BRANDS AND BRANDING IN EDUCATION: THE VIRTUES OF SURVIVAL IN THE U.S. GRADUATE SCHOOLS OF BUSINESS

Abstract

The Education market is subject to the same challenges as the Consumer goods market – the homogeneity resulting from the increasing supply of good, decent, and satisfying products. In this segment as well, brands are the differential in the consumer’s mind, the stress reduction tool in the decision making process, through its perennial and historical promise of needs and desires satisfaction. The great motivator for the Graduate Schools of Business Administration students is the expected jump in their career advancements as well as job compensation packages. The aim of this study is to show how the big brands in this segment enjoy a Virtuous Cycle of self –feeding and survival that keeps them at the top in the perception of the job market, the single most important factor on the students’ decision process. This Branding exercise by the Universities, revealed in the analysis of the results supplied by the three foremost research publications in this area, will focus therefore on four distinct Universities and their Business Schools which enjoy brands at different stages, classifications and, most of all, power and strength in the consumers mind