The brand architecture of the University of Amsterdam : placing the ABS along the Brand Relationship Spectrum

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The Brand Architecture of the

University of Amsterdam

Placing the ABS along the Brand Relationship Spectrum

Master Thesis

Edwin de Leeuw – 6306292

Final version 30 July 2014

MSc. in Business Studies - Marketing Track Amsterdam Business School

Supervisors: Dr. E. Peelen Dr. M.L. van der Veen

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List of Tables and Figures

No. Name Page

Figure 1 Reciprocity of Brand Identity and Brand Image 12

Figure 2 The Brand System 13

Table 1 The BPS Items and the respective traits 14

Figure 3 The Brand Relationship Spectrum 18

Figure 4 Conceptual model 23

Figure 5 The websites of the ABS (left) and UvA (right) 28

Table 2 List of Coded Interview Items 33

Figure 6 Hierarchical Value Map 34

Table 3 Age distribution 35

Table 4 Gender distribution 35

Table 5 Distribution in course type 35

Table 6 Correlation for Sincerity 36

Table 7 Correlation for Excitement 37

Table 8 Correlation for Competence 37

Table 9 Correlation for Sophistication 38

Table 10 Correlation for Ruggedness 38

Table 11 Descriptives for Personality Items grouped per brand 39

Table 12 Paired Sample T-test results 40

Table 13 Comparison of UvA personality items 41

Table 14 Comparison of ABS personality items 41

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1

Abstract

This purpose of this thesis is to investigate the brand architecture of the University of Amsterdam, specifically aimed towards the Amsterdam Business School, one of the schools set up by the university under a brand name that is different from its own.

The research was conducted in two parts. The first part consisted of a series of interviews with employees of the Amsterdam Business School. Using the laddering technique, the interviewees were asked for those aspects of the university and the business school that they particularly liked. Through coding, these answers could later be translated in means-end chains and plotted on a Hierarchical Value Map. This map was used as a representation of the brand identity of the two brands. The second part of the research was formed by a survey based on the Brand Personality Scale by Aaker. Data for this part was collected by requesting students to fill it out on a website. This survey, consisting of 42 items on a five-point Likert scale, measured the scores for the university and the business school on five personality items. These five items together constructed the brand personality as seen by the students and was used as a measure for brand image.

When the scores for brand identity for the two brands were compared, no difference could be detected. Comparison of brand identity scores returned a similar result. This lead to the conclusion that there was no difference between the two brands and a ‘branded house’ strategy was suggested as brand architecture.

However, comparison of the brand identity and brand image did unveil some differences.

Internalization of Sincerity related attributes was suggested for the brand identity, whilst low brand personality scale scores for Sophistication and Excitement suggested more effort should be placed on externalizing these items to the brand image.

Finally, considering the similar interview scores for brand identity but the difference suggested by online and offline communications, an alternative strategy for the brand architecture was suggested; the sub brand strategy would allow the business school to underline their corporate ties further, whilst maintaining the necessary support from the strong corporate brand of the university.

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1. Introduction

The University of Amsterdam (UvA) is one of Europe’s large general universities. Its roots date back to 1632, when the ‘Athenaeum Illustre’ was founded. Today, around 30,000 students receive their university level education at one of the seven faculties that compose it: the Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Law, Science, and Medicine and Dentistry.

The seven faculties are divided by their scientific fields and as such are complementary to each other, although some overlap may off course be expected (e.g. on the topic of consumer behaviour). The university itself is for a large part financially dependent on the Dutch government, which allocates funds to universities in the Netherlands based on the amount of students enrolled in the various courses, the amount of research being conducted, and co-operation with academic hospitals. Thus, a proliferation of fields of research to attract students to is financially beneficial to the university. This is called the first financial tier. The second, smaller, tier consists of corporate funding for research. Additional tiers may exist, but they are not relevant here.

For the faculties, being part of a large university as the UvA gives them access to shared services as housing, funding of research projects, and the benefits of UvA marketing for the attraction of new students. On the other side, the faculties are largely autonomous when it comes to product

development; the way they organize their courses. One of these faculties, the Faculty of Economics and Business, has created two brands to divide their two research fields in: the Amsterdam School of Economics (ASE), and the Amsterdam Business School (ABS); it is the latter that this thesis will address.

The ABS was founded in 2003. It is a young business school assigned to perform all business related research and to provide business related education on Bachelor’s, Master’s and Executive levels. It also employs PhD students who are both conducting research and giving lectures. The ABS is situated on one of the main (public) complexes of the UvA, and occupies its own very distinct and modern building on which the ABS name is placed prominently on the façade.

The situation at the UvA is very similar to that of many corporations that have struggled to find the best way to balance subsidiary autonomy and corporate leadership. As traditional portfolio

management by conglomerates went into decline (Davis, 1994), diversification seemed to be shunned by many firms looking for long-term success. Since then, brand equity and creating a portfolio of matching or reinforcing brands has been the main focus of many corporations, such as Nestlé. Barwise & Robertson, (1992) argued that a well-balanced and matched set of brands would make each brand stronger than it would have been on its own.

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3 For the UvA, the question arises how the university is able to use its corporate brand in the most effective manner, and how to position their other brands. A student looking for a Bachelor’s course in Business Studies may not be attracted by generic information on the university or information from the Humanities faculty. Would a more direct approach by the Faculty of Economics and Business not be more effective? Or perhaps students look for more than just their course, or even their university when they take their next steps in education. Perhaps even the location plays a large part in their decision. Are culture, nightlife and the status of the city of Amsterdam a large enough influence on the student’s decision to persuade him or her to sign up when the education is not? The relevance of corporate branding initiatives is increasing, and it has become more commonplace over the last two decades (Beverland, Napoli, & Lindgreen, 2007). Although it may be assumed that the aspiring students apply more rationality in their choice than the average consumer of say, jeans, at some point the student is confronted with a selection of universities and their brands that all cover the topics that he or she is interested in. And with no objective buyer centre to assist in the decision making process, the student has to rely on his or her own judgement to decide what education to invest in. During this selection process, students will take many factors into account; the curriculum, the reputation of both the university and the faculty, the city the institute is located may all be a factor in their decision making process. Thus, synergy between these factors is of importance. This thesis will research the options that the university has in positioning its brands, by investigation whether there is a match between these brands in the eyes of the customers and the employees. Brand identity is widely recognized as the most important means of differentiating brands (Jennifer L Aaker, 1997). It is supposedly an internal construct that is the embodiment of the management’s vision on what they want the organization to be (D. Aaker, 1996; J. Kapferer, 2008). Consumers are argued to affect brand identity by sharing their thoughts about a brand, and thus influence brand managers in their decision making (da Silveira, Lages, & Simões, 2013). This shows that the internal views of what the brand should be (or brand identity) can differ from the external view on how the brand is received (or brand image).

One of the most cited tools to describe a brand’s image is the Brand Personality Scale (BPS; (Jennifer L Aaker, 1997)) on which a brand can be positioned in five dimensions, i.e. sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness. This scale has been developed for use on consumer brands, and is possibly applicable to the situation of the UvA as well. The university (corporation) provides education (service) to its students (consumers). The BPS measures the values that are attributed to the brand on a higher level of abstraction. In this thesis, comparison between the

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4 values attributed to both the UvA and the ABS will give an insight in possible ties between the two brands, and whether brand identity can be used as a measurement for inter-brand synergy.

Having multiple brands in its portfolio, the university faces a challenge to create a brand strategy in which its brands reinforce each other, and how it is best able to add value to each of the individual brands within the context of the corporate brand. This question may not seem new, as value creation by corporate strategy has long been one of the challenges that high level managers have faced. This time, however, the question was aimed directly at the branding strategy that the organization chooses. It was argued that corporations can add to the value of the brands of their subsidiaries by endorsing their brands with their own corporate brand (D. a. Aaker, 2004). There are several ways a corporate brand can leverage the brand equity of the brands they have in their portfolio, as

described in the brand architecture spectrum (D. A. Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2000). This spectrum may be a tool for the UvA to use in their own search for a balance between brand autonomy, a unified corporate branding strategy, or looking for brand outside the university to pair up with. Though the internal and external views influence each other, the starting point in any brand strategy research should be brand identity, as it precedes over brand image (J. Kapferer, 2008). . At the same time, however, image influences identity by ways of internalization (Gregory, 2007). Thus, this thesis will follow both. We will analyse the brand identity and brand image of one business unit in relation to the corporate brand.

Based upon the outcomes we will formulate recommendations to improve the brand architecture of UvA, how the corporate brand can support the unit brand, where the corporate brand benefits from the business unit brand and where it risks being damaged.

1.1 Problem Statement

The University of Amsterdam attracts many students, both domestic and abroad, to their curricula each year. The UvA has many aspects to offer them: an inspiring curriculum, a highly regarded degree from a respectable university, and a vivid city life, amongst others. In order to create a comprehensive brand strategy, an insight in the way students view the university needs to be

provided. On the other side, brand strategies can only be successful if there is a fit with the culture of the organization. It is therefore equally important to look at the way internal stakeholders view the UvA; as the corporate brand needs to address multiple stakeholders (Davies & Chun, 2002).

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5 As stated earlier, the branding choices presented to the university reflect that of a regular business to consumer corporation (Mazzarol & Soutar, 1993). Using the theories above, the university can construct their own brand architecture to address the needs of each specific faculty brand. Most research on brand architecture expands on the symbiotic relation between corporate brand and business unit or product brand, and how the two can benefit each other. However, in the case of the UvA the seven faculty brands - and possibly some outside the university - also have influence on each other. While students may be attracted to the curriculum presented by one of the faculties, the city’s image may have them look elsewhere for their education. Likewise, academic success or failure in one of the faculties may influence the image of another faculty when this result is expressed through the corporate brand. Since these brands all influence each other, even when their actions may rationally not seem to be connected, the question rises how the UvA in general can create the best brand architecture for their brand portfolio (D. A. Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2000).

This deductive research will focus specifically on ABS and how the UvA can best position this brand as part of the corporate brand. Is it best left separated to maximize the strength of the individual brand or should it be organized under the UvA’s branded house? First, the brand identity of the ABS and UvA will be researched by conducting face to face interviews with internal stakeholders. These employees of the UvA will be asked to explain what values they feel are central to the ABS and UvA brands, using the laddering technique (Reynolds & Gutman, 1988). The laddering technique is unique in enabling researchers to transform qualitative data from an exploratory interview technique to quantitative data by using a strict coding scheme.

In the following phase, the brand image of the UvA and ABS will be researched. There is sufficient empirical support for the theory that brand personality is a means for consumers to describe brand image (Caprara, Barbaranelli, & Guido, 2001), therefore we will make use of the most well-known tool for measuring brand personality: the Brand Personality Scale from Aaker. This phase will also answer the question whether the BPS is suitable for researching an educational service brand. Measurement of the BPS will be conducted by questionnaires filled out by consumers (students) during the second phase of the service consumption (during consumption).

The results of the interviews and the questionnaires will be compared in a qualitative manner. Being exploratory in nature, the outcome of the interviews is unknown. However, the technique enables one to discover traits, consequences and values that may well be linked to the traits and items used in the Brand Personality Scale. At the same time, outcomes from both techniques will be split and compared between the UvA and the ABS, giving ample insight in the differences between the two. The outcome will be the basis of the advice that concludes this thesis.

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6 1.2 Research Question

Following the problem stated in the previous paragraph, this thesis revolves around one central research question:

RQ: How can the brand architecture of the University of Amsterdam, increase synergy between the UvA and ABS brands?

In order to answer this question, it will be necessary to break it down into sub questions, each providing part of the answers we are looking for. Brand identity is often seen as the expression of morals and values of the organization (Urde, 2003). This means in creating a brand strategy, it is important to consult internal stakeholders on their views on the values of the brand or brands.

SQ1: How do the internal stakeholders view identities of the University of Amsterdam and the Amsterdam Business School?

As proposed earlier, the external views on the brand, also called brand image, influence decision making on branding and vice versa. Measuring brand image through brand personality helps understand the influence of external views on the brand. It can also be seen as a check for congruence between what management thinks the brand says and how this message is actually received.

SQ2: What is the brand image of the University of Amsterdam and the Amsterdam Business School in the eyes of the students?

The third and final sub question aims to make a comparison between the external and internal views on both brands.

SQ3: Is there any congruence between the two brand identities and their respective brand images?

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7 1.3 Scope

Universities always need to be viewed within the boundaries of their environments. More specific, it is government education policy that for a large part creates the educational ecosystem that the university has to exist in. Although the total system of higher education spans several universities and institutes for professional education, this thesis will focus on one specific university: the

University of Amsterdam (UvA). For the sake of this thesis, any possible government influence on the university will be limited to the previously stated first tier funding on the basis of number of students enrolled.

Universities are active in more fields than just education for students, and therefore have additional options to generate revenue. Among these possibilities are research and spin-out companies (Wright, Lockett, Clarysse, & Binks, 2006). Those options will not be taken into account in this thesis. Finally, the UvA is a university with international allure and status. It attracts many students from abroad, making it compete on more than just the national market for higher education. This thesis however, will remain on a national level as a strong domestic presence is required to be able to compete globally (Hamel & Prahalad, 1985).

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2. Literature Review

When discussing the relations between different brands in an organization, it is important to closely research what the different elements of the problem are and what previous research can teach us. This chapter will focus on the literature available to us at present day, starting with the basis of the research question proposed earlier: branding. How can brands distinguish products or services from those of the competition, how do customers view brands and why is that important? We will also look into ways to measure or define brands, so they can be compared at a more abstract level. The next step is to review literature on brand portfolios. We take a closer look in the ideas and theories behind portfolio strategies, and companies that have adapted such a strategy in the past. Further down the funnel and narrowing our scope, we look into the literature available on branding services and how it is different from branding goods. After that we zoom in on branding specifically for higher education institutes.

Finally, the conceptual model will emerge, forged from the research that has been covered in this chapter. This model will ultimately assist in answering the research question of this thesis.

2.1 Branding

During the ‘90s, the resource based view on corporate strategy gained in popularity. It can be seen as a reaction to the more deterministic view of the positioning school, according to which a firm could not break free from the limitations set upon it by its industry (Porter, 1979). The resource based view regarded a firm’s inner strength (its resources) to be the main factor towards sustained competitive advantage. However, resources had to adhere to a set of criteria to be regarded important enough to be a factor in strategy; resources had to be the key to gaining sustainable competitive advantage if they were to be regarded important enough to shape strategic decision making. These criteria are known as the VRIN framework (Barney, 1991). According to this framework, a resource must be:

 Valuable  Rare  Inimitable

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9 The reputation of a firm can match these criteria and the expression of the reputation is the brand. It can thus be said that a brand is a resource that can lead to sustainable competitive advantage (Abratt & Kleyn, 2012). This notion is of great importance in understanding why branding has received so much attention over the years and why the attention is ever growing. Being the owner of a brand to market a product with can make all the difference when competition for consumers’ spending rises. In other words, if all other characteristics are equal, the brand determines what makes a consumer buy one product over an otherwise similar alternative. In order to quantify the worth of any

resource, it has to be valued. The value of a brand, also called brand equity, is basically the value the brand adds to an otherwise generic product (D. a. Aaker, 1991). This value can be created by making consumer’s believe that the brand has characteristics that they find favourable. In other words: it is the outcome of both the message being sent by the brand and reception of that message by consumers.

Kapferer (2008) describes brands as not merely a name, but a vision, a key belief of the brand and its values. This vision is called the brand identity.

2.1.1 Brand Identity

When a brands is conceived, it is the organization’s expression of what the brand is (D. A. Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2000). Over the past few years, brands have come under heavy pressure to

constantly redefine themselves, as society’s need for communication has intensified enormously, and the race for innovation is relentless. As a result, firms have been under pressure to communicate who they are and what they stand for. In other words: their identity. (J. Kapferer, 2008). As paragraph 2.4 will show, services are often branded using the corporate brand (Mcdonald, Chernatony, & Harris, 2001). This means that there is a close relation between service (e.g.

education) and organization, and since services are often contact-intensive, the service employees are often the expression of the corporate identity (Kennedy, 1977) linking employees closely to brand communication. Contact with employees is often the primary driver of consumer’s views of the brand (Muzellec & Lambkin, 2006).

The strong relation between the inner values of the organization and the expression of the brand is becoming more and more clear. It can even be said that the expression originates from the values inside the organization (Urde, 2003). Identifying these values is vital for the success of service brands, and they should even be reinforced within the organization (De Chernatony, Drury, & Segal‐Horn, 2004); meaning that brand identity and corporate values are actually reciprocal.

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10 For this thesis, brand identity will be the focus of the interviews being conducted as explained in chapter 3.2.,

When the firm has defined the identity for their brand, it is time that this message is communicated to the consumer, who still has to learn about it. These marketing activities create brand knowledge (Keller, 2003a)

2.1.2 Brand Knowledge

It is obvious that when the ties between brand and product become so strong that consumers for example ask retailers for a Walkman when they are in fact shopping for a portable cassette player, that the brand itself has enormous value. Value creation is thus the main focus of the marketer, and it can be influenced by the marketer using the Marketing mix’ 4P’s for Price, Promotion, Product, Place (Borden, 1964). Using both monetary and non-monetary tools, the marketer treads a difficult path in order to create a positive image of the brand in consumers’ minds, while at the same time not looking like they really try (Buil et al., 2011).

The goal of the marketer when employing the marketing mix is to create brand knowledge. Brand knowledge is a direct determinant of consumer purchase behaviour (Esch, Langner, Schmitt, & Geus, 2006), and can be split into two types: brand awareness and brand image (Keller, 1993; Pappu, Quester, & Cooksey, 2005).

Brand Awareness

Consumers come into contact with brands through advertising, shopping or social contacts, and these interactions not only make the consumer aware of the brand’s existence, but also create expectations on what the brand means. Brand knowledge is based on the experiences, both direct and indirect, that a customer has had with the brand. If these experiences are positive, the brand has earned customer-based brand equity (Keller, 1993), and thus the desirable outcome of behavioural brand loyalty. This outcome is desirable, because of its two operationalizations: buying frequency or buying the brand more often than other consumers, and share of category requirements or buying the brand more often than competitive brands (Romaniuk & Nenycz-Thiel, 2013). For this thesis, buying frequency is less important. Higher education is a service that is mostly consumed only one in the life of a customer. However, brand knowledge can play an important part in the decision making process of the would-be student, by influencing the once-in-a-lifetime decision on where to apply for higher education. Making a good impression on consumers is important, especially if you only get one chance to sell.

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11 For consumers to have an opinion on a brand, they first of all need to know it exists, as stated above. In extreme cases, strong brand knowledge can lead to such a strong link between a brand and a product, that consumers are almost unable to view the two separately. Xerox has become a synonym for the copying machines it produces, and many people refer to a generic MP3 player as an iPod (an Apple brand). In these cases, the brand name and the actual product that is being sold are so intertwined, that they are inseparable in the eyes of the consumer. For this thesis, of the two types of brand awareness, brand knowledge is of less importance than brand identity. Sub question 2 focusses on the external view of the brand by consumers during consumption; it can be safely assumed that brand awareness is not an issue with this group.

Brand Image

When bringing any product or service to market, brand awareness should be the primary focus of any marketer; consumers need to at least have a notion the brand exists, after all. Second on the list is to make sure that consumers have a rich set of strong and desirable associations with the brand; a positive brand image is required to make sure the brand has a chance of influencing the consumer’s decision making process in its favour. The consumer is thought to compare the brand’s personality to their own (Belk, 1988) or to that of the person they would like to be (Malhotra, 1988).

Although much research in the concept of brand image had already been performed, it was Jennifer Aaker ( 1997) who first defined a set of five dimensions divided into 114 personality traits that describe the way a customer thinks about a brand. It was the first step from brand image to actually giving a brand a personality as one would another human being. Said personality traits can be of great importance for purchasing behaviour, as customers feel (or at least hope) that the traits rub off on them when they consume the brand. In other words, the personality traits they project on the brands they use reflect the traits they would want to have themselves. As a consequence of this, customers tend to be drawn to other customers of the same brand, forming brand communities (Muniz & O’guinn, 2001), that stimulate and reinforce purchasing behaviour. Brand communities provide the customer with an actual group of human beings that share their opinions of a brand, making the otherwise intangible brand personality all the more real.

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12 2.1.3 Congruence between Image and Identity

If brand identity springs from the corporation itself as an expression of values and managerial decisions, and brand image is an external view of the brand by consumers, than it seems logical that the two concepts meet somewhere in the middle. It can be said that brand identity is the message coded by management, whilst brand identity is that same message decoded by consumers, and that brand loyalty can be increased by minimizing the gap between the two (Nandan, 2005). If that is the case, then the message sent by management should be received equally by internal and external stakeholders (Hallawell, 1999).

Figure 1: Reciprocity of Brand Identity and Brand Image

There is ample research that suggests the gap between brand identity and brand image should be reduced. Creating congruence would increase brand loyalty (Nandan, 2005) and form the basis for a long-term relationship between the consumer and the brand (Burmann, Jost-Benz, & Riley, 2009). Although it is thought that building identity precedes the existence of image (Kapferer, 2008), eventually the internal and external perceptions of the brand and its values should both be of continuous influence on each other (Gregory, 2007; Urde, 2003); internalization of stakeholder’s images and externalization of employees’ culture is needed to achieve a balanced brand (Muzellec & Lambkin, 2006).

Kapferer (2008) compares a brand with a pyramid. At the top of the pyramid is the brand’s vision and purpose, and just below that the core brand values. At the bottom are the products with their specific attributes and benefits. Looking at the pyramid top-down, it represents the brand

management process, whilst looking at it bottom-up represents the brand perception process. These two processes meet in the middle at the brand personality. This is the concept where both brand identity and brand image meet. Brand personality is both the expression of the core brand values and the abstraction of the product attributes. If congruence is to be achieved, it should revolve around this concept.

Brand Image Brand Identity Externalization Internalization

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Figure 2: The Brand System (Source: Kapferer, 2008)

2.2 Aaker’s Brand Personality Scale

One of the most influential branding researches in the last two decades is arguably Jennifer Aaker’s development of the Brand Personality Scale in 1997. Her research sprung from the many theories on brand personality that had already been produced, but at the same time had failed to address how this personality should be measured. She decided to try and bridge this gap, using the “Big Five” human personality structure(Tupes & Christal, 1961) as a starting point to describe brand personality. Her research, performed on several U.S. based brands, revealed that the personality of these brands could also, like human personalities, be described by five dimensions that differed slightly from those accepted in psychology: Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication and Ruggedness. Aaker developed a scale of traits that, when measured, would eventually compose these five constructs. Although her initial literature review suggested that a total of 309 personality traits were candidate to be included in the scale, her first subject-tests allowed for a cut off at 114 traits. Further testing showed that even this number could be reduced. A total of 42 traits were needed to give an

accurate, reliable and comprehensive representation of the five dimensions. She measured these by submitting respondents to the 42 personality traits as five-point Likert items in a questionnaire.

Brand vision and purpose

Physical signature: family resemblance Strategic benefits and attributes

Core brand values

Product A – Product B – Product N … Typical brand actions Brand perception

process: bottom-up

Brand management process: top-down Brand personality codes

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14 Respondents were asked how well each of these items described a certain brand, each Likert item being scored from 1 – not at all descriptive, to 5 – extremely descriptive. The 42 traits and their relation to the personality items are shown in table 1.

Item Trait

Sincerity Down-to-earth, Family oriented, Small town, Honest, Sincere, Real, Wholesome, Original, Cheerful, Sentimental, Friendly. Excitement Daring, Trendy, Exciting, Spirited, Cool, Young, Imaginative,

Unique, Up-to-date, Independent, Contemporary Competence Reliable, Hardworking, Secure, Intelligent, Technical,

Corporate, Successful, Leader, Confident

Sophistication Upper-class, Glamorous, Attractive, Charming, Feminine, Smooth

Ruggedness Outdoorsy, Masculine, Western, Tough, Rugged

Table 1: The BPS Items and their respective Traits

Aaker’s research was not without critics, however. She herself already discovered in 2001 that the Brand Personality Scale was not ready to be generalized across different cultures, as research in Spain and Japan showed some overlap, but also differences (Jennifer Lynn Aaker, Benet-Martínez, & Garolera, 2001).

Moreover, it has been argued that the entire conceptual model is flawed, leading to measures that actually describe product performance, instead of brand personality (Azoulay & Kapferer, 2003). However, several positive ties between brand personality and perceived quality were found, moreover, when a brand is more inclined towards credence on the search-credence continuum, these ties become stronger (Clemenz, Brettel, & Moeller, 2012).

All criticism aside, the general opinion among researchers does still seem to favour the general set-up of the Brand Personality Scale. Even though many specific variants seem to have been created to better suit cultural differences or product categories, the development of the scale has been a very important step in helping marketers understand the way consumers view their brands (Ahmad & Thyagaraj, 2014).

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15 Recently, research has been conducted into the consequences of brand personality, trying to answer the question whether a strong score on certain constructs has favourable influence on the

perception of consumers. Ramaseshan & Tsao (2007) found that the items Excitement and

Sophistication are good predictors of perceived quality for experiential brands. A comparable result was claimed by Clemenz, Brettel, & Moeller (2012). Although they replaced Aaker’s original scale by a more recently developed scale by Geuens et al. (2009).

In this thesis, Aaker’s Brand Personality Scale will be the centre of the second phase, as UvA and ABS students will be asked to score their institutions in the manner prescribed by Aaker.

2.3 Brand portfolios and strategy

Although the idea of looking at an organization as a combination of all its resources has a long tradition in strategy research, for many years only tangible assets were considered to be part of the elements that can help in strategy formation. One possible explanation for this is the difficulties in inserting an intangible, and thus difficult to measure, asset into a model. It is easy to value land or machinery, but how do you put a price tag on a skill or reputation?

Incorporating intangible assets into the resource based view came in fashion during the 1980’s. Caves (1980) argued that ‘the firm rests on contractual relations that unite and coordinate various fixed assets or factors, some of them physical, others consisting of human skills, knowledge, and experience‘, combining both tangible and intangible assets in his theory. Building on this, Wernerfelt, (1984) proves the importance of ‘consumer marketing’ as an intangible resource for some markets in his stepping stone model. Consumer marketing and branding are closely linked. However, the terms and definitions in this field are many and not all researchers in the field agree on them. It can be said, though, that corporate communication (e.g. marketing) is an outing of corporate identity (Balmer, 2001). In the end, the evidence is quite conclusive; a brand can be an enormous contribute to firm performance, and thus an invaluable intangible asset (D. a. Aaker, 2004; Madden, 2006).

Any firm marketing more than one brand can be considered to have a brand portfolio, and thus should pay close consideration in the way this portfolio is managed. Early literature on portfolio management focused on product portfolios to justify centralized control of resources by a firm (Day, 1977). Soon, it was argued that businesses in a portfolio were seldom without relation and always influenced one-another in some way (Bettis & Hall, 1983), and combining the strengths in a portfolio could have synergetic effects (M. Porter, 1987). The models spawning from all this research were still mainly focussed on tangible assets as the resources to build strategies on (Untiedt, Nippa, & Pidun,

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16 2012). It would not be until the dawn of the 1990’s that portfolio theories (and management) would turn their focus toward brands (Barwise & Robertson, 1992).

When economic circumstances are less than optimal, the allocation of scarce resources between the brands becomes an issue (Nath, Nachiappan, & Ramanathan, 2010; Petromilli, Morrison, & Million, 2002). The creation of brand portfolios was on the rise during the late 1980’s, in response to objectives faced by management. According to Barwise & Robertson (1992), these objectives were: global branding, the pursuit of multiple market segments, changes in the power equation of the distribution channels, and to take advantage of scale economies. Building a brand portfolio gave firms access to customers that would have been out of reach when the firm would stick to the one starting brand. It soon became apparent, however, that simply tapping into a new market with a newly acquired brand was not enough to face the challenges posed by the four objectives. If a firm wanted to truly take advantage of the opportunities given by these new brands, some form of synergy had to be found. Using and moulding brands to suit the firm’s strategic objectives became a discipline soon known as brand architecture (D. A. Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2000). Brand architecture mainly places the positioning options for brands in the firm’s portfolio on an independence

continuum. On one end of the continuum, brands can operate as independent entities in their markets, seemingly uninfluenced by the parent brand. In this case the firm operates as a House of Brands. On the opposite end of the continuum, brands are all marketed in the same way, under a so-called Branded House. This continuum is known as the Brand Relationship Spectrum (D. A. Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2000). Positioning brands along this continuum enables a firm to use the strengths of a parent brand to support the sub brand, e.g. Sony PlayStation, or ACS, a Xerox Company.

Brand architecture aims to create synergy between intangible assets, brands, by creating the most beneficial relationship between them. It enables marketers to venture into new markets with independent brands, protecting the carefully built corporate brand, while at the same time allowing marketers to support a young and struggling brand with some of the market power of the parent brand, depending on the choices made. This is the exact choice that the UvA is facing; will it need to support the young ABS in order to allow it to gain market share, or is the ABS so different in the eyes of the stakeholders that is best left independent?

Aaker & Joachimsthaler (2000) suggest that there are four basic strategies that can be adopted when deciding how to position a brand on the Brand Relationship Spectrum. From most to least

independent they are: House of Brands, Endorsed Brand, Sub brand, Branded House. Since brand architecture and the Brand Relationship Spectrum are central to answering the research question proposed earlier, a closer examination of these strategies and their sub strategies is of importance.

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17 A House of Brands strategy is one that uses several seemingly independent brands to cover a range of offerings. An example is General Motors. This Detroit based automotive company owns several brands in the industry. From Opel to Chevrolet, these brands are marketed independently with no link to the corporate brand. The disadvantage is that brands cannot be complementary to each other, nor can the corporate brand be used to boost the individual brands. On the other side, brands can be tailored very strictly to their target markets, without negative spill-over from other brands in the corporation. In our example, GM is unable to use its corporate brand to launch Buick, a strong brand in the U.S., in Europe. On the other side, the reputation of affordability that Opel has acquired cannot harm the premium Hummer brand. The two sub strategies in this basis strategy, Not

Connected and Shadow Endorser, vary very little from each other. The latter meaning that the

connection between the corporate brand and the individual brand is not overtly communicated, but this connection is known by many consumers. Audi and Skoda may seem independent, but it is well known they are both part of the Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft (VAG).

Endorsed Brands use the corporate brand as leverage for the individual brand name. It allows the individual brand to target a niche, with the benefits of positive spill over effects from the corporate brand. An example is the line of hair products Studio Line by L’Oreal. However, this does result in the need to actively manage both brands (resulting in higher costs), and limits the freedom in doing so, in order to maintain the synergy. This basic strategy can be executed through one of three sub

strategies. The first, Token Endorsement, puts the endorsed brand forward while the (well-known) endorser brand is represented by a logo or mild statement. An example is the customer contact company ACS, which is brand as: ACS, a Xerox company. The second sub strategy, Linked Name, combines elements of the corporate brand with the individual brands, creating implicit links between them. McDonalds lends its brand’s prefix to all of its products: McShake, McBacon, McWrap, etc. Strong Endorsement, finally, places the corporate brand in a much more explicit position, just like in our example of Studio Line by L’Oreal.

Sub brands connect the corporate brand to new segments. This is different from Endorsed Brands in that the emphasis lies with the parent brand venturing in new markets. Here, the corporate brand and sub brand are so closely linked, that failure by the sub brand can have serious negative impact on the corporate brand. Sony PlayStation (bringing Sony to the game console market) and Apple iPad (helping Apple create a new market for tablet computers), are both examples of the Master brand as a driver sub strategy. In a Co-Drivers sub strategy, both brands have strong driver roles and are more or less equally important. For this to be a possibility, the sub brand has to have gained a reputation as well. An example is Sony Walkman, where the reliability and quality is expressed by the Sony

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18

Continuum

Basic Strategies

Sub Strategies

brand name, and Walkman highlights the innovation. This also shows that brand architecture is not static, but that it changes as brands mature (Rajagopal & Sanchez, 2004).

Figure 3: The Brand Relationship Spectrum. Source: D. A. Aaker & Joachimsthaler (2000)

The Branded House strategy places the corporate brand in a very dominant position, leaving the individual brand as nothing more than a descriptor. Google markets its many services in this fashion. Google Maps, Google Docs, Google Translate are all products that are branded indiscriminately and

Brand Relationship Spectrum House of Brands Not Connected Shadow Endorser Endorsed Brands Token Endorsement Linked Name Strong Endorsement Subbrands Co-Drivers Master Brand as a Driver Branded House Different Identity Same Identity

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19 in which the individual brand names do nothing more than point out what specific service is being consumed; all products have the Same Identity. Aaker and Joachimsthaler (2000) suggest that the clarity in communications and the ease of management, should make this basic strategy the default option for any brand manager. Caution should be used when the different categories that the Branded House covers actually cause it to have Different Identities, because these identities may conflict. GE Capital may have very different associations in the eyes of the consumer than GE Appliances.

The four strategies and their subsequent sub strategies represent the choices that the UvA has to make in order to find the optimal brand architecture for its brands.

2.4 Services branding

The average consumer has a vivid image of global brands like Sony and Ikea, but does the same go for brands in the consumer services industry? Services are often far more local in nature than products (Lovelock & Wirtz, 2007), making a global service brand far more difficult to attain.

Research into branding has primarily focused on products (Keller & Lehmann, 2006), but recently the branding of services has received more attention from researchers. One of the reasons for this development may be the applicability of the ‘company as a brand’ concept (Chernatony & Riley, 1999) although some research disputes this (Onkvisit & Shaw, 2004), or perhaps the fact that

branding for services is based on an actual experience, making branding ‘stick’ more to the consumer (Bateson, 1990). On the other hand, services are gaining in importance to the world economy

(Lovelock & Wirtz, 2007), and it is only logical that researches dive into this gap.

The first question to ask when researching services branding is probably whether it is fundamentally different from the branding of products. The answer according to many researchers is a profound ‘yes’ (Turley & Moore, 1995). It may even be argued that due to the intangibility of services, branding is of an even greater importance than it is to physical goods (Onkvisit & Shaw, 2004), since

consumers have more difficulty assessing quality than they would with a product. Branding can help them form an image of the service quality (Berry, 2000). This intangibility is widely recognized as one of four features that distinguish services from goods: intangibility, perishability, heterogeneity, and inseparability of production and consumption. The complexity of these constructs can be mitigated for consumers by the adoption of a brand, reducing the perception of risk associated with the branded service (Bharadwaj, Varadarajan, & Fahy, 1993), an important factor in the buyer’s decision.

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20 Both goods and services can be categorized as search-, experience-, and credence-dominant (Girard & Dion, 2010). Search attributes allow consumers to gain information by comparing brand, product characteristics, and price. Experience attributes are those attributes that can only be experienced during consumption of the good or service. The fun one has during a visit to an amusement park cannot be evaluated in advance, just as the taste of wine can only be experienced when one actually drinks it. Finally, credence attributes cannot be evaluated by the consumer before or after

consumption. They remain hidden at least until long after purchase. Examples are food supplements or financial products. It is in this last category that consumers perceive the most risk.

Many services are predominantly experience- or credence-dominated when compared to the often more search- and experience-dominated nature of goods. It is therefore argued that branding makes more sense for services, because it makes them more tangible in the eyes of the consumer, who uses risk reduction techniques to aid in his or her buying decision. Risk reduction is problematic in the eyes of the consumer, especially when credence-dominated goods or services are assessed. Hence, the consumer perceives more risk when purchasing in this category (Murray & Schlacter, 1990). Although research does not necessarily point in the same direction (Krishnan & Hartline, 2001), it can be argued than, that branding is even more important for services that it is for goods because of their more intangible nature (Chernatony & Riley, 1999). The university’s two brands discussed in this thesis are argued to be mostly experience dominated (when it comes to following courses) and somewhat credence dominated (when assessing the value of your education for your career). Even if branding is not more vital for the success of services than it is for products, the plethora of research available on the subject seems to point out that the importance for services branding in general is not contested. The next step for research is how one should brand a service. Are there any best practices to serve as a guideline? As with products, services can be branded along the brand relationship spectrum. A corporation may use the corporate name to have its values and brand equity affect the service, but it may also choose to create a new brand to make it distinguishable, or anything in between. In this decision making process however, the marketer should pay close attention to the way the customer experiences the service. As we have seen earlier, experiencing a service is quite different from the consumption of a product. Thus, the original marketing mix’ 4 P’s is not enough to guide the marketer in his or her decisions. This has prompted researchers to expand on the marketing mix ever since the 1980’s. Booms and Bitner (1981) propose to expand on the widely recognised 4P’s with three additional variables: People, Physical Evidence, and Process. This expansion is tailored specifically for services, and gains relevance as the service is more contact-intensive. Over time, the 7Ps have become widely accepted as the standard for the marketing mix of services, and its acceptance is even growing in relation to product marketing (Rafiq & Ahmed, 1995).

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21 2.5 Branding in higher education

As proposed in the introductory passages of this research, Dutch educational institutions have to actively compete to attract students. Students generate income either directly by paying a tuition fee, or indirectly through allocated government funding. They compete for the favour of the prospective student with other educational institutions on two levels. Pre-university students are eligible for both university and higher professional education (HBO), so the University of Amsterdam has not just the other 12 Dutch universities as competitor, but also the 43 HBO institutions in the country1. Next to that, Nuffic (the Netherlands organisation for international cooperation in higher education) reports an increase in international mobility with students in the Netherlands and abroad in their 2013 annual statistics. The UvA does not only compete with the 55 higher education

institutes in the Netherlands, but also with countless institutions across the world.

This situation is of course not new, nor is it unique. Universities in the United States have been competing over students in a similar fashion since the 1970’s, when changes in financial policies gave students buying power in the market for higher education. Since then, recruiters were already trying to sell the university’s brand name to students (Slaughter & Leslie, 2001). Closer to home, Leeds University appointed its first marketing director in 2005, proving that marketing practices at universities are not limited to the Americas.

Although reality proves the relevance for marketing and (thus) branding for higher educational institutions, research on the subject had a slow start at best. Recognizing educational services are facing the same issues as other services in raising above the commodity-status, the first attempts to describe market practises in higher education emerged during that 1990’s.

(Mazzarol & Soutar, 1993) suggested what might be the first prescriptive model for attaining

sustainable competitive advantage in international markets for universities. Their view leans more on the positioning school in the tradition of Porter’s positioning strategy (1980) and does not address building a strong brand.

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3. Method

3.1 Conceptual Model

From the research question presented in chapter 1, literature research has uncovered that branding of the UvA can only be fully understood by examining both internal and external views on what the brand is. Therefore, the first step will be to research the brand identity of both the UvA and the ABS. As chapter 2.1.1 has shown that organizational values are of great influence on the formation of identity – especially with service firms – identity will be described by looking through the eyes of the employees. An important step here is to find out whether the employees perceive any differences in the identities of the UvA and the ABS; as it is input for the advice on brand architecture later on. Next, it is necessary to understand the perception of the brand by the consumers. This perception, or brand image, is measured through a survey. As it was with identity, the difference between the brand image of the UvA and ABS is of great interest for the advice on brand architecture.

The advice on brand architecture, or choosing a position for the ABS along the Brand Relationship Spectrum, will for the largest part be formulated by interpreting the differences between the UvA and ABS, as explained above. Following the strategies suggested in chapter 2.3, and taking into account the findings on current brand architecture, possible synergies between the two brands will be explored.

Finally, congruence between identity and image is reviewed. As is shown in chapter 2.1.3, congruence is formed by both internalization and externalization, and is of importance for the performance of the brand. Keeping this final question in mind, the research methods selected to measure identity and image must generate output that enables comparison of the two. Kapferer (2008) suggests that brand personality is the linking concept between the two perspectives. The relationship of these hypotheses is depicted in the conceptual model below.

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23

Figure 4: Conceptual model

3.2 Research Method

Adopting a multi-method approach, the starting point of our research is a review of the current situation of the brand architecture of the UvA, with specific attention for the placement of the ABS. This phase will be conducted by reviewing the communications from the UvA itself, both offline and online.

Third, we conducted a series of interviews among internal stakeholders (employees) of the UvA and ABS. The technique used in these interviews is ‘Laddering’ (Reynolds & Gutman, 1988). The

interviews provided an insight in the view of the internal stakeholder on the brand identity of the UvA. Using the laddering technique, decision makers are asked what attributes they would assign to the educational services provided and why these attributes are important to their faculty. By

continually asking ‘why is this important to your faculty?’ it becomes clear what the consequences of the attributes are and, ultimately, what values lie beyond these consequences. Conducting these interviews with multiple stakeholders per faculty enabled us to plot the attributes, consequences and values on a Hierarchical Value Map (Reynolds & Gutman, 1988). This map can assist in the evaluation of the different brands of the UvA by showing whether there are commonalities in the values that their services support, providing a better understanding of the reason of customers to choose for a certain brand. ABS Brand Image UvA Brand Image UvA Brand Identity ABS Brand Identity Brand Architecture

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24 A survey among current bachelor’s and master’s students of the ABS will provide insights on their associations with the UvA and the ABS. An online questionnaire will be presented to the students, asking them to what extent they feel a set of 42 personality traits describe both the UvA and the ABS. The quantitative analysis of the data generated by the interview and the survey will help in our analysis of differences between the UvA and the ABS as seen from both inside the organization and outside.

3.3 Interviews

In order to answer sub question 1 (SQ1), four interviews were conducted with employees; one with a member of the staff of the Faculty of Economics and Business, three with PhD. candidates of the ABS. Interviews are an explorative technique, that will most likely initially result in physical or emotional traits mentioned by the interviewees. They may respond that they have a nice office, or that they are happy at their working place. The laddering technique as presented above is designed to enable the interviewer to build on those responses and move towards a more abstract level of what the interviewee actually thinks about the brand, by stepping up from a mere feature to an emotional consequence of that feature and finally to a personal value, a belief of what is important.

In line with the principles of Laddering, interviewees were questioned on their feelings about both the UvA and the ABS. Because direct questions towards inner beliefs on how both institutes match their personal values are likely to be too hard to answer for participants, the questions are made more accessible. This is done by asking for attributes that participants would apply to the institute. An example of such a question would be ‘How would you describe the University of Amsterdam to someone you have just met?’ Attributes can then be identified in their response and used to find out the deeper meaning of these attributes for the participant. For instance, the response to the

previous question might be ‘The University of Amsterdam is a very old institute, dating back to the seventeenth century.’ The identified attribute in this response is ‘age’. When participants find it hard to produce an attribute, comparing the university with another educational institute that the

participant has had experiences with or a previous employer, may give the participant enough inspiration to produce one.

The next step in this line of questioning is to find out why the participant has singled out the attribute in their response. By asking ‘why is that important?’ the participants are triggered to

explain the consequence of the attribute they just mentioned. E.g. the consequence of ‘age’ might be ‘academic status’. Continuously probing further for the meanings of the participant’s answer down

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25 this line will eventually lead to the value behind their initial answer. In this example, that value might be ‘self-worth’.

So, by inciting a participant to give an example of why he or she likes a product (or service, brand, etc.) the interviewer unveils an attribute (A) that the participant finds fitting for it. By asking why that attribute pleases the participant is triggered to tell the interviewer what the consequence (C) of that attribute is. By again asking why that consequence is important, the participant will ultimately explain this by linking this consequence to a personal value (V), the deepest, most abstract, opinion of the participant.

When the value is identified, the first Attribute (A) – Consequence (C) – Value (V) ladder can be constructed. An interview will lead to multiple such ladders, and all interviews together enable the researcher to construct a Hierarchical Value Map (HVM), in which the amount of connections between different associations are made visible, representing the overall perception of the participants. This value map is important because it shows a complete overview of the emotional connections that interviewees have with the brand, and it does that for each level of emotion. The abstraction it creates gives a deeper insight in the feelings consumers have towards the brand. A second result is that these abstractions can possibly match with the result of the survey. Aaker’s BPS is also centred on higher level emotions, e.g. competence or sophistication and their somewhat – but not entirely - less abstract components as corporate, or trendy. If these matches can be made, they will provide valuable information on any congruence between the brand identity and brand image.

3.4 Survey

Sub question 2 (SQ2) aims to address the external view on the brands of the UvA and ABS. In order to measure the brand image, the Brand Personality Scale from Jennifer Aaker was selected. In

congruence with her findings, a survey was set up consisting of a few demographic questions on gender, age and whether the respondent followed a full-time or part-time course at the university. All 84 further questions were 5-point Likert-items on the perceived fit between the 42 personality traits from Aaker’s research on the Brand Personality Scale and the UvA or the ABS respectively. All questions on the UvA and ABS were strictly separated from each other, so as not to confuse

respondents on what brand the question was about. Within the two sets of questions on personality traits, questions were automatically mixed by the software, to prevent association bias.

The survey was created using a free online survey creation tool. Invitations to complete the survey were distributed online through email, student and alumni groups on social media (LinkedIn,

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26 Facebook) and offline by leaving flyers at exam sessions and handing out flyers on the UvA grounds. This resulted in 71 respondents actually partaking in the survey. After dismissing the responses that were considered not eligible due to missing answers, 64 entries were considered valid for this research.

3.5 Comparison of results

Within both parts of this research, the interviews and the survey, results between the UvA and ABS can be compared. The interviews will give an exploratory overview of the internal associations with the brands, leading to the brand identity. The laddering technique enables in-depth exploration of associations, as well as statistical analysis of the results.

The results of the survey give way to a description of brand image through the measurement of brand personality. This external view on the brand is also measured on both the UvA and the ABS, making a comparison possible.

Initially, statistical analysis of the results will form the core answer to the research question seeking for congruence between image and identity, but this comparison can only be truly be accomplished by a more qualitative approach. Simply comparing scores will not give a total image of what these results mean. The exploratory part gives room for data that may be completely missed by the descriptive part. This gives way to a more complete analysis of what traits or values should be incorporated in the brand identity, or whether what the UvA describes as their brand identity is actually perceived as such by the students.

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4. Research Findings

4.1 Current UvA Brand Architecture

The ABS may be only just over a decade old, the brand itself has been part of the UvA family ever since. Whether or not the brand architecture strategy that has been employed ever since was a conscious choice, the ABS has been placed somewhere along the Brand Relationship Spectrum. This position is an interesting starting point for the research into the UvA brand strategy, as any

transitions that are to be made will have to start from the current situation. On the other side, the current strategy may serve as an explanation for some of the outcomes in chapters 4.2 and 4.3. The research into the brand architecture will be conducted by looking at the communications from the UvA and ABS to the (prospective) students. Several communications channels will be reviewed: websites, printed media and social media.

4.1.1 Website

The website of the UvA can be reached through the internet address www.uva.nl. The header of the web page shows the university logo, under which the navigation bar offers links to the ‘education’, ‘research’, ‘news’ and ‘about’ pages. There is also a language button that allows switching between the English and Dutch languages, the latter of the two being the standard language of the page. In the centre of the page are some context boxes showing article previews, while a few photo’s related to the articles take turn in rotation on the background. The photos show students playing rugby, students discussing in a classroom, the historic Amsterdam city centre, and a woman of what seems to be African origin in traditional clothing. The bottom of the page shows some more links to education and research, and some social media icons linking to the UvA Facebook page, the @UvA_Amsterdam and @UvA_Student Twitter accounts and an RSS feed.

The ABS website can be reached through abs.uva.nl, a subdomain of the uva.nl main website. At first glance, the website has the exact same basic design of the UvA website, but there are a few

differences. First of all, English is the default language of the web page; there is no option to switch to Dutch. The navigation bar is quite empty, with only an option to go back to the UvA website. Instead, the content section is filled with a second header with the title: Amsterdam Business School. As on the UvA website, photos related to featured articles are shown on ration in the background. The four photos on rotation during our visit were the building of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, a student reading the Financial Times newspaper, Four students on university grounds dressed in casual and business attire, and a second photo of this group of students with the ABS building in the

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28 background, one student prominently shown with the Financial Times newspaper under her arm. Two of the four photos show what seems to be the ABS logo in the top right corner. This logo is a black rectangle with the words Amsterdam Business School from top to bottom in white. The newsfeed, Facebook and Twitter links are present in the bottom right corner of the page, but they lead to UvA pages.

Figure 5: The websites of the ABS (left) and UvA (right)

4.1.2 Printed media

Although print may not seem to be the most relevant channel of communications anymore, it may well be that many prospective students come into contact with the university for the first time through a folder lying on a coffee table at school. Two brochures were reviewed (as digital files) for this part: the Dutch folder ‘Bedrijfskunde in deeltijd’ (MSc Business Studies) and the English

‘Executive Master of Finance and Control’.

Both brochures have the UvA logo at the top of the front page, with the subtitle ‘Amsterdam Business School’ just below it. The most prominent feature is the lime coloured theming. The UvA uses a palette of colours the distinguish communications from different faculties, e.g. Earth Sciences uses a pink colour and the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) uses lime. Browsing other FEB communications confirms that this colour is also used by the ‘other’ school of the FEB: the ASE. The brochures make very clear that education will be provided by the ABS and that the ABS is a part of the UvA. The texts aim to inform the reader on the content of the programme, and on almost every page there is a testimonial of a student explaining how the programme helps them in their job or career. This seems to be much more prominent in the ABS brochures than in brochures from other

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29 faculties that were used as reference. Pictures in the brochures frequent students wearing suits or other business apparel. Brochures of other faculties often show students in casual dress.

4.1.3 Social media

Online communications channels play an important part in any firm’s communication strategy. The rise of social media gave firms the chance to move beyond the digital bulletin board and engage in near real-time communications with consumers. Although there has been much proliferation over the last few years, most firms focus on three major platforms: LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a platform for professionals. Its focus is to bring professionals into contact with each other for references, jobs, etc. Universities have their own category on this platform, next to people, jobs, companies and groups. The UvA has a landing page showing the UvA logo, a photo gallery with the UvA locations and introductory text on the origin of the university and its many faculties. Next to that, the UvA has a ‘company page’. These pages give less room for expression, allowing for no more than the company logo and some free text, both of which are the same as the ‘university page’. The ABS can be found on LinkedIn under the name ‘University of Amsterdam Business School’. It only has a ‘company page’, which shows the UvA logo and name with the ABS name just below it, similar to the way it looks in the brochures. The text explains what the ABS is, what its mission and vision are, and that it is part of the UvA.

Facebook

For many users, Facebook was one of the first modern social media platforms they came into contact with. Its main focus is on connecting friends and enabling them to share updates, photos, video’s, etc.

The UvA Facebook page is in English; what seems to be a reference to the Dutch page redirects to the English page. The page shows the UvA logo with one of the classical UvA buildings on the

background. The info tab shows information on location, composition and mission of the UvA. The main page, or timeline, shows a mix of Dutch and English entries by the UvA; some on activities organized by the university, others on information for future students or on activities organized

The brand architecture of the University of Amsterdam : placing the ABS along the Brand Relationship Spectrum