Communicating brand personality: Are the websites doing the talking for the top South African Business Schools?

Opoku, Robert A.; Abratt, Russell; Pitt, Leyland

doi:10.1057/palgrave.bm.2550052

Cited by 125 publications

(117 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…The body of work in the academic literature concerning branding of higher education does seem to be limited, however (Hemsley-Brown and Oplatka, 2006;Waeraas and Solbakk, 2008) despite branding's rise up the strategic agenda for UK universities (Rolfe, 2003).Aspects of branding have been explored; the role of websites in university branding (Opoku, Abratt and Pitt 2006) the role of heritage (Bulotaite, 2003) the emergence of brand identities ( Lowrie, 2007), and harmonisation within brand architecture of universities (Hemsley-Brown and Goonawardana, 2007).…”

Section: Literature Review Branding In Higher Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring rationales for branding a university: Should we be seeking to measure branding in UK universities?

Chapleo

2011

J Brand Manag

106

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Although branding is now widespread among UK universities, the application of branding principles in the higher education sector is comparatively recent and may be controversial for internal audiences who question its suitability and efficiency.This paper seeks to investigate how and whether the effectiveness of branding activity in the higher education sector should be evaluated and measured, through exploratory interviews with those who often drive it; UK University marketing professionals.Conclusions suggest that university branding is inherently complex and therefore application of commercial approaches may be over simplistic. Whilst marketing professionals discuss challenges they do not necessarily have a consistent view of the objectives of branding activity although all were able to clearly articulate branding objectives for their university, including both qualitative and, to some extent, quantitative metrics. Some measures of the real value of branding activity are therefore suggested but a key debate is perhaps whether the objectives and role of branding in higher education needs to be clarified, and a more consistent view of appropriate metrics reached? Various challenges in implementing branding approaches are also highlighted.

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Section: Literature Review Branding In Higher Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring rationales for branding a university: Should we be seeking to measure branding in UK universities?

Chapleo

2011

J Brand Manag

106

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“…With particular reference to branding, extant scholarship has, for instance, examined branding, visual identity and nomenclature (Opoku et al, 2006;Pitt et al, 2006), as well as students' identification with business schools, drawing on social identity theory (Balmer and Liao, 2007;Balmer et al, 2010).…”

Section: Corporate Brand Building Within Top Business Schools: What Dmentioning

confidence: 99%

The corporate brand and strategic direction: Senior business school managers’ cognitions of corporate brand building and management

Balmer

Wang²

2016

J Brand Manag

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This revelatory study focusses on top Financial Times (FT)-ranked British business school managers' cognitions of corporate brand building and management. The study insinuates that there is a prima facie bilateral link between corporate branding and strategic direction. The data revealed that, among this genus of business schools, corporate brand building entailed an ongoing concern along with strategic management, stakeholder management, corporate communications, service focus, leadership and commitment. These empirical findings chime with the early conceptual scholarship on corporate brand management dating back to the mid-1990s. These foundational articles stressed the multi-disciplinary and strategic nature of corporate brand management and stressed the significant role of the CEO. As such, this research adds further credence to the above in terms of best practice vis-à-vis corporate brand management. Curiously, although senior managers espouse a corporate brand orientation, corporate brand management is seemingly not accorded a similar status in the curriculum. Drawing on a general embedded case study methodological approach, data was collected from eight leading (FT-ranked) business schools in Great Britain at

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“…In a study based on South African business schools, competence emerged as the most communicated brand personality dimensions in the schools' websites while sophistication was the least communicated (Opoku, Abratt & Pitt, 2006). An investigation of brand strength, favorability and uniqueness on brand equity in Malaysia revealed that the effects of brand strength and favorability on brand equity were higher in private institutions while brand uniqueness was a strong predictor of brand equity for public institutions (Teh & Salleh, 2011).…”

Section: Business and Economic Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rebranding an Institution of Higher Education in Botswana

Makgosa

Molefhi²

2012

Business and Economic Research

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The issue of rebranding institutions of higher education has attracted little attention in scholarly publications. However, intense competition in the higher education market has forced institutions to modify elements of their brands. The current study seeks to shed light on the challenges of undertaking a rebranding exercise in an institution of higher education in Botswana, a context which is under researched. The purpose of the current study is to establish the perceptions of students of the University of Botswana regarding its brand equity following the rebranding exercise. A structured questionnaire was administered to a sample of 336 University students majoring in business. Overall, the results showed that the brand equity of the new logo was lower than that of the old logo. The results of the paired t-tests revealed that students tend to recall and recognize the old logo more than the new logo. Students are also attracted, affectionate and attached to the old logo more than the new one. Since rebranding can erode some of the important aspects of an existing brand, it has to be implemented cautiously. Importantly, effective communication is critical to inspire students to embrace the new logo and their perceptions need to be tracked periodically in order to establish whether the desired brand image has been generated.

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Communicating brand personality: Are the websites doing the talking for the top South African Business Schools?

Cited by 125 publications

References 40 publications

Exploring rationales for branding a university: Should we be seeking to measure branding in UK universities?

Exploring rationales for branding a university: Should we be seeking to measure branding in UK universities?

The corporate brand and strategic direction: Senior business school managers’ cognitions of corporate brand building and management

Rebranding an Institution of Higher Education in Botswana

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