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ERIC Number: ED330383
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1990-Dec
Pages: 26
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
A Cluster Analysis of the 1985-1989 Credit Student Body: Implementing Geo-Demographic Marketing at P.G.C.C. Market Analysis MA91-4.
Boughan, Karl
In an effort to better market the college's credit programs and services, Prince George's Community College (PGCC), Mayland, has employed its own tracking system which utilizes a socioeconomic segmentation of their serviceable target population. This approach utilizes U.S. Census data grouping neighborhoods into 24 natural socioeconomic, cultural and lifestyle "clusters" for which special marketing strategies can be developed. In 1990, a cluster analysis was undertaken of all 36,145 county resident students who attempted at least one credit course at PGCC during the 5-year period from 1985 to 1989. This report describes how this credit student body distributes across the 24 lifestyle clusters, provides a brief discussion of how to evaluate traditional academic variables (e.g., full-time/part-time status, curriculum choice, and rate of degree awarding) in marketing terms, and presents a series of student cluster rank-orderings according to key academic/marketing variables. Study highlights were as follows: (1) 18 of the 24 student clusters included at least 3.5% of the total student body; (2) over 40% of recent credit students have been drawn from only 5 county clusters, and the 5 lowest socioeconomic clusters include only 3% of all recent credit enrollments; and (3) an examination of marketing "penetration" revealed that the lowest socioeconomic groups were not being successfully reached. The study describes the educational marketing concepts of profitability, volume, product, motivation, customer type, and educational outcomes, and also provides an analysis of 8 "super-clusters," developed by collapsing the 24 original clusters. Data tables are included. (GFW)
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Numerical/Quantitative Data
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Researchers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Prince George's Community Coll., Largo, MD. Office of Institutional Research and Analysis.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A