Marketing the institution to prospective students: A review of brand (reputation) management in higher education

This article considers an overview of brand (reputation) management in higher education, with a focus on South Africa. The literature paints a picture necessitating a proactive stance on maximizing the appeal of the institutional brand so as to recruit desirable students and ensure that the institution’s strategic goals are achieved. Inherent in this approach is embracing the competitive challenge, effecting internal remedies and thereafter ensuring that all branding elements are cohesively aligned. Findings suggests that just like any other brand, an institutional brand has the effect of reducing perceived risk for consumers (the students) and allowing the institution a degree of stability in the market place. However, marketers of institutional brands are cautioned against the multiplicity effect, whereby the multifaceted brand can prove challenging to manage. Lastly, a South African framework is reviewed as a means to achieve the above