Education-based Marketing in the Context of Modern Marketing Communication

The dissertation thesis deals with content marketing, emphasizing customer education. The main objective of the dissertation is to identify, analyze and critically evaluate in a broader context the strategic paradigm of customer education with an emphasis on identifying the degree and method of implementation of educational content compared to other types of content focus of marketing messages, based on literature review and current data from empirical research. Evaluating the educational content’s value potential and identifying the main factors for its effective implementation in marketing communication represent the dissertation’s specific benefits in both theoretical and practical terms. The quantitative research design is holistic and includes large companies, SMEs and consumers. Statistical methods used in the research include, predominantly, structural equation modelling. The dissertation responds to the fact that companies and other organizations are successfully implementing education-based marketing campaigns while the topic’s coverage, in professional articles and publications focused on customer education at a strategic level, is still insufficient. According to the research results, almost two-thirds of the companies surveyed have already employed education-based marketing campaigns. While product-related education for customers is well-known, a new phenomenon appears to be emerging. This phenomenon indicates that wider-ranging education-based marketing is becoming core to organizations’ marketing strategies rather than, say, mere product-related advertising. This dissertation’s scientific value consists in bridging the gap between marketing theory and practice as organizations take this new strategic approach to customer education. With its research results offering fresh insight into this topic, the dissertation should be seen, specifically, as an innovative benchmark for the theory that will inform and illuminate organizations’ practice in implementing education-based marketing strategies.