Revealing Possibilities for Co-Branding – Focusing on Finnish Higher Education of Creative Economy

Abstract

Increasing competition for students, funding and support has made universities, MBA programs and other educational parties realize a growing need to market themselves to their key stakeholders as well as to differentiate themselves from their competitors, i.e. to brand themselves. Discourse about branding higher education has emerged in marketing literature during the last few years but is still rather scarce and fragmented. This paper contributes to yet limited higher education (HE) branding literature, the purpose being to explore co-branding possibilities of a Master’s degree program, its host city and an annual international cultural event arranged in the city. The qualitative empirical data covers both interviews with the employees of the program and other stakeholders, as well as a survey among the students of the program. The results suggest that educational programs and institutions could obtain differentiation and brand synergy from related city and festival brands through close cooperation and networking with surrounding stakeholders, i.e. co-branding. Moreover, the results show that even if the host city is not considered a strong brand itself, it is possible to benefit from the place brand ‘entity’. Close cooperation is favourable to the host city and the cultural event, as well as to the program.