This paper reports the findings of a study that analyzed the marketing activities of a number of vocational schools in a municipality where these organizations were allowed to compete for students. The research employed a qualitative, exploratory and descriptive design. The data was collected through interviews with school leaders, regional education authorities and civil society stakeholders, as well as an analysis of school promotional and informational materials. The study shows that marketing played a minor role in school leaders' management activities and that these leaders addressed marketing in a mostly unsystematic, informal and intuitive way. We explain this in terms of the specific nature of the local context in which the schools operated, namely, the levels of structural and behavioral competition in the vocational school system and the way the market is regulated by public authorities.