6. Misconception about marketing
There are various misconceptions about marketing in the educational world:
Marketing is merely about promoting
Very often schools see marketing as designing a new school prospectus or a new sign.
These promotional activities are, in fact, only part of the process of marketing. What is more important is that schools realize that the staff, and all those involved whit the school, should understand the nature and scope of marketing as a concept. One of the central concerns of marketing is quality. The marketing of schools involves finding out what the clients want and need and then designing a product and service that provides a quality education to meet those wants and needs. The concept of marketing is rooted in an organizational orientation, which focuses on client wants and needs and on their satisfaction. It is concerned with the benefits derived by the client rather than the features provided by the supplier. In essence, marketing can be seen as the key element in the accountability and responsibility relationship, which the school has with its clients. The school should, therefore, communicate effectively the fact it is providing the service, which meets the wants and needs of its clients. Schools should see marketing as being the way that they think about and respond to the clients and not as being a single event such as producing a prospectus. The distinction has to be drawn between these single events and overall marketing process. Marketing is thus best thought of as a process and not an event.

Marketing is only to people outside the school
It is important to realize that there are both internal and external markets and it is the internal one, which needs to be given attention initially. If those inside the school do not have a clear sense of its purpose, identity and values then it will be difficult to convince the external world of these characteristics. If individuals from the external community meet teachers, pupils and governors and perceive that they have no clear idea of what the school stands for or of its successes and achievements, then it will cast doubt on the reliability of any promotional or publicity information which they have received. In order to communicate an effective message, the pupils, staff and governors must have a corporate perspective. For this reason, the initial marketing activity must concentrate on those, working inside the school. They need to develop a coherent view of the school, agreeing and supporting the school in the long run. There is little point in looking at external marketing and promotion strategies unless a coherent internal educational structure and commitment exist. In fact, many schools do exactly the opposite by concentrating on external market first.

Marketing is not our job
One of the most difficult things to change in an organization is a individuals’ attitude. It is especially difficult to change the way in which people think about marketing because of its historical development in the commercial world. Everyone inside the school, such as teachers, caretakers and secretaries, should act as ambassadors for the school and should fulfill this role when they respond to individuals or to organizations. The problem is that, too often, marketing is seen to be the sole responsibility of senior management. Traditionally, teachers have seen their job as getting on which teaching and, similarly, office staff and other support staff focus on the task in hand. However, the clients, when they asses a school, often make judgments based on the representatives whom they meet when contacting the school for the first time. This may be the school secretary who answers the telephone or the teacher whom they meet after school. It is important for all staff to see that they have a role in presenting a positive view of the school and that they should seek opportunities to do so. This traditional attitude has to be replaced by one where everyone accepts that it is their task to represent and market the school.

The wants and needs of the clients are the same.
There is a problem to be faced concerning the balance between the educational needs of children and the wants articulated by them or they parents. If schools are to relate their services to the wants as perceived by the clients, then a dilemma may present itself because the wants as perceived by the clients may not match the pupil's needs as perceived by the professional educators. schools were to take the view that the customer is always right and to try to meet the very diverse wants of individuals, then the result would probably to a chaotic and unsatisfactory educational experience for the pupils. There are, for example, very differing views of the schools role in sex education. The real art in effective management is to lead clients towards a situation where their expectation coincides with those of the school. On this basis, therefore, a school must provide an education in which content and quality both meets the needs of pupils as identified by professional educators and society and, as far as possible, satisfies the wants as identified by the pupils and their parents. This can only happen when the clients are sure that the professionals understand their preferences and perceptions about the nature of the educational product or service.

It is this view of meeting needs and wants in an accountability relationship and the effective communication of the schools values, activities and achievements which are central to the concept of marketing. Such organizational understanding needs to precede the detailed management of the process of marketing.

Either the pupil or the parent is the immediate client
Having established the difference between wants and needs it is important to examine whose wants and needs are being considered. Is it the pupil or the parent who is the immediate client? In the primary school most staff would see the pupils as the clients and, therefore, the first priority of the teacher. On the other hand, secondary school teachers often consider that parents are the clients and that they are accountable to them. This view can be considered further by assessing pupil becomes the client as he/she grows up. It is true that the younger the child, the more dominant is the parent is making the choice of school. While it is important to maintain an awareness of both pupil and parent wants, attention should also be focused on the deliberate transmission of positive images to the clients- a significant aspect of managing a schools reputation and one which involves all the staff every day. Viewing both the parent and the pupil as the immediate client is not fudging the issue but is maintaining the fine balance, which schools must achieve, in building effective relationships with their clients.