Service Marketing Mix and Students’ Enrolment in Private Secondary Schools in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between service marketing mix and students’ enrolment in private secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. To achieve this purpose, five specific objectives, five research questions and five null hypotheses were formulated in this study. The correlational research design was used and the population was all 495 principals in the 495 private secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State but a sample size of 221 principals selected through multi-stage sampling procedure was employed as the sample size. A self-developed questionnaire titled “Service Marketing Mix and Students’ Enrolment Questionnaire” with reliability of 0.78 was used for data collection. Out of the 221 participants sampled, 213 principals participated in the study. The hypotheses were tested using linear regressions at 0.05 alpha level. The findings showed that product (people, process and physical evidence, price (fees charged), place (location) and promotion respectively had significant effect on students’ enrolment in private secondary schools. Based on these findings, it was concluded that service marketing mix have significant effect on students’ enrolment in private secondary schools. It was recommended among others that proprietors of private secondary schools should utilize service marketing mix such as product (people, process and physical evidence), price, place and promotion as this would make more students to enroll in their schools.