Introduction: Higher education strategic marketing and brand communications in Africa

Strategic marketing of higher education encompasses the efforts made by tertiary or higher education institutions to develop a better understanding of the needs of their prospective customers in order to design products and services to meet and exceed these needs. These marketing activities of tertiary institutions should usually be carried out through the execution of purposeful conversations with all the university brand stakeholders, and this is the function of brand marketing communications. Brand marketing communications seeks to integrate multiple consumer contact points that occur through the purchase of commercial messages in paid, earned, and owned media to deliver persuasive and impactful statements about higher education brands. Persuasive brand communications is a critical pillar in the successful marketing efforts of universities worldwide, and this new edited book focuses on marketing and brand communication issues from an African perspective. This chapter introduces the coverage and contents of the book, highlighting the different themes and chapters.