DIGITAL MARKETING EFFECT TOWARD INTENTION TO ENROLL AT PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION: THE MEDIATING EFFECT OF BRAND EQUITY

Abstract

As we already know, the corona virus or Covid-19 spreads very quickly to countries in the world. The effect of Covid-19 on the world of education in Indonesia is indeed extraordinary. Even the Minister of Education and Culture Nadiem Anwar Makarim appealed to learning activities at universities in areas affected by Covid-19 to be carried out at home or residence. Educators and education personnel also do not need to come to campus for a while. With this situation, researchers wants to measure how influential and effective digital marketing is if it is applied at private Higher Education Institution to attract new students. By focusing on this issue, the researcher carried out a study to find out the effect of digital marketing and brand equity as a mediating variable toward intention to enroll at private Higher Education Institution. The researcher used non-probability and purposive sampling, that completely filled by 219 valid respondents who are student grade 2 and 3 at Senior High School and lived in Jabodetabek area. Quantitative descriptive analysis is done by using SmartPLS 3.2.8. Unlike the results found in a host of researches on Intention to enroll at Private Higher Education Institution, the findings from this research showed that Digital Marketing did not have a significant direct relationship with intention to enroll, while Brand Loyalty and Perceived Loyalty were found to be significantly related with Intention to Enroll. Hence, the findings of these direct and indirect effects in the study also show that digital marketing has a full mediation effect toward intention to enroll.