Eureka! Institutional Repository

This Diploma Thesis aims at developing a Marketing Plan for the study, analysis and mapping of best practices and procedures for the introduction of a new product: a private school, including Gymnasium and Lyceum classes, in the city of Kozani. The new private school will cover the existing gap in the market, according to a survey that has revealed the absence of a private high school and lyceum in the city as well as in the wider area of Regional Unity of Kozani. The new private school unit will be named for convenience, "Manto" Educational Institute. In order to record the trend and sustainability of the private education sector, the course of the sector in Greece was investigated in the years 2000-2016 (ELSTAT expiry date) and a comparative analysis was carried out with the corresponding branch of public education. The legislative framework governing the operation of private schools was further defined. The main Economic, Population and Educational Scales of the Regional Unit of Kozani were also studied in order to capture the dynamics and prospects of the region regarding the introduction of the new private school. Afterwards a Marketing Plan was elaborated and analyzed in detail: The Purpose and Mission of the School, Analysis of the Current Situation, Marketing Strategy and Goals, Marketing Tactics, Budget and Implementation Timetable. Furthermore, as according to Kotler et al (2001), "good" Marketing does not focus on sales but on consumer needs, quantitative survey was conducted through questionnaires to 185 residents of the city of Kozani. The results of the survey highlight first and foremost the need and the parents' expectation to provide high quality educational products and, secondly, the importance of the "People" factor, underlining the Educational Product and Human Resources as the added value and competitive advantage of the school.