The Complex Relationship Between Concepts of the Brand and Their Branding Strategies - Research Paper Example

Traditionally, branding is viewed as a tool to achieve marketing objectives, such as gaining a growth in market share, creating top of the mind recall, increasing repeat purchase, and positioning the product as desired. Consequently, branding is seen primarily as a marketing discipline: for example, a brand can help grow market share by creating an awareness of a product; and it can increase repeat purchase by building a sense of liking in the minds of the consumers. However, though a brand can play these roles, a brand strategy is more than just marketing.

In order to create a really powerful brand, mostly requires generating a deep understanding of the target customers and their needs. In addition, a brand strategy needs to be fully aligned with the overall business strategy and should result in creating the value that is organization sets as its objective. In the context of the universities, a long-term branding strategy is prepared and executed while using various marketing tools. It is evident that universities, like other organizations, do have an ultimate objective towards which it directs its marketing efforts.

This objective may include a full utilization of capacity or attracting celebrity faculty or the acquisition of funds or donations. While the achievements can be evaluated in terms of the set objectives, it becomes difficult for the organizations to evaluate the differential contribution of the different marketing efforts that it may have employed. ‘How does a university assess the success of its brand strategy’ is, therefore, a question worth answering.