Identifying Competitive Positioning Strategies of Universities: Evidence from Turkey

This research aims to identify the factors affecting the students’ and parents’ choice of university in Turkey and strives to understand how they classify or position the universities in their minds. Since the focus of this research is to explore the main factors leading to the students’ and parents’ choice of university and to identify the dimensions for segmentation within the universities in Turkey, this research is qualitative in nature. Data was collected with a series of in-depth interviews with prospective university students and two focus group discussions with parents. Based on the findings, three dimensions, which were used to segment universities by the Turkish higher education market, were identified: 1) the diploma value of the program in a university, in terms of graduate employment, 2) the student social-life that the students expect to experience throughout their undergraduate years, and 3) the constraints limiting the students’ choice of university. Using these dimensions as a basis for segmentation, a simplified conceptual framework of competitive positioning strategies for universities was generated and four university types were identified: goal-oriented, exclusive, commodity and honeymoon. Turkish universities were then advised to consider their competitive positioning styles in the marketplace that is already perceived by the market and to develop appropriate marketing strategies, accordingly. By doing so, this research both aims to assist university leaders in developing their offerings with a unique and strong brand promise with the help of marketing orientation and make a significant contribution to a little researched, but increasingly topical, issue in the literature