A GROUNDED THEORY INVESTIGATION OF THE INFLUENCE OF A ‘POSITIVE VISUALISATION COURSE’ IN BRAND IDENTITY ON FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS

Abstract

Branding is a well-known concept in the business field, and its application in the higher education sector has been introduced in recent years. Higher education branding is an effective strategy which has received considerable attention in recent years, and a growing number of articles on the subject have begun to appear in the literature. However, an apparent gap within the literature indicates that students’ perceptions of university brand images have not been thoroughly researched. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of a positive visualisation course in brand identity on the perception of freshmen students of a university brand image. A qualitative approach has been selected as the most suitable for this study, and the methodology for the study of the aforementioned area is grounded theory. The research findings revealed that the positive visualisation course in brand identity can positively affect freshmen students’ perceptions of the university brand image.