THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MARKETING MIX ELEMENTS AND STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IN UNIVERSITY EVENTS: A CASE STUDY OF PESKON, UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA

Abstract

University events have increasingly evolved into strategic platforms that support student engagement, institutional branding and experiential learning within higher education institutions. Despite the growing importance of university-based events, empirical understanding of how marketing mix dimensions shape student engagement remains limited, particularly in higher education event contexts in developing countries. Therefore, this study examines the relationships between marketing mix elements namely Product, Price, Place, Promotion and People and student engagement during the Pesta Konvokesyen (PESKON) event at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). A quantitative research approach was adopted and data were collected from 317 student attendees using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, reliability analysis and Pearson correlation analysis were employed using SPSS version 28. The findings reveal that all five marketing mix dimensions demonstrated statistically significant positive relationships with student engagement (p < 0.001). Among the dimensions, Price showed the strongest relationship with student engagement (r = 0.929), followed by Place (r = 0.822) and Product (r = 0.788), while Promotion demonstrated the weakest relationship (r = 0.617). The findings indicate that students’ engagement is strongly associated with perceptions of affordability, value-for-money, event accessibility and experiential quality. In contrast, promotional activities and staff interaction appear to play more complementary roles in influencing engagement behaviour. Practically, the findings provide important implications for university event organisers in designing more effective strategies that enhance student participation and overall event experience.