Abstract:
The objective of this independent study is to find out the levels of significance that the parents give to each marketing factor. This influences them on their decision to select an English Program school for their children. It also studies the differences of these marking factors across parents personal factors involved in English Program school selection. For data collection, questionnaires were answered by 393 parents whose children are studying in three different English Program school in Mueang Nakhon Si Thammarat, namely Benjamarachutit School, Kanalyaneesithammarat School and Srithammaratsuksa School.
The result of the study shows that the parents questioned consisted mostly of married women aged between 41-50 years old with no more than 3 children. Most of them were bachelors degree holders who were government officers with a family monthly income of between 30,000-50,000 Baht. For marketing factors, the parents thought that the importance level of all eight marketing factors, in average was high by ranking the importance of product elements at the highest level with promotion and education at the lowest level. The result from analyzing each school indicates that the parents from Benjamarachutit School and Srithammaratsuksa School put the emphasis on the importance of product elements whilst the parents from Kanlayaneesithammarat School put the emphasis on place and time.
The differences of these eight marketing factors were all rated indifferently by parents, regardless of their gender, age, status, number of children, occupation, family income or education level. The significant comparison level of these marketing factors across the three English Program schools showed that price and other user cost, place and time, process, and productivity and quality are statistically significantly different amongst the parents from these three schools at significance level 0.001. As for the product element, the difference is found at the significance level 0.01.
WALAILAK UNIVERSITY. CENTER FOR LIBRARY RESOURCES AND EDUCATIONAL MEDIA