IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jmkthe/v24y2014i1p99-121.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Positioning university as a brand: distinctions between the brand promise of Russell Group, 1994 Group, University Alliance, and Million+ universities

Author

Listed:
  • Sheila Furey
  • Paul Springer
  • Christine Parsons

Abstract

Branding is now widely used by higher education (HE) institutions, yet questions still surround the transference of private sector concepts to a university context. This article reports on findings from studies that investigated the brand promises of four UK universities - one from each of the HE 'mission groups'. The evidence indicated that, contrary to existing published presumptions, there is considerable potential for the application of branding in HE, but in differing and nuanced ways. Clear branding themes emerged across the cases such as environment, experiences, aspiration, and global positioning. While these enabled the universities to position their brands with distinction, the overriding method used across the cases - and the key point of differentiation - proved to be the presence of a core brand promise.

Suggested Citation

  • Sheila Furey & Paul Springer & Christine Parsons, 2014. "Positioning university as a brand: distinctions between the brand promise of Russell Group, 1994 Group, University Alliance, and Million+ universities," Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 99-121, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jmkthe:v:24:y:2014:i:1:p:99-121
    DOI: 10.1080/08841241.2014.919980
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/08841241.2014.919980
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/08841241.2014.919980?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. Jean-Noël Kapferer, 2004. "The New Strategic Brand Management," Post-Print hal-00786821, HAL.
    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. Kelvin Mukolo Kayombo & Gwebente Mudenda & Burton Mweemba & Janis Nduli, 2020. "Understanding Postgraduate Student Preferences for University Choice in Zambia: The Case of ZCAS University," Journal of Education and Vocational Research, AMH International, vol. 10(2), pages 18-30.
    2. Berbegal-Mirabent, Jasmina & Llach, Josep & Marimon, Frederic & Mas-Machuca, Marta, 2020. "To recommend or to regret the choice? Factors explaining student loyalty: evidence from the Catalan university system," TEC Empresarial, School of Business, Costa Rica Institute of Technology (ITCR), vol. 14(2), pages 2-17.

    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. Per Åsberg & Henrik Uggla, 2019. "Introducing multi-dimensional brand architecture: taking structure, market orientation and stakeholder alignment into account," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(5), pages 483-496, September.
    2. Shakiba Ghadir Jamal Abad & Jalali Seyed Hossein, 2013. "Conceptualization Of Customer Based Brand Equity In Financial Service Sector," Studies in Business and Economics, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 8(1), pages 123-133, April.
    3. DelVecchio, Pasquale & Ndou, Valentina & Sadguy, Nezha, 2008. "Brand-Based Competition in the Agri-Food Sector: Evidences from Italian SMEs," 110th Seminar, February 18-22, 2008, Innsbruck-Igls, Austria 49890, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Elvira Tabaku & Mirela Zerellari (Mersini), 2015. "Brand Loyalty And Loyalty Programs; A Literature Review," Romanian Economic Business Review, Romanian-American University, vol. 10(2), pages 71-86, June.
    5. Catherine Janssen & Joëlle Vanhamme & Adam Lindgreen & Cécile Lefebvre, 2014. "The Catch-22 of Responsible Luxury: Effects of Luxury Product Characteristics on Consumers’ Perception of Fit with Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 119(1), pages 45-57, January.
    6. repec:dau:papers:123456789/2386 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Fabiana Mariutti & Ralph Tench, 2015. "Are we talking the Same Language? Challenging Complexity in Country Brand Models," Athens Journal of Business & Economics, Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER), vol. 1(1), pages 49-62, January.
    8. Elisa Arrigo, 2011. "Fashion, Luxury and Design: Store Brand Management and Global Cities Identity," Symphonya. Emerging Issues in Management, Niccolò Cusano University, issue 1 Global .
    9. Ela Golemi, 2015. "Excessive Credit Growth - An Early Indicator of Financial Instability," European Journal of Economics and Business Studies Articles, Revistia Research and Publishing, vol. 1, May - Aug.
    10. Nathalie Veg-Sala & Elyette Roux, 2018. "Cross-gender extension potential of luxury brands: a semiotic analysis," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(5), pages 436-448, September.
    11. Nathalie Veg-Sala & Angy Geerts, 2012. "Gestion de la cohérence des récits des marques de luxe sur Internet : étude sémiotique et analyse comparée des secteurs de la maroquinerie et de la joaillerie," Post-Print hal-01532822, HAL.
    12. Mohammad Shariq & Bilal Mustafa Khan & Aftab Haider Rizvi, 2014. "An Exploratory Analysis of Marketing Elements and Brand Equity in the UAE FMCG Category," Jindal Journal of Business Research, , vol. 3(1-2), pages 121-136, June.
    13. Russell, Stephanie & Brannan, Matthew J., 2016. "“Getting the Right People on the Bus”: Recruitment, selection and integration for the branded organization," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 114-124.
    14. Anido Freire, N., 2014. "When luxury advertising adds the identitary values of luxury: A semiotic analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(12), pages 2666-2675.
    15. Carl Jon Way NG, 2016. "‘Hottest brand, coolest pedagogy’: approaches to corporate branding in Singapore's higher education sector," Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(1), pages 41-63, January.
    16. Mitja Kozjan & Doris Gomezelj Omerzel, 2011. "How Do Companies Treat Their Knowledge For managing the Company's Brand?," MIC 2011: Managing Sustainability? Proceedings of the 12th International Conference, Portorož, 23–26 November 2011 [Selected Papers],, University of Primorska, Faculty of Management Koper.
    17. Vikas Arya & Hemraj Verma & Deepa Sethi & Rajat Agarwal, 2019. "Brand Authenticity and Brand Attachment: How Online Communities Built on Social Networking Vehicles Moderate the Consumers’ Brand Attachment," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 8(2), pages 87-103, July.
    18. Koll, Oliver & von Wallpach, Sylvia, 2014. "Intended brand associations: Do they really drive consumer response?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(7), pages 1501-1507.
    19. Naïade Anido Freire & Leïla Loussaïef, 2018. "When Advertising Highlights the Binomial Identity Values of Luxury and CSR Principles: The Examples of Louis Vuitton and Hermès," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(4), pages 565-582, July.
    20. Anselmsson, Johan & Bondesson, Niklas, 2015. "Brand value chain in practise; the relationship between mindset and market performance metrics: A study of the Swedish market for FMCG," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 58-70.
    21. John K. Christiansen & Claus J. Varnes & Birgitte Hollensen & Birgitte C. Blomberg, 2010. "Co-constructing the Brand and the Product," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Joe Tidd (ed.), Gaining Momentum Managing the Diffusion of Innovations, chapter 5, pages 157-193, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..

    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:99-121. 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.