Investigating students’ perceptions of their university’s brand
2020
Roskosa, A., Riga Technical Univ. (Latvia) | Stukalina, Yu., Transport and Telecommunication Inst., Riga (Latvia)
The role of branding in higher education is increasing, as the requirements of the target audience (university stakeholders) are constantly changing. Modern universities have to meet complex needs and expectations. This calls for reviewing branding strategies designed by senior education managers, which are aimed at building and maintaining a strong institutional brand. Brand, being a complex phenomenon, includes various aspects, or “building blocks”. A holistic approach to the development of a marketing strategy (integrating various marketing activities) presupposes that different brand-building elements have to be considered. Through brand responses managers will obtain necessary information about what customers think and feel about the brand. Brand responses can be obtained in the frame of the customer-based brand equity model, through exploring customers’ perceptions of a particular brand. The obtained information will later be applied in the agenda of updating branding strategies created by senior education managers. The aim of the study conducted in two higher education institutions of Latvia was to investigate students’ perceptions of different aspects of their university’s brand from a customer-based brand equity perspective. The paper is based on 1) literature review on branding, including branding in the higher education sector; 2) a survey conducted in two technical universities of Latvia – state (Riga Technical University) and private (Transport and Telecommunication Institute). The results of the empirical study demonstrate that in general, the students of both state and private higher education institution perceive their university’s brand similarly; besides, it is of a high importance of every institution brand’s service to pay more attention to their students’ needs and expectations in order to prove having a highly efficient communication process with the students. .
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