Advertising effectiveness of South African newspapers in the higher business education market

Abstract

The article reports on the advertising effectiveness of the press media in the RSA with regard to the Telematic MBA degree offered by the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education. The MBA degree is offered to students countrywide (even internationally) via telematic learning with study centres all over the RSA. Students apply for acceptance during November each year and successful candidates commence their MBA studies at the beginning of the next year. The advertising campaign runs from August to October, and includes a variety of media. The press plays a significant role in this campaign. The article reports on the effectiveness of the different press media, namely, daily newspapers and Sunday newspapers. In addition, the effects of the physical advertisement positioning in the papers (section of the newspaper as well as page the layout), are examined and quantified into money terms per enquiry per advertisement. Direct response evaluation is used to determine the effectiveness of an advertisement and its medium. Analysis revealed that the Sunday Times are the most cost-effective option with regard to Sunday newspapers, while in daily newspapers the Sowetan, Business Day and Beeld are also favourable options. This results correlate favourably with the CPM ratings on readership. This value of this article is therefore that it supplies a frame of reference that could be applied to future marketing campaigns in educational programmes. It also serves as a reference frame that could be used to estimate market response from advertisements in a specific newspaper.


South African Journal of Higher Education Vol.16(3) 2002: 103-108