What defines 'successful' university brands ? Structured AbstractPurpose. Branding in universities has become an increasingly topical issue among practitioners, with some institutions committing substantial financial resources to branding activities. Although it is receiving increased academic investigation, to date this has been limited. The particular characteristics of the sector present challenges for those seeking to build brands and it therefore seems timely and appropriate to investigate the common properties of those universities perceived as having successful brands.Design. The study employs qualitative research techniques in an exploratory study, examining the institutions perceived to be 'successful' in terms of brand management, and seeking to explore any commonalities of approach or circumstance.Findings. The findings and conclusions identify issues surrounding university branding activity. It was found that even among those brands considered 'successful', challenges such as lack of internal brand engagement and limited international resonance may be apparent. Certain common positive success factors are also suggested, however.Research limitations/ implications. Exploration of the literature does point to a gap that makes this work challenging-a seeming lack of knowledge underpinning the precise objectives of university branding programmes -in other words; it is hard to measure how successful university brands are when there is little empirical literature on the aims of branding in universities.Originality/ value. From an academic viewpoint gaps in current literature on branding in the education context are identified and the need for a model of brand management that addresses the particular qualities of higher education is reinforced.

Although branding is now widespread among UK universities, the application of branding principles in the higher education sector is comparatively recent and may be controversial for internal audiences who question its suitability and efficiency.This paper seeks to investigate how and whether the effectiveness of branding activity in the higher education sector should be evaluated and measured, through exploratory interviews with those who often drive it; UK University marketing professionals.Conclusions suggest that university branding is inherently complex and therefore application of commercial approaches may be over simplistic. Whilst marketing professionals discuss challenges they do not necessarily have a consistent view of the objectives of branding activity although all were able to clearly articulate branding objectives for their university, including both qualitative and, to some extent, quantitative metrics. Some measures of the real value of branding activity are therefore suggested but a key debate is perhaps whether the objectives and role of branding in higher education needs to be clarified, and a more consistent view of appropriate metrics reached? Various challenges in implementing branding approaches are also highlighted.

Do UK universities communicate their brands effectively through their websites?This paper attempts to explore the effectiveness of UK universities' websites. The area of branding in higher education has received increasing academic investigation, but little work has researched how universities demonstrate their brand promises through their websites. The quest to differentiate through branding can be challenging in the university context, however. It is argued that those institutions that have a strong distinctive image will be in a better position to face a changing future. Employing a multistage methodology, the web pages of twenty UK universities were investigated by using a combination of content and multivariable analysis. Results indicated 'traditional values' such as teaching and research were often well communicated in terms of online brand but 'emotional values' like social responsibility and the universities' environments were less consistently communicated, despite their increased topicality. It is therefore suggested that emotional values may offer a basis for possible future online differentiation.

Branding in universities has become an increasingly topical issue with practitioners, with some institutions committing substantial financial resources to branding activities. It has, however, received only limited academic investigation, and as the particular characteristics of the sector present challenges for those seeking to build brands, it seems to be timely and appropriate to investigate potential barriers to branding.This exploratory study investigates the opinions of the 'brand guardians' of UK universities -Vice Chancellors, Principals and Rectors -on the barriers to successfully building brands and draws conclusions on their views of the key challenges facing successful branding activity in the sector. Implications for practitioners are also explored.

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1The workplace is a captive environment where the overall contribution of the meal served could be 2 an important element of the overall diet. Despite growing demand little information is available to 3 aid healthy dish selection. 4This study identifies information valued by consumers in the UK, Greece, Denmark and France using 5 best-worst scaling. Value for Money, Nutrition and Naturalness are key elements of information that 6 consumers require to be able to make a conscious decision about dish selection in all four countries. 7Latent class analysis shows that consumers align to one of five cluster groups, i.e., Value Driven, 8Conventionalists, Socially Responsible, Health Conscious and Locavores. 9Understanding key information needs can allow food operators to align their service with consumer 10 preferences across different market segments. 11

We extend the marketing literature on internal branding by developing a theoretical framework to explain the processes whereby brand orientation affects in-and extra-role employee brand-building behavior from the theoretical perspective of the attention-based view. The results of a survey of 314 UK-based nonprofit organizations show that brand orientation leads to the development of internal branding mechanisms, which in turn fosters in-role employee brand-building behaviors. We also find that internal branding mechanisms mediate the effects of brand orientation on extra-role employee brand-building behavior, as there exists an inverted U-shaped relationship between internal branding mechanisms and extra-role employee brand-building behaviors. Furthermore, our result shows that the inverted U-shaped relationship between internal branding mechanisms and extra-role employee brand-building behaviors flips to a concave upward curve when strong interfunctional communications exist.

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