HOW PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN INDONESIA CHANGED THEIR MARKETING MIX AMIDST THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected industries in their efforts to amass consumers with the education industry not being an exception. For-profit higher education institutions (HEls) in Indonesia were forced to rethink their marketing. strategies as COVID-19 restrictions and a changing economic landscape hit the country. Five private HEls from four different cities in Indonesia have been the subjects of this study which focuses on how parents' demands and the pandemic in general were able to drive a change in these HEIs' 7P marketing mix. In-depth interviews were conducted with the representatives of these HEls' marketing teams, and it was found that three of the seven Ps in the aforementioned HEls' marketing mix had to be changed (price, promotion and process). From this finding, it could be concluded that in Indonesian higher education settings, there is a distinct producer-consumer relationship that hinders patrons to make demands as freely as they would with other types of services.