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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 10, No. 12
Publication Date: December 25, 2023
DOI:10.14738/assrj.1012.15962.
Elpisah, Putera, W., Suarlin, S., Sulolipu, A. A., & Haslindah. (2023). Creative Marketing Strategies and Campus Promotions in
Attracting Community Interest in Higher Education. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(12). 191-204.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Creative Marketing Strategies and Campus Promotions in
Attracting Community Interest in Higher Education
Elpisah
(Orcid: 0000-0003-3597-7500)
Economic Education, Patompo
University, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
Wahyudi Putera
(Orcid: 0000-0001-5165-5777)
Department of Accounting, Accounting Study Program,
STIE Pelita Buana Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
S. Suarlin
Orcid: 0000-0002-7687-0243
Department of Public Adminstration, Makassar
State University, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
Andi Annisa Sulolipu
(Orcid: 0000-0003-4419-2203)
Economics Education, Patompo
University, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
Haslindah
(Orcid: 0000-0002-2881-2030)
Department of Economics and Islamic Business,
Bone State Islamic Institute, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
ABSTRACT
STKIP Pembangunan which is now changing its name to Patompo University of
Makassar City is currently the choice of higher education studies. The purpose of
this study was to analyze the creative marketing strategies carried out by the
Patompo University Public Relations team in attracting new prospective students
and to find out whether the promotional strategies carried out by the Patompo
University Public Relations team have been carried out optimally. The research
method used is descriptive qualitative research method. The data collection
technique used was in-depth interviews with the Manager of Patompo University's
Public Relations team. In addition, discussions were held with 3 respondents as
informants to find out the creative marketing activities that have been carried out
by the Patompo University Public Relations team to attract new prospective
students. The result of this research is that the creative marketing strategy carried
out by the Patompo University team has been running well, successfully achieving
the target, while the promotion strategy through the image of Patompo University
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 10, Issue 12, December-2023
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
campus is very good, because the majority of informants prefer Patompo University
to take education-oriented majors than other private campuses in Makassar City.
The conclusion of this research is that using creative marketing strategies in
promoting Patompo University is very effective, but the Patompo University team
must also consider establishing good cooperation with various online media
outside the campus as well as the Government sector in this case the local,
provincial and central government in order to get the best results:
Keywords: Creative Marketing, Promotion Strategy and Higher Education
INTRODUCTION
The development of higher education in Indonesia, especially private higher education, which
has mushroomed a lot, makes the role of the community, especially prospective new students,
must be selective in choosing a college because it will be useful in finding work in the future.
This is explained in Satrio Budi Wibowo (2022) in the education journal with the title
"Organizational Health of Private Universities in Metro City" saying that healthy organizations
on average have greater benefits than unhealthy organizations. Mapping of organizational
health conditions has been carried out in organizations of the type of educational institutions.
Mapping of college health has been done in Singapore, Iran, the United States and other
countries. Some studies have found that organizational health shows a positive influence on
college performance. So, it is very important for the community, especially prospective new
students, to be selective in choosing private universities in order to gain useful knowledge in
the community and be able to change the mindset of labor creation and be able to compete with
applicants in the labor market.
In connection with the marketing strategy pursued by private universities in winning
competition between universities, especially in attracting new prospective students, there is
certainly a tendency that each university will be proactive, especially in building various
networks with various institutions and agencies for various purposes, both education, research
and community service. Therefore, if universities are not ready to take creative steps, then
universities will always be left behind and do not have access to various resources from various
educational institutions. Likewise, Patompo University as one of the Private Universities in
Makassar City in an effort to promote its products to the public, namely by carrying out various
marketing strategies, including placing advertisements in various media and social networks,
promising scholarships, affordable tuition fees and various other forms of publication, even
taking steps to pick up the ball, meaning that the new student admission committee of the
Patompo University Public Relations Division must go directly to prospective new students, in
this case conducting socialization to SMA / MA institutions equivalent. In short, a university will
succeed in attracting new students if it is able to manage its market share through effective and
creative marketing communications.
Overall, an effective and creative marketing strategy must produce a significant lasting impact
on consumers. In other words, the promotion must be memorable. Based on this perspective
on creativity, this means that it is necessary to develop promotions that are empathetic (for
example, promotions that understand what people are thinking and feeling), that are engaging
and memorable, and that "seem simple and easy to understand".
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Elpisah, Putera, W., Suarlin, S., Sulolipu, A. A., & Haslindah. (2023). Creative Marketing Strategies and Campus Promotions in Attracting Community
Interest in Higher Education. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(12). 191-204.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.1012.15962
1. Although universities are included in service-oriented organizations but as private
universities whose age of implementation is still relatively young, at first, the Head of
LLDikti wilayan IX Sultanbatara was still hesitant to issue a permit. However, after being
convinced of the potential of Patompo University Makassar, he agreed.
2. Patompo University needs a creative marketing strategy to promote its academic
programs to the community, so that people know and ultimately have an interest in
continuing their education at Patompo University. Based on this, the researcher is
interested in conducting research on creative marketing strategies carried out by the
Public Relations Division of Patompo University, so as to attract new prospective
students.
This study aims to build an Innovative Marketing Strategy (IMS) for international student
recruitment and contribute to the sustainable internationalization of higher education (IoHE).
A literature review was used to construct the Innovative Marketing Strategy questionnaire by
(Hung and Yen, 2022). Then the promotion strategy towards higher education where attention
is focused on the importance and necessity of learning and providing best practices from
foreign countries in the context of higher education. Undoubtedly, internationalization
stimulates the development of higher education in the perspective of integration into the
European scientific and educational space. A significant contribution to positive changes is
made by the general trend of professional training of specialists with the appropriate level of
development of professional skills and abilities and the corresponding communicative
competence of foreign languages by (Sheremet, et al., 2022). As well as creative marketing to
promotional strategies, this study intends to explain the causal relationship between variables
through hypothesis testing using the partial least squares path modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis
technique by (Alimuddin, et al, 2022).
LITERATURE REVIEW
Creative Marketing
According to Dr. Lieb (2012), content marketing is a strategy that involves creating and
publishing content on websites and social media. All online content can be considered content
marketing, from websites, social media pages, blog posts to videos, white papers, and e-books.
According to Jefferson and Tanton (2012), it can be said that content marketing is a marketing
strategy where we plan, create and create content that can attract audiences and then inspire
them to become customers. Content marketing content can come in various forms such as
images, photos, videos, audio, writing, etc. This strategy is widely used by marketers as a tactic
to introduce their products to consumers. Kaufman (2016) defines creativity as a cognitive
activity or thinking process to generate new and useful ideas. Glover, et al (2016) define
creativity as the ability to make new combinations, new associations based on pre-existing
materials, information, data or elements into meaningful and useful things. Torrance Kaufman
and Sternberg (2010) define creativity as the process of understanding gaps or obstacles in
one's life, formulating new hypotheses and communicating the results, and whenever possible,
modifying and testing existing hypotheses.
Promotion Strategy
In its strategic role, marketing includes all efforts to achieve compatibility between the
company and its environment to find solutions to problems by defining two main aspects,
namely Fandy Tjiptono (2022): a) What business does the company run today and what