Universities: a prime example of branding going wrong

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to present a call to action for universities to practice what they preach in developing and communicating differentiated brands. Design/methodology/approach -Reviews some recent literature on university branding and contrasts this with other industries. Findings -For the benefit not just of intending students, but also for the benefit of potential and existing staff as well as research clients and graduate employers, universities should develop meaningfully differentiated brands to communicate their strengths. Research limitations/implications -University brand managers should seek to clearly differentiate their offerings from the competition. Aspects of a university's brand attract students, staff, and industry seeking staff or consultancy. Originality/value -The large amounts of expenditure on university marketing would be more efficiently used if the principles of brand management taught within them were applied properly.

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

“…This situation is exacerbated when it comes to considering specific objectives in less traditional marketing fields such as education. This is perhaps surprising when one considers that spending university budgets on branding activity can be controversial (Jevons, 2006).…”

“…There is also a growing body of work that questions the suitability of commercial branding concepts for higher education (Jevons, 2006;Waeraas and Solbakk, 2008;Temple, 2006). This arguably stems from a fundamental examination of the applicability of market principles to higher education ( Gibbs, 2001) and indeed whether attempts to apply commercial style branding to higher education can actually challenge the institutional integrity of universities (Waeraas and Solbakk, 2008).…”

“…"Despite the unclear purpose…..vast quantities of money are spent on promoting whatever it is that universities are, do, and how they do it, without publicly available research on the efficiency or the outcomes of these investments" (Jevons, 2006).…”

Social media interaction, the university brand and recruitment performance

“…As well as building a connection with users, brands must also foster a sense of belonging through interaction and engagement, where engagement can take the form of content which tailors to specific groups of users (Lasorsa et al, 2012), for example, prospective students. (Jevons, 2006;Ramachandran, 2010). Other research suggests that the ranking of top universities does not change significantly from year to year (Bunzel, 2007), reinforcing the opposition to branding further.…”

University scandal, reputation and governance

“…A study by Souta and Turner (2002) indicates that the four most important determinants of university preference were course suitability, academic reputation, job prospects and teaching quality, and this has significance for the way that education managers develop their marketing strategies. Universities have therefore begun to realize the need to develop sustainable branding strategies (Jevons, 2006;Pinar et al, 2014) to create meaningfully differentiated brands and to communicate their strengths to stakeholders. In this regard, public relations can be a vital component to university reputation (Lee et al, 2015).…”