FACTORS AFFECTING THE BRAND VALUE OF SOME PRIVATE ECONOMIC UNIVERSITIES IN HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM

Abstract

Branding is extremely important as it has long-term implications for all organizations. Concerns about branding have been initially raised in the field of tangible products and are now shifting towards the service sector. The arguments are: (1) The intangible nature of the service makes consumers rely more on branding to support quality assessment and reduce the risk of buying decisions; (2) Many types of services need to rely on brand reputation to attract customers such as healthcare, consulting, education. Higher education is a special type of service with its own characteristics: highly intangible contents, the affects on human minds, difficulties with assessing the quality, emphasis on prestige, the need to have specific conditions to use. The above characteristics make the brand of a training/education institution become very important when future learners are making their choice.