IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jmkthe/v24y2014i1p144-163.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Branding a state university: doing it right

Author

Listed:
  • Ruby Roy Dholakia
  • Linda A. Acciardo

Abstract

Shrinking financial support from governments and forecast declines in the college-going population have combined to exert tremendous pressure on institutions of higher learning. Branding as a strategy has become more popular as a way of differentiating an institution from its competition, but the complexity of higher education makes branding an even more difficult task than in traditional, commercial contexts. This paper describes the process adopted by a particular state university in the USA to navigate the branding terrain. Armed with research evidence, the university defined a brand position and implemented it through creative executions that resonated with diverse stakeholders. The paper suggests that the branding process, by taking several factors into account, generated a successful branding campaign measured in terms of receptivity to communication messages, but still does not answer the difficult questions about the role of branding in higher education.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruby Roy Dholakia & Linda A. Acciardo, 2014. "Branding a state university: doing it right," Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 144-163, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:jmkthe:v:24:y:2014:i:1:p:144-163
    DOI: 10.1080/08841241.2014.916775
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/08841241.2014.916775
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/08841241.2014.916775?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Irene C. L. Ng & Jeannie Forbes, 2009. "Education as Service: The Understanding of University Experience Through the Service Logic," Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(1), pages 38-64, May.
    2. Vásquez, Consuelo & Sergi, Viviane & Cordelier, Benoit, 2013. "From being branded to doing branding: Studying representation practices from a communication-centered approach," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 135-146.
    3. Brandi A. Watkins & William J. Gonzenbach, 2013. "Assessing university brand personality through logos: an analysis of the use of academics and athletics in university branding," Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(1), pages 15-33, June.
    4. Michael J. Clayton & Kevin V. Cavanagh & Matt Hettche, 2012. "Institutional branding: a content analysis of public service announcements from American universities," Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(2), pages 182-205, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wilson, Elizabeth J. & Elliot, Esi A., 2016. "Brand meaning in higher education: Leaving the shallows via deep metaphors," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 3058-3068.
    2. Dennis, Charles & Papagiannidis, Savvas & Alamanos, Eleftherios & Bourlakis, Michael, 2016. "The role of brand attachment strength in higher education," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 3049-3057.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martina Ostojić & Mirna Leko Šimić, 2021. "Students’ Perceptions of Public vs. Private Higher Education Institution Brand Value in Croatia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-11, August.
    2. Hulya Bakirtas & Vildan Gulpinar Demirci, 2022. "A structural evaluation of university identification," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 19(3), pages 507-531, September.
    3. Marta Retamosa & Ángel Millán & Miguel Moital, 2020. "Does the Type of Degree Predict Different Levels of Satisfaction and Loyalty? A Brand Equity Perspective," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(2), pages 57-77, May.
    4. Balaji, M.S. & Roy, Sanjit Kumar & Sadeque, Saalem, 2016. "Antecedents and consequences of university brand identification," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 3023-3032.
    5. Mona Fairuz Ramli & Salniza Md. Salleh, 2015. "Factors Contributing to Brand Loyalty towards Malaysia Higher Educational Institutions," Journal of Education and Vocational Research, AMH International, vol. 6(3), pages 22-29.
    6. Partenie Cristina-Veronica, 2019. "From Intent to Action – A Study Regarding High School Students’ Motivation in Choosing a University," Studia Universitatis „Vasile Goldis” Arad – Economics Series, Sciendo, vol. 29(2), pages 17-32, June.
    7. Hayford Amegbe & Charles Hanu & Rexford Atunwey, 2016. "Customer based Brand Equity and the Competitive Performance of Private Universities in Ghana," Ekonomika a Management, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2016(3).
    8. Ravi K. Jillapalli & Regina Jillapalli, 2014. "Do professors have customer-based brand equity?," Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 22-40, June.
    9. Mehtab Alam & Fu-Ren Lin, 2022. "Internalizing Sustainability into Research Practices of Higher Education Institutions: Case of a Research University in Taiwan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-30, August.
    10. David Fleischman & Maria Raciti & Meredith Lawley, 2015. "Degrees of co-creation: an exploratory study of perceptions of international students' role in community engagement experiences," Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 85-103, January.
    11. Cristina Del-Castillo-Feito & Alicia Blanco-González & Rafael Delgado-Alemany, 2020. "The Relationship between Image, Legitimacy, and Reputation as a Sustainable Strategy: Students’ Versus Professors’ Perceptions in the Higher Education Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-16, February.
    12. Vlad I. Rosca, 2017. "Fan drain due to brand identity loss. Evidence from Romanian second league football," Journal of Community Positive Practices, Catalactica NGO, issue 2, pages 31-50.
    13. Bhuian, Shahid N., 2016. "Sustainability of Western branch campuses in the Gulf Region: Students’ perspectives of service quality," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 314-323.
    14. Yuan Liu & Tingjie Ma, 2022. "University trademarks: strategies of top Chinese universities," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-18, December.
    15. Savica Dimitrieska & Tanja Efremova, 2020. "The Flower Of Services And Its Efficiency In The Banking Sector," Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Economics, SOUTH-WEST UNIVERSITY "NEOFIT RILSKI", BLAGOEVGRAD, vol. 8(1), pages 109-118.
    16. Heidi Hansen & Astrid Jensen & Cindie Maagaard, 2022. "The brand manager as practical author. An empirical study of the co-creation of a CSR-based brand," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(6), pages 584-597, November.
    17. Balmer, John M.T. & Mahmoud, Rudiana & Chen, Weifeng, 2020. "Impact of multilateral place dimensions on corporate brand attractiveness and identification in higher education: Business school insights," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 628-641.
    18. M. Isabel Sánchez-Hernández & Emerson W. Mainardes, 2016. "University social responsibility: a student base analysis in Brazil," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 13(2), pages 151-169, July.
    19. Parves Sultan & Ho Yin Wong, 2019. "How service quality affects university brand performance, university brand image and behavioural intention: the mediating effects of satisfaction and trust and moderating roles of gender and study mod," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(3), pages 332-347, May.
    20. Lili Gai & Chunhao Xu & Lou E. Pelton, 2016. "A netnographic analysis of prospective international students’ decision-making process: implications for institutional branding of American universities in the emerging markets," Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(2), pages 181-198, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jmkthe:v:24:y:2014:i:1:p:144-163. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/WMHE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.