Marketing the Institution

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.