Marketing Strategy Management for Early Childhood Education RA Al Wardah North Sumatra

Marketing management can be used as a mechanism for explaining and rationalizing a program's offerings with various advantages, both in terms of inputs (inputs), processes, products (outcomes), outputs (outputs), and graduates (effects). In addition, promotion can also be used to convey public accountability regarding the educational process and results that have been implemented and developed by the educational institution concerned. The formulation of this research is how the education marketing management process in RA Al Wardah North Sumatra, what are the targets to be achieved by RA Al Wardah North Sumatra with the implementation of marketing management, what is faced by RA Al Wardah North Sumatra in the performance of marketing management. The research was conducted in RA Al Wardah, North Sumatra, and the data source for this study was the principal. This study uses qualitative research methods. Observation, interviews, and documentation do data collection. Data analysis is done through data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion. Based on the study results, it can be concluded that marketing management at RA Al Wardah, North Sumatra is running very well and following the times. The marketing strategy by RA Al Wardah North Sumatra is to continuously improve the quality of educational services, has the characteristic of educating children to be pious and independent, holding various extracurricular activities outside school hours, and holding multiple competitions.


INTRODUCTION
Children are a mandate from Allah SWT given to his people who must be protected and educated so that they become the best children. Children are also the most valuable investment owned by parents, families and society as the next generation (Mulyasa, 2016).
Education is seen as a learning process throughout human life. This means that education is a continuous process to add and adjust knowledge and skills, as well as considerations and abilities for action. This should enable people to be aware of themselves and their environment, and to play a social role at work as well as in society (Ishak Abdulhak, 2012). One of them is education for early childhood, which is one of the most strategic levels in determining the journey and future of the child as a whole, and will be the foundation for the preparation of children to enter further education, it can even be said that it will color their entire life later in society. . This is considered important because at an early age range is the right time to develop various potentials and intelligence of children (Mulyasa, 2016).
Early childhood education in the formal education path is in the form of Kindergarten, Raudathul Atfal, while early childhood education in the non-formal path is in the form of Playgroups, Daycare Parks (Ardoin & Bowers, 2020). Early childhood education institutions' development has increased rapidly in the last period. Marketing in educational institutions can be interpreted as a social and managerial process to get what is needed and wanted through the creation of offers and the exchange of value products with other parties in the field of education (Ardoin & Bowers, 2020). Marketing ethics in education is to offer quality intellectual services and overall character building. An educational institution in order to be in demand by consumers, must have good marketing management (Hidayat, 2016).
Finally, it can be concluded that the Marketing Management of Early Childhood Education emphasizes meeting consumer needs through products that are produced with all the advantages. Educational marketing always emphasizes on improving the quality of education, evaluating programs, and learning, and improving child development services.
Management is defined as regulating, so that what is regulated is all management elements consisting of money, methods, materials, machines, and markets and all the activities they cause in the management process with the aim of being more efficient, integrated and conditioned in achieving optimal goals. Management is generally associated with the activities of planning, organizing, controlling, placing, directing, motivating, communicating and making decisions carried out by each organization with the aim of coordinating various resources owned to produce a product or service efficiently (L Daft Richard, 2010).
Marketing is a total system of business activities designed to plan, price, promote and distribute want-satisfying goods and services to both current and potential consumers. Marketing of educational services is a skill in planning and managing exchange relationships between schools and communities (David Wijaya, 2012). Marketing is concerned with identifying and meeting human and community needs. One of the shortest marketing definitions is "profitably meeting needs." Marketing aims to find similarities between the goods and services offered and the needs of consumers (David Wijaya, 2012). From the description above it can be concluded that marketing is the process of providing information about goods and 72| JCD: Journal of Childhood Development, vol 2 No 2, 2022 services in the form of offering products, determining prices and distributing them to consumers. Early childhood education is the level of education before the basic education level which is a coaching shown for children from birth to the age of 6 years which is carried out through the provision of educational stimuli to help physical and spiritual growth and development so that children have readiness to enter further education that is held on formal, non-formal and informal channels (Maimunah Hasan, 2009).
Management in PAUD institutions is very much needed by every PAUD institution so that the service process to the community in the PAUD field is well served (Firdaus & Ansori, 2019). Especially for people who lead in an early childhood education institution, it is hoped that they can understand the science of management, placing more emphasis on the idea of meeting consumer needs through products produced with all their advantages. While sales emphasize more on making a profit from merchandise taken from producers which are then sold to consumers. The marketing of PAUD institutions always emphasizes improving the quality of education, evaluating learning programs, improving child development services. Thus, the higher the community participation, the higher the level of professionalism of an PAUD institution. On the other hand, the decline in community participation in the institution is a sign that the PAUD institution is experiencing a decline in professionalism.
The target of marketing or promotion of PAUD institutions is parents who have early childhood and are looking for PAUD institutions. They are potential consumers or potential buyers of educational services at PAUD institutions. The basic concept of PAUD always begins with a complete understanding of the goals of PAUD institutions that have been set long in advance. The goal itself has been formulated from the institutional vision and mission prepared by the founder of the PAUD institution concerned (Suyadi, 2014).
The vision and mission of the PAUD institution is the simplest medium to introduce PAUD to consumers (parents who have early childhood). After consumers know the PAUD institution being promoted, they will be interested in investigating more deeply about the PAUD institution in question, starting from infrastructure, curriculum, education staff, and others (Novak & Graham, 2019). All these PAUD components will convince consumers that the PAUD institution concerned is really different from other institutions, and even has more value. This difference and added value will convince consumers to choose the promoted PAUD institution (Suyadi, 2014).
When all components of PAUD reflected in the vision and mission succeed in convincing consumers, then PAUD marketing management can be called successful. This is because they have made their choice to buy the educational services of the promoted PAUD institution. In carrying out a promotion of educational institutions, a media is needed to support the smooth running of promotional activities. Thus, in this study it is necessary to discuss how RA Al Wardah, North Sumatra, carries out the marketing process.

METHODOLOGY
Based on the type of data used and the research objectives to be achieved, this research is categorized as a qualitative descriptive study to study the meaning conveyed by the respondents about research problems or issues. The target in this study was the principal of the RA AL WARDAH school.
The location chosen in this study was RA AL WARDAH Pasar V Tembung, Percut Seituan District, Deli Serdang Regency, North Sumatra. One of the researchers' considerations in choosing this location was because the school under the al Wardah foundation had implemented marketing management well. The research instrument in this study used two types of instruments, namely as follows: 1. Observation instruments to observe the way teachers conduct assessments according to Riduwan Observation is a data collection technique where researchers make observations directly to the object of research to see closely the activities carried out (Riduan, 2004) 2. The interview instrument was used by the principal to obtain more detailed information on the assessment process and how to process grades.
Interviewing is a process of obtaining information by way of question and answer and face to face using the interview guidelines that have been provided (Lexy J.Moleong, 2019).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The promotion of PAUD institutions also requires a strategy in order to facilitate the desired goals to be achieved. Because without a strategy, an institution will not run well. PAUD marketing management strategies include:

Product Strategy
Educational institutions do not sell products, this is because educational institutions are not like factories that create many products (goods) that actually have physical characteristics and clear product appearances. Educational institutions focus on services, especially education services for children aged 0-6 years. Products as a marketing strategy in PAUD institutions are directly observed services. This is because early childhood is undergoing a very rapid developmental dynamic process.
Optimizing the development of new children can be seen when they enter elementary school and beyond, showing mental maturity (Suyadi, 2014). If PAUD institutions want to use product strategies as a marketing tool, the PAUD learning process must be long-term oriented. This means that the PAUD institution curriculum does not only emphasize the optimization of temporary development by imposing certain aspects, but rather on the gradual and continuous adjustment of children's abilities.

Cost
Strategy The cost strategy or the price of education in PAUD institutions must be flexible. This means that the management should be able to estimate the funds, so that the cost of education in PAUD institutions can be affordable by consumers (parents who have early childhood). The management must also consider the facilities and infrastructure available.
The price strategy is how an educational institution sets the price that parents must pay to the institution/SPP. As managers, they must be able to estimate carefully so that educational institutions must remain good from educational service programs and at prices suitable for the target market. Expensive costs can seem cheap because educational facilities and infrastructure are very complete. While the cost of education seems very expensive, even though from the nominal side it is very cheap, this is because the facilities and infrastructure are very limited.
The main task of PAUD management is to estimate the costs of PAUD institutions that are by the ability of parents but can meet the operational costs of all PAUD institutions. Educational institutions must continue to earn profits or profits to pay salaries, bonuses and welfare allowances for teachers and staff, finance the operations of educational institutions such as telephone costs, APE purchases and so on. On the other hand, the institution is also in healthy competition with similar educational institutions. Institutions must be good at setting prices so that consumers remain loyal to our educational institutions.

The distribution
strategy is the transfer of all components of PAUD (teachers, location of buildings, infrastructure) directly to consumers. This means that the distribution strategy between companies or industries is different from the industrial strategy in PAUD institutions. The more strategically located an institution, the greater the potential for the distribution strategy's success. On the other hand, the more remote an educational institution is, the more difficult it is for management to use this distribution strategy (Suyadi, 2014).

Promotion Strategy (Promotion)
Promotion is the activity of communicating products on the market and dealing directly with the public. Promotion aims to provide information and convince consumers of the benefits of the resulting product. Promotional activities carried out in educational institutions such as examples can use 3 ways, namely: first, direct promotion using brochures and using websites. Second, using public relations.
In promoting educational institutions hold activities to attract local residents. These activities are held during seminars or other events around the local area, holding cheap basic necessities or bazaars. Then give coupons to local residents.
Promotions that bring in the most consumers recognized by educational institutions are through word of mouth. Customers of educational institutions usually share their experiences of sending their children to school to their friends or neighbors. The perceived customer satisfaction makes them automatically promote the educational institution (Elytasari, 2017).
Based on the research that has been done, a comprehensive picture of Marketing Management at RA Al Wardah North Sumatra is obtained as follows: 5. Marketing Management of Educational Services at RA Al Wardah, North Sumatra a. Product Strategy The products offered at RA Al Wardah, North Sumatra to customers are products that can be realized globally in the school's vision, namely forming pious and independent students. This is of course in accordance with the foundation that the school has to make a pious and independent person. In addition to supporting the religious side, RA Al Wardah North Sumatra also familiarizes yourself with independent behavior by holding extracurricular activities without parental assistance. Activities carried out such as Outbound which is held every 3 months, dancing, cooking, painting. RA Al Wardah North Sumatra also brought in various experts to help teach these extracurricular activities.
The school which has been established since 2008 is able to survive well because the products offered always keep up with the times, always making updates so that parents can entrust their children to RA Al Wardah, North Sumatra.
b. Cost Strategy The total entrance fee for RA Al Wardah North Sumatra is Rp. 600,000,students. With a tuition fee of Rp. 75,000, -every month. In addition, at RA Al Wardah, North Sumatra, it also provides relief from tuition fees for orphaned students and underprivileged students at RA Al Wardah, North Sumatra, providing relief for paying entrance fees in installments. The reason for the school to provide relief for the financing is to make it easier for parents to send their children to school so they don't drop out of school. In addition, this program is also a school promotion strategy and investment in the afterlife.
c. Distribution Strategy The location of RA Al Wardah, North Sumatra, is on Jalan Pasar V Dusun XII, Tembung Village, Percut Sei Tuan District, Deli Serdang Regency, North Sumatra. This school is very strategic because in RA Al Wardah North Sumatra it is still within the AL-WARDAH Education Foundation which is located in front of the highway which makes RA Al Wardah North Sumatra easy to access from anywhere. Although the school is located near the highway, the school ensures the safety of students by providing a gate and a large enough play area.

d. Promotion
Strategy The marketing strategy carried out by RA Al Wardah North Sumatra was carried out through online media and print media. Examples of online media used are Blogger, WhatsApp, while the print media used are brochures, print ads, and posters (Banners).
In general, the marketing strategy is carried out through activities that describe and show the achievements and abilities of the school, such as visiting PAUD institutions and inviting PAUD institutions to take part in competitions held at RA Al Wardah, North Sumatra.
The main purpose of holding this activity is to disseminate information on the advantages of RA Al Wardah North Sumatra to the wider community. The use of social media is also a form of renewal by following the times and making it more accessible to the wider community. Parents of students also become promotional agents through social media.

CONCLUSION
Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that in the organization of an Early Childhood Education institution, it is necessary to have a PAUD Marketing Curriculum. This is because the growth of early childhood institutions and high public interest are still not followed by professional marketing management. Marketing activities do not have to be carried out by newly established educational institutions but by educational institutions that have been established for a long time or even educational institutions that are considered well-known.
In the description of the discussion chapter above, it can be concluded that the marketing strategy of RA Al Wardah North Sumatra is carried out directly, namely through brochures, print advertisements, and posters (Banners) and also through the achievements that the school has obtained but very effective marketing from the RA Al Wardah school, North Sumatra. Namely word of mouth from parents or guardians of students.