New forms of relationship with the society through identifying attributes that compose the brand personality in the higher education institution

Abstract

The brand personality in the higher education institution (HEI) is a way that it has to communicate with society (DA ROCHA e ALPERSTEDT, 2006) , it is a subject of discussion in marketing ( SUNG e KIM , 2010). By admitting the need for the HEIs to work efficiently its marketing management (KOTLER e FOX 1996; TORRES, 2004; HARMON e WEBTSTER, 2007; BRAVIN e IKEDA, 2010; HAMMOND; BRAVIN e IKEDA, 2010; ZEBAL e GOODWIN, 2012)  and especially its communication with society, this paper aims to study: how the students perceive the brand personality in a HEI located in the hinterland of Santa Catarina state. To achieve this, we performed two qualitative approaches focus group type with 43 undergraduate students of pedagogy, languages, mathematics and history undergraduate courses. By means of bibliographic researches for similar studies, we observed the existence of 144 attributes which may represent a brand personality. The results revealed that exist 52 more attributes that can be a human characteristic applicable in to a particular brand (personality), specifically for the higher education institution. The adopting brand personality by an higher education institution is part of a recent perspective that seeks to better identify it in to the market.