The role of personality, external prestige and reputation in the development of the brand image in higher education

Sveučilišta imaju značajan utjecaj na daljnji napredak budućih generacija u aspektu obrazovanja što se kasnije odražava na budućim poslovnim profilima pojedinaca. Svaki student donosi odluku u kojoj ustanovi visokog obrazovanja će nastaviti svoje obrazovanje i time definirati buduću profesiju. Predodžba studenata po pitanju pozicioniranja marke sveučilišta ovisi o različitim faktorima, a neki od njih su osobnost marke, vanjski prestiž i reputacija fakulteta. Osobnost marke obuhvaća socijalne komponente koje utječu na emocije korisnika, vanjski prestiž je element koji se promatra kroz percepciju pojedinaca koja je odraz načina komunikacije sveučilišta prema široj javnosti, a reputacija se formira kroz komunikaciju prema javnosti uključujući izravne dionike koji djeluju unutar sveučilišta. Sva tri čimbenika su u pozitivnom odnosu s imidžom marke pa se uz njihovu pomoć može izgraditi pozitivan imidž marke koji će sveučilište prikazati na najbolji mogući način. Stoga, glavni cilj istraživanja je analizirati i razumjeti ulogu navedenih čimbenika u izgradnji imidža marke u visokoškolskom obrazovanju. Razmatra se koliko su studenti zadovoljni svojim odabirom fakulteta te kakva su njihova mišljenja o tri sastavnice Sveučilišta u Zagrebu - Ekonomskom fakultetu Zagreb, Pravnom fakultetu Zagreb i Fakultetu elektrotehnike i računarstva. Istraživanje je provedeno na 100 bivših i sadašnjih studenata navedenih fakulteta. Dobiveni rezultati ukazuju na to da pozitivna osobnost marke, reputacija i vanjski prestiž imaju pozitivnu ulogu u izgradnji imidža marke sveučilišta. Baš iz tog razloga, potrebno je puno ulaganja u navedene čimbenike i marku fakulteta kako bi studenti prenijeli svoje zadovoljstvo budućim generacijama i kako bi imidž marke postao jedan od kriterija upisa određenog fakulteta.Universities have a significant effect on the further progress of future generations in terms of education, which is later reflected in the future business profiles of individuals. Each student makes a decision in which institution of higher education to continue their education and thus define their future profession. Students' perception of the positioning of the university's brand depends on various factors like the personality of the brand, external prestige and reputation of the faculty. Brand personality includes social components that influence the emotions of users. External prestige is an element that is observed through the perception of individuals, which is a reflection of the way the university communicates with the wider public while the reputation is formed through communication with the public, including direct stakeholders operating within the university. All three factors have a positive relationship with the brand image, so with their help you can build an good brand image that will present the university in the best possible way. Therefore, the main goal of the research is to analyze and understand the role of the mentioned factors in building the brand image in higher education. It is considered how satisfied the students are with their choice of faculty and what their opinions are about the three components of the University of Zagreb - Faculty of Economics Zagreb, Faculty of Law Zagreb and Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. The research was conducted on the sample of 100 former and current students of the selected faculties. The obtained results indicate that positive brand personality, reputation and external prestige play a positive role in building the brand image of the university. For this very reason, a lot of investment is needed in the mentioned factors and the faculty brand so that students can convey their satisfaction to future generations and so that the image of the brand becomes one of the criteria for admission to a particular faculty