Brand personality of European School Copenhagen : from vision to perception
Legrand, Ronja (2025)
2025
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202501292069
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202501292069
Tiivistelmä
The objective of this study was to gather information about the brand identity and image of the European School Copenhagen upper secondary section. The school has been challenged by the low numbers of first choice applicants, which impact the funding of the school, thus it is crucial to pay attention to the brand of the institution.
The theoretical section defined the concepts of brand, brand image, identity and personality and the relationships between the concepts. This study extended and commented on the previous studies on the public upper-secondary branding in the Nordic Countries. The most important reference point was Dang Yngve Dahle’s research on the branding efforts in the Norwegian upper-secondary schools. The chosen method for analysing the study was Jennifer Aaker’s five dimensions of the brand personality.
The empirical part consisted of analysis of the school’s website and confidential interviews with ten upper-secondary students. The study focused on similar sub-pages on the website of the school as Dahle had analysed for his study. The data was analysed by using ex ante coding based on the Aaker’s five personality dimensions, furthermore the interviews were also visualised and discussed by using a data visualisation tool Voyant.
These results suggested that the brand identity and image of the European School Copenhagen aligned strongly in relation to the sincerity and competence dimensions. However, the results also suggested that the words associated to these dimensions differ slightly between the brand identity and image, thus the school could improve their brand by utilising better the vocabulary used by the clientele.
To help the school to improve their branding, the five steps were developed based on the Dorie Clark’s five steps for renewing a personal brand. Each step was modified for an institutional context and developed in relation to the Aaker’s five personality dimensions of a brand.
The theoretical section defined the concepts of brand, brand image, identity and personality and the relationships between the concepts. This study extended and commented on the previous studies on the public upper-secondary branding in the Nordic Countries. The most important reference point was Dang Yngve Dahle’s research on the branding efforts in the Norwegian upper-secondary schools. The chosen method for analysing the study was Jennifer Aaker’s five dimensions of the brand personality.
The empirical part consisted of analysis of the school’s website and confidential interviews with ten upper-secondary students. The study focused on similar sub-pages on the website of the school as Dahle had analysed for his study. The data was analysed by using ex ante coding based on the Aaker’s five personality dimensions, furthermore the interviews were also visualised and discussed by using a data visualisation tool Voyant.
These results suggested that the brand identity and image of the European School Copenhagen aligned strongly in relation to the sincerity and competence dimensions. However, the results also suggested that the words associated to these dimensions differ slightly between the brand identity and image, thus the school could improve their brand by utilising better the vocabulary used by the clientele.
To help the school to improve their branding, the five steps were developed based on the Dorie Clark’s five steps for renewing a personal brand. Each step was modified for an institutional context and developed in relation to the Aaker’s five personality dimensions of a brand.