International Journals of Marketing and Technology

Due to the increase in the number of universities and other tertiary education service providers in the country, prospective students are faced with unlimited options. As a result the students are becoming very demanding and disloyal moving from one university or education provider to another seeking better service. This study seeks to evaluate the marketing strategies being employed by Zimbabwe Open University to recruit new students. The main aim of the paper was to evaluate the marketing strategies being used in Zimbabwe Open University: viral marketing (word of mouth) and ZOU on Thursday against the expectations of students. Structured questionnaires were developed to gather relevant data which will be used for analysis. Descriptive statistics which involves simple percentage graphical charts and illustrations were employed in data presentations and analysis. A sample used involved 40 respondents composed of students (former and current), from Matabeleland North and Bulawayo using the simple random sampling technique.