Four value propositions for marketing higher education

The evolution of the student as consumer has been accompanied by corresponding developments in the marketing of higher education. This has both internal and external aspects. An integrated approach has been developed for higher education which employs the Extended Marketing Mix (7 P’s) will be coupled to Social Power theory to suggest how a unified internal and external approach might be developed. The combination of these two rubrics interacting on a differentiated continuum reveals a heuristic which features multiple lines of intersection with four distinct sections emerging. These sections can be aligned to: prospective students, current students, internal academics and external academics. Clarifying all four value propositions and reconciling contradictions between transaction and relational elements assists the delivery of aggregate value for higher education institutions.