar and related of other models, author will create the conceptual model of this research because this is the basic and as author opinion, when we break down all above models, it can be all inputted in this model as step by step to identify more clearly about the process of student choice Therefore, in this thesis, author focuses on this model to reach her final target of study
2.10.2 Proposed conceptual model of research:
Because this research is the choice of student on their higher education, the first step will be modified to match the situation This Step will change the title to be “Need”
Students in this stage begin to know the need and opportunity will bring to them if they study abroad or even it is based on their parent’s aspiration This stage student also be impacted by family, friends, institution (Adams, 2009) With international trends and globalization, students have more choices to make decision These stages very important to find our motivation of student that student want to leave their home country for higher education Explore it, author can pick up whether social network will impact to them or not?
Related to the student’s need, author saw that the “Push and Pull” factor of Mazzarol and Souta (2012) is more likely to show almost those enquiries
- Push factors : are factors that motivate students want to leave their country to study abroad, such as: the condition of country is poor, less of career opportunities, unemployments, the quality of higher education is not good,
… Mazzarol and Souta (2002) In Asian countries, parents are big role of push factors in sending their children to overseas study Like Thai female students go to study abroad because they are influenced by their parents (Takeuchi, 2008) Or because their parents have relatives in those countries (Jenkins, 2001) And as study of Andrade and Evans (2009), found that students went study abroad to get out their country and parents’s aspiration
- Pull factors : are the opposite sites, where have the best living condition, easy to have the good jobs, high quality of higher education system, modern technology programs (Phang, 2013), environment is safe and pleasant (Mazzarol and Souta, 2002)
- Following the reseach of Macready and Tucker (2011), some Push and pull factors will input to research model as:
- Parent’s aspiration: they want their children to have better life or them even they used to study abroad so they understand how benefit of overseas study could bring to their child They want to bring the best future through higher education their children because of benefits when their Childs return home country (Bodycott, 2009; Lee and Morrish, 2011) One more reason, it could be that they have relative outside there so that why they expect children to go
- Better academic: this is the motivation for almost students who want to expand their knowledge
- High quality of education: The opportunities in high quality of education and specialize study which students can not find in their home country or it does not meet their expectations
- Living abroad experience: students want to challenge themselves to live independently in another country
- International recognized qualifications: it is the most important motivation because it will open many opportunities for their future employment and settlement
- Professional career opportunity: this is the goal of international students because the degree of develop country such as UK, USA… have greater jobs opportunities than local’s degree (Counsell, 2011)
- Travel: overseas study is also an opportunity for students to explore new lands, to be able to meet many different cultures and to have more relationships
- Exploring cultural heritage: Religious students often want to come to their ancestors to study and lead the Way
- Language: Students in non-English speaking countries usually choose to study abroad; it is not only the way for them to have the best environment to study English but also for their academic In many previous researches, many Asian students choose to study in English speaking countries as their main motivations, such as USA, Australia, Canada, British, … to improve career prospects, get knowledge of the Western culture (development industry countries); push up their English skills or proficiency (Chen and Zimitat,
2006) Therefore, the choice of studying in the English speaking countries not only help students have a good learning opportunities, but also it is the best condition for them to improve their foreign language skills, because language proficiency will be best trained when students are living and communicating daily with native speakers It is also important that most of the current study and research material, the human brain on this planet, is English
When student recognized the need, they will seek relevant information and trace how they can recognize and judge potential universities (Hossler and Gallagher, 1987) Students used different ways in this stage of decision making Kardes et al (2011) pointed out there have two sources for student to find information, they are internal and external search: Internal as the memory of consumer and external: includes store visit, refer from friends, family, word of mouth, online social networks Students also prepare a list of alternative schools or education agencies options in this phase This is the main activity for students to gather information, stated by Hossler and Gallagher (1987)
Today, internet and social networks become important tools for consumer to search information and purchase decisions process (Hawkins, 2010) Students of Couse search information if they want to know (Chapman, 1981) and they need to have a large of educational information such as schools, education consultant agencies, representative agencies in local country, program, courses, tuition, application process, how to get student visa and as Menon (2004), information search plays a role in creating awareness of difference between many alternatives
So far, from the point of view of an oversea education consulting centre, providing proper apposite, reliability and useful information with high quality will make the connection to students and built the long-term relationship (Adam, 2009) So, if students are happy with information was provided by agency, it supports to reconcile their choice and external influences Therefore, internet and websites are the most important tools for students to use for searching information and it also affect to their decision making
Rogers (2017) had done the survey the types of content that students want to look for on the internet are: Scholarship; Information about college (e.g., specific majors); Admission information; financial aid; college rating; information about campus
Figure 2.9 Type of content looking for
Conclusion
In this chapter, author show that social networking can have a meaningful influence on student’s choice The study has risen that young generation and higher education institution are abundant users of social network Students use social networking sites as the sources of seeking information and assist them to select the university to attend
By breaking down into individual items of reference models and combining with the factors that steer students wondering, author will do direct interview with many different participants to affirm whether this concept can be used for Education Agent to reference when they planning marketing strategy?