The aspects of marketing communication of universities with respect to winning new customers

The article focuses on the evaluation of the suitability of individual communication tools and new trends in marketing communication strategy of universities. The target group of the communication strategy in this case is potential students of SU Opava that offers variety of study opportunities at the School of Business Administration in Karvina, Faculty of Philosophy and Science in Opava, Mathematical Institute in Opava, Educational Centre in Krnov and since 2008 also at the newly established Faculty of Public Policy in Opava. The evaluation of the monitored effects used the data from the marketing research realized within the framework of the development project for 2008 „The Reduction in the Impact of Weaknesses of the Silesian University and Enhancement of Strengths in the Area of the Organizational Structure of SU and Marketing“. The basic infor- mation for recommendations for changes in the current marketing communication of SU Opava was acquired by questionnaire method among high school graduates. 1,263 students from the Czech Republic and 234 students from the Slovak Republic took part in the research, i.e. 1,497 respondents in total. The basic thematic sphere of the questions referred to the following topics: informational sources in the selection of a university, evaluation of popularity and PR marketing communication level of „Open Days“, the importance of information on study description in the selection of a university, the importance of other information (process of selection procedures, graduates ́ use in practice, information on teachers, science-research activities of the university and other services of SU Opava). The results of the research imply that the information from the Internet unambiguously has the greatest importance for potential students, followed by a visit of the school. Therefore our reco- mmendations especially focus on the improvement of the Internet communication (web pages), usage of interactivity in communication with students, improvement of PR activities at the university (Open Day and educational fairs) and the creation of conditions for the use of new communication trends (mainly viral marketing and event marketing)