The Expectations of Marketing from Continuing Education Leadership

James Fong, Diagnostics Plus

Introduction

Over the years, my experiences have always been that marketing in continuing education needed to evolve and change. While there were many organizational marketing models in Corporate America, higher education was slow to adopt them. Only those that were progressive or saw the need for change embraced a strategic organizational marketing model or aggressively adopted new marketing initiatives.

The challenges that marketers are certain to face in the near future came more into light in a series of interviews and surveys conducted with twenty-four deans and directors. During February 2009, twenty-five deans and directors were given an opportunity to complete an anonymous survey and twenty-four did so. In the interviews, deans and directors identified what they saw as marketing competencies, but also their expectations of marketing for their organization. Five deans and directors also provided follow-up comments through a telephone call.