Analysis of the marketing role and place for educational services promotion: innovative aspect

Abstract

The article is aimed at exploring ways to introduce an innovative approach to the marketing of educational services. The authors analyse the current state of marketing educational services on the example of the Ukrainian market of higher education services. The main ways to ensure the competitiveness of educational services through the formation of a unique competitive advantage are assessed. The main objectives of educational marketing are defined: to provide a higher education institution with modern innovative tools for researching the demand for educational services; to develop and implement advanced concepts for providing quality educational services in the educational market, etc. A significant diversity and ambiguity or lack of a universal definition of the key concepts of educational marketing have been identified. The author’s own definition of the concept of “educational service” as a specific product that can satisfy the need of people to acquire certain knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies for their further application in professional activities is proposed. The author also defines an educational service as a process (activity) of an educational institution to create an educational product. It is determined that educational services are transformed into human capital in the process of their use. It is proved that the effectiveness of the introduction of modern innovations in educational marketing directly depends on the processes of forming a highly competitive market for educational services, as well as on the development of its infrastructure, adaptation of legislation to European practices, and on economic, moral, other social and institutional foundations that should ensure the competitiveness of higher education institutions and have a positive impact on the development of higher education in general. Therefore, the prospects for further research by the authors will be to conduct a factor analysis of the impact of innovation activities of higher education institutions on the promotion of educational services and their further development in a competitive environment. Keywords: competitiveness, good, higher education institution, marketing environment, product of educational activity.