Relationship marketing on the Internet: the case of top- and lower-ranked US universities and colleges

Abstract

This study uses Kotler's "five-level model" of relationship marketing (P. Kotler and G. Armstrong, Principles of Marketing. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1996) to assess the web sites of top- and lower-ranked US universities and colleges. The data suggest that few web sites of both top- and lower-ranked institutions have yet attained the highest level ("partnership") of relationship marketing. However, the results also suggest that the web sites of top-ranked schools vs. lower-ranked institutions are better suited to build relationships with students.