Jul 3, 2009 - (two) of mixed gender considering the university web sites* and ... Building Trust Online ... Which branding website do you find easiest to.
EBP3083.8 Internet Marketing Communication Globally Branding Universities - from a consumer (potential student) perspective -
Universities are in competition - for funds and students. In Australia & the UK, higher education is now a market driven by student choice Your Country Needs You
7/03/09 4:46 PM
Your Country Needs You
7/03/09 4:46 PM
Very British! Memorable Images 53
Your Country Needs You!
Marketing Universities Online How does marketing brand universities? As caring supportive campuses? As inquiry or industry oriented? As exciting or safe? As research or teaching oriented? All these are values with which campuses seek connection to attract students
How does a university strive to get students (particularly fee- paying international students) to select it amongst so many? Answer: with Internet Branding Web Sites Online
Consumer Psychology Summary - a buyer understanding branding online is (i) a cognitive process which takes time: (ii)same process everywhere but it is culturally inflected (has different content). I illustrate this process as occurring in Malaysian responses to screen branding of universities.
Interpretive Research
Necessary to relate marketing theory (of buying, of branding) to everyday accounts provided by research subjects.
Web Branding Building Trust Online In early July 2008, at the University Institute of Technology Mara (UiTM) campus (Kuala Lumpur) ten Malaysians (a female Indian academic and nine Malay public relations students) contributed to focus groups (two) of mixed gender considering the university web sites* and television infomercial shown as the topic of our research on responses to campus branding: * on EBP 3083 website
The ‘Brandscapes’ or branding web sites were: Leicester University, UK Undergraduate Prospectus Page Limkokwing University of Creative Technology Home Page Monash University, Australia My Monash Student Portal Ohio University Home Page, USA University Institute of Technology Mara Undergraduate Page University of Malaya Undergraduate Page Malaysian Open University Television 'Infomercial'
Communication Psychology: Consumer Response to Branding and Marketing Online Stages One & Two: Audience Absorption* & Anticipation We anticipate web site content on the basis of classifying it as an instance of a type (eg. RTM news we expect to have stories about Perak or economics). - that is, we perceive from a ‘horizon of expectations’ - sometimes we look from the wrong perspective or make inappropriate assumptions about what we are watching * or Immersion
Example of Malaysian Open University Video Viewer A male contributor exclaimed that 'totally, I'm lost!' in the process of his seeking to provide the Malaysian Open University video with meaning ('I cannot get much from this video to actually understand what it's all about'). He cannot accommodate (fit) content within his assumptions that it is commercial advertising. 'I don't understand the reason why they come out with this TVC (television commercial).’
But he had mistaken the type of branding he was watching: the video was addressing Malaysian citizens to celebrate the Open University not selling its courses to consumers.
The video was made for TV during Malaysia's fiftieth year of independence (2007) to inform citizens about the national contribution of the Open University - branding by showing careers achieved, 'the scope of work' after graduation not to market the brand to student consumers by focussing upon the 'exact courses' provided.
Communication Psychology: Consumer Response to Branding and Marketing Online Stage Three: Audience Articulation of Meaning
Audiences or consumers articulate or construct (‘piece together’) the meaning of narrative content in branding - they arrive at an understanding of the story. However, sometimes, this process can be impeded (ie prevented) by complex or contradictory content.
Limkokwing's site with multi-ethnic students sets out to establish a close cultural connection to activity which the intended audience of international consumers 'will do as well' (Indian female). But the viewer's producing integrated or coherent meaning for this site is inhibited (prevented) by pages being 'cluttered', 'so packed with ( ... ) advertising' (Malay males). Resisting an integrated reading, UiTM’s undergraduate web page contained a cultural contradiction ('the picture does not suit the words') with its 'Moving Minds (motif or tag line), but showing the students only walking there' (Malay female).
Communication Psychology: Consumer Response to Branding and Marketing Online Stage Four: Audiences Appropriating Meaning Audiences or consumers appropriate the meaning they have constructed for branding or apply it to themselves, bringing it into their own lives. This is the moment of their identifying with narrative content (e.g. the student’s activity in purchasing a university course).
Cultural connection between viewer and viewed supporting appropriation may rest on choice of color for a web site. 'We Malays ( ... ) we are much into the Islamic looks and the color itself (on the Leicester University site) is not much of what Malays use in their everyday life. We Malays we like to use very soft colors.' (Malay male) However, the Ohio University brandscape is said to be culturally close to the world of Islamic Malay consumers because it emphasizes green: 'it doesn't use striking colors, it uses soft colors' (Malay male). Color matters materially.
Questions for Group Discussion 1. Which branding website do you find easiest to articulate (understand)? 2. Which branding website do you find easiest to appropriate (culturally close and convincing)? 3. Does semiotics (the study of signs) make a contribution to strategic brand management? (pdf article on the website).
