Brand Management of Higher Education Institutions in Pakistan

Abstract

This study focuses on brand management, marketing & promotional practices which are incorporated in Higher Education Institutions, more specifically with reference to universities in Pakistan. The case organisation taken here is University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences (UVAS); a century old historic institution yet striving for familiarity in masses as a known brand. To cope with this, the prime objective of this study is to create a promotional strategy for the said institution, which ultimately leads to its brand management in the wider perspective. Thus, the literature reviewed at first hand comprises of Branding concepts I.e. Brand identity, brand personality, Identity vs. Image, brand perception etc., along with it the secondary sources like studying generic competition with the detailed analysis of course offerings, no of publications and facilities provided to students by counterpart universities are of magnificent importance, whereas the primary sources of data collection contributes to comprehensive and self-explanatory questionnaires which have been targeted at graduate and post graduate students, so as to get a better idea of their perception, expectation and beliefs about the effects of branding & promotional strategy on their selection process. These questionnaires, though close ended in nature depicts valuable observations, which are then further carried to create an effective promotional Strategy. Al-so, few unstructured yet informative interviews had been conducted with higher management of case company, so as get a profound picture of their view and expectations regarding branding of UVAS.

The results in the study have been graphically evaluated in detail using SPSS (statistical Package for Social Sciences), which has increased the essence of results quantitatively in a meaningful way for justifying the basis of this study that “branding has become an integral aspect for Universities to survive in hyper competitive environment.