Why Universities Need Brand and Reputation Management

A friend of mine is heading to Italy to meet with a group of European communications heads. The topic is why universities need branding. Since I work in a university and actually have done brand and reputation management for a university in Canada, I thought it was an interesting question.

Academia has always thought that it was above commercial enterprise. However, as costs for an education have increased and as universities compete for the best talent in faculty and students, the brand or reputation of the university has become more important. This has become fairly common-place in the U.S., but she was heading to Italy, so I thought that the experience in Canada might be closer to the issues in Europe.

Canadian universities always considered themselves to be on a fairly equal basis. There are no public universities in Canada--it is not allowed by government. The Minister of Education has responsibility for universities, as well as public primary and secondary schools, and Catholic schools (this was an arrangement with Quebec). There is relative consistency in the cost of a university education across the country--relatively inexpensive by US standards. A Canadian university education costs about $4500 for tuition per year compared to about $15,000-20,000 for a state university in the US. While we have had wide variations in the quality of colleges and universities in the US, Canadian education is consistent in its quality, although there are some places more equal than others in terms of quality and students, faculty and parents know it.

Every year, McLean's magazine in Canada runs a ranking of the best universities. Educators pretended not to notice. Then, Canadian business schools started showing up in the list of best business schools outside the US. As the Canadian schools moved up the ranking, the percentage and quality of applicants from outside of Canada started to grow. There was a recognition that reputation of the school made a difference in the quantity and quality of applications. In fact, I talked to a few Chinese students who said that they could not get government grants to study abroad at a university that dropped below the top 100 mark in the FT ranking of best business schools.

What typically occurs when there is a tight status-quo competitive environment in a sector began to happen. First one school then another started to advertise and create branding campaigns. Money started to flow to the schools considered the best from private donors. Soon, most of the schools started to differentiate.

Universities are big business. The cost is high and the prestige or lack of it makes the degree and important benefit or liability to the holder. Schools that drop in rankings often find it harder and more expensive to attract top faculty.

Symphonies, museums and other institutions that always considered themselves above the pedestrian commercial interests are now branding and building reputation campaigns. It is more difficult in a university to deliver the experience commensurate with the promise since it all depends on the department, college, etc. University experience is personal and individual and no administrator can engage faculty member in "living the brand". However, it is every bit as important to a university as it is to any other organization in a competitive environment.

University Branding Becomes a Major Topic

Universities have really gotten into branding in a major way. New firms are forming that focus exclusively on the academic market. Articles are being written in various marketing and academic management journals about the importance of branding.

Why is college/university branding moving into high gear? The cost of an education in the US has become extremely expensive. At the university I teach at, which is a private institution, undergraduate students pay about $47,000 per year when all expenses are included. The MBA costs anywhere from $50,000-85,000 at our university, depending on the program selected (on-line versus full-time or executive MBA). At the same time, there are more students attending colleges and universities. So, the perceived value of the degree takes on greater importance. Companies want to know the value of potential employees have, parents begin to be concerned about where their son or daughter will receive an education that is valued in the market, and universities are concerned with their ability to attract the best and brightest students available. All of this adds up to a major reason for branding. University rankings become extremely important. They put the value of the university into context--allowing it to be assessed against others in the market.


I believe that universities should be talking about their reputations rather than their brands. Brand is focused primarily on consumers. Universities do not have consumers or customers, but rather a host of stakeholders, including, parents, alumni, corporate donors, government (for grants and ,in the case of public institutions, funding, and others). The term reputation is more acceptable to faculty. Everyone wants a good reputation for their schools; not everyone wants the university to think of itself as a brand.

It is difficult to have a university live its brand or reputation. A friend of mine once called a university a "group of anarchists sharing a common parking lot". Faculty do not like to be managed. They see themselves as independent contractors, each vying for their own position and fame. University tenure encourages this. A faculty member who plays as part of the team and serves his/her department and college well but does not publish is less valuable than the faculty member who does little in concert with others but who is a publishing "machine". So, it is difficult, if not impossible for a university to live its brand.

Far too often, universities fall into the trap of thinking that their slogan is their brand. The slogan of my business school is "Learn Here. Lead Anywhere". This is not our brand. Our brand is about attributes, namely co-op education, technology and applied research. Put those together and offer them to students and one has an environment that allows people to learn at Drexel and lead anywhere afterward. Just like in a company, the key is to link the slogan back to attributes that are real to the university.