Integrating Marketing in New Course Development – Theory and Evidence

To improve success rates, universities must go beyond academic content and consider the wider set of factors that influence whether a new course meets genuine student demand.

Lessons from New Product Development (NPD)

Much can be learned by applying insights from the wider field of new product development (NPD), where extensive research has been conducted on the factors that contribute to successful product and service launches. These lessons are highly relevant when considering degree courses as education products.

Across decades of research, a number of key themes repeatedly emerge, including:

• Customer orientation: understanding student needs and preferences (Nicholas et al., 2011; Kitsios & Kamariotou, 2022).
• Market research and opportunity analysis: assessing demand and competitor offerings (Johne & Storey, 1998).
• Value creation and customer involvement: developing courses that offer clear benefits and outcomes for students (Cooper & Kleinschmidt, 1986; Zirger & Maidique, 1990).
• Strategic planning and commercialisation: ensuring that courses are both academically and financially sustainable (Barczak & Kahn, 2007).

Many of these factors sit firmly within the remit of marketing, highlighting the central role marketing plays in determining whether a new course succeeds or fails.

Why Marketing Matters

Marketing is fundamentally about understanding and meeting customer needs. Studies repeatedly show that organisations which fail to adopt a market orientation—and exclude customers from the development process—face higher rates of failure (Cooper, 2019).

In the context of Higher Education, this means actively engaging with prospective students, employers, alumni, and industry bodies to understand what skills, knowledge, and experiences are in demand. Too often, universities fall into an internally-oriented approach, developing new courses based largely on academic interests or institutional strengths. While some of these courses succeed, many fail to attract sufficient interest because they do not adequately reflect what prospective students are actually seeking.

There is, of course, an argument for taking a resource-based view (RBV), where institutions build courses around their unique areas of expertise. This approach may deliver distinctive offerings that reflect an institution’s strengths. However, NPD research consistently shows that customer-driven design is more likely to result in products that meet market demand and achieve lasting success (Poolton & Barclay, 1998).

Marketing and Cross-Functional Collaboration

Successful course development is not the responsibility of one department alone. Effective integration of marketing, academic teams, student services, finance, and external engagement functions allows for a more rounded understanding of both the academic vision and market realities.

In particular, the partnership between marketing and academic teams is critical for aligning subject expertise with student expectations and employability outcomes. Involving marketing from the earliest stages ensures that course concepts are grounded in real demand and that market messaging is accurate and persuasive when courses are launched.

In Summary

The evidence is clear: marketing should not be seen as a bolt-on function after a course is designed. Instead, it must be integrated throughout the entire development process to ensure courses meet market demand, attract students, and contribute to institutional sustainability.