A Note on the History of the Marketing of Higher Education

This paper discusses how higher education institutions avowedly marketed themselves to various publics between the American Civil War and World War I. During this period, colleges became coeducational, and the land-grant, elective system was implemented. In and of itself, this represented a shift in product definition and in student target markets. Colleges avidly promoted themselves and sought publicity, researched advertising effectiveness, and positioned themselves relative to the competition on several criteria including price and course offerings.