ONLINE COMMUNICATION WITH THE TARGET GROUP OF APPLICANTS FOR STUDY AT UNIVERSITY

In Central Europe, namely in the Czech Republic, the upward trend of increasing education is currently prevailing, even almost 30 years after significant political changes. This trend assumes that, as well as in corporate practice, the management of higher education institutions must build the prestige of the brand with the stakeholders and, among other things, try to attract the target group of applicants through non-traditional/ alternative tools and forms of marketing communications. The target group of applicants, or more precisely their motivation, opinions, preferences are constantly changing. This is why the behavior of Y generation has become the focus of this study, particularly in the field of online communication. The study is based on a representative research of the Czech generation X and Y (N = 420, of which 215 respondents Generation Z and 205 Generation Y), supplemented by analysis of secondary data sources as well as results of long-term specific research for selected university with a combination of marketing and artistic focus. The output is a model short to medium-term online communication strategy (for 2-5 years), which aims to firstly attract and then get as many interested students as possible for the offered majors.