Comparison of non-profit marketing cases in the education sector between Belgium and the United States of America

Abstract

Nowadays, we are living in a world constantly changing. New technologies are appearing every year and each sector has to cope with and adapt. These new evolutions are thus bringing consistent changes in the life of our companies but also in customers’ life. Indeed, clients do not have the same demands, needs and way of thinking than they had a decade ago. Moreover, it has as a consequence a growth in competition and the arrival of new entrants. These new trends are thus appearing in every field and in the education one included. Actually, todays parents are more demanding than their predecessors, they want the best for their children and do not hesitate to look for information, make some research and compare each educational institution (Hemsley-Brown, 2008). They thus will choose the school which has convinced them the most. It is in this context that nonprofit marketing is coming in the education sector.

Through our research, our objective is to discover the main differences concerning the way nonprofit marketing is perceived and developed within educational institutions and nonprofit organizations in Belgium as well as in the United States of America in order to make a comparison. The goal of our research is also to gain more knowledge regarding promotion and communication strategies of these institutions as well as the relationships they maintain with the people involved in their activity, cause and the future vision they have concerning this environment constantly evolving.

Our study taught us that several Belgian educational institutions do not have a marketing department on the contrary of their American counterparts. But, they are willing to integrate new technologies within their organization. In addition, communication and promotion strategies are also different in both countries. Nevertheless, each institution that we analyzed is willing to maintain and strengthen the relationships they have with their stakeholders.

To conclude, our results demonstrate that the United States are several steps ahead and more involved than Belgium regarding nonprofit marketing and its concepts.