Educational institutions must seek new approaches to institutional planning because of such factors as shrinking traditional college age populations, eroding grants, governmental and judicial incursion, the tightening economic belt, and concern over the relevance of education to modern day needs. The concept of marketing higher education is controversial, and before 1970, it was a very small part of long range planning. Currently, the question is how to market as opposed to whether or not to market. This stems from the dramatic changes in society. Projections for the next 15 years say the educational trends from the early 1970s will continue. The composition of future student bodies is affected by the great increase in minority populations and the changing life expectancy. It is important for each institution to analyze its specific circumstances and design a special marketing plan according to its uniqueness. A discussion of what state and private colleges must consider is provided, and marketing activities in general are described. The marketing of higher education focuses on encouraging enrollment and helping with fund raising. Important steps in strategic marketing planning include environmental analysis, resource analysis, goal formulation, strategy formulation, organization design making changes to implement the strategies, and systems design improvement to promote effective strategy implementation. Twelve references are provided. (SM)