Modern universities function in a highly competitive environment (for applicants, for teachers and scientists, for funds from various sources, etc.). In the context of globalization, competition is reaching the global level even for regional universities. Competition is also treated as a struggle for attention of different target audience segments. Corporate culture of an educational institution, a positive image and a recognizable brand are understood as additional competitive advantages. Universities are actively turning to marketing communications tools as well as modern marketing concepts that have proven their performance in the commercial sector. The latest marketing concepts focus attention on orientation customer, ensuring a long-term and mutually beneficial relationship between customers and brand. In particular, the concept of experience marketing emphasizes the need to establish a strong emotional connection between brand of educational institution and its audience. Another area, applicable to the field of the higher education and educational services promotion, is related to the management of customer experience, which is formed on the basis of various “points of contact” between brand and its audience. In connection with the mediatization of university’s activities and strengthening of its presence in social networks, another important direction is the brand reputation management of educational institution.

We considered modern problems of career guidance at the university. Competition between universities for applicants (both quantitative and qualitative) makes it necessary to review the content of career guidance work. Universities have to become a center for career guidance with schoolchildren along with other interested persons (parents, employers, school). As a basis, we considered a level model of career guidance work (career guidance at the level of a university, institute/faculty, department, training/educational program directions), focused attention on the level of the educational program. We described the experience of career guidance work in “Advertising and Public Relations” Programme at Derzhavin Tambov State University. Students of schools and colleges are offered the project "School of the Young Advertiser", offering lectures and master classes from teachers and practitioners aimed at popularizing the professional areas of the advertiser and public relations specialist. As part of the regional project “Professions in Detail”, professional tests “Advertiser – Profession of the 21st Century” and “Modern PR Player” are offered for students in ninth grades.

We consider the current formats of career guidance work, which, firstly, are focused on solving the problem of attracting applicants to universities, secondly, take into account the interests of students and contribute to conscious professional self-determination, and thirdly, take into account the labor market situation. The solution of these problems is possible as a result of the systematic organization of career guidance, the key subject of which is the university, while ensuring interaction in the triad “school – university – employer”. Within the framework of the university, career guidance work can be of a tiered nature and be carried out at the level of an educational program, department, institute/faculty, university. Domestic and foreign experience indicates the need to increase the depth of career guidance work, which is facilitated by the format of the “kids university”, in which students of primary and secondary schools get acquainted with professional areas. One of the urgent problems of career guidance work with school students is to increase their involvement in the proposed activities. The involvement and, as a result, the effectiveness of career guidance work makes it possible to increase its practical nature (trainings, master classes, professional tests), the use of a competitive component (olympiads, grant competitions), the use of game components (gamification elements) in career guidance events.

Universities in modern conditions operate in the educational services market, which is characterized by intense competition. This competition covers various areas: competition for applicants, highly-qualified employees, funds from various sources, including in the form of grant support. Competition forces universities to search for additional competitive advantages, which include the image, a strong brand of the institution. In recent years the specialists’ attention is paid to the university reputation, which largely depends on the choice of the target audience. The concept of university reputation is considered, the main reputation effects are characterized, vision of university reputation management features is presented. With the development of the Internet as a world of social networks the character of reputation information in the online environment has particular importance, which is associated with the scope and speed of its dissemination. Managing reputation in this area is associated with the monitoring both hand and machine, the struggle against negative information.

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