IPA on a University’s Brand Equity and Competitors: Based on a Survey among University Freshmen

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand freshmen’s perceptions and viewpoints on the brand equity of their university. IPA (importance-performance analysis) was used to explore the relation between perceived importance and performance of each attribute. By including competitors’ coping strategies, the relative position of each attribute of the target university’s brand equity was discussed. The data were collected from a questionnaire survey conducted among 1358 freshmen of a university at southern Taiwan, and 849 responses were returned and valid. A total of 13 attributes in the questionnaire were developed by the researchers, and these attributes covers three dimensions: brand awareness, brand association and brand loyalty. For each attribute, the level of perceived performance was lower than that of perceived importance, suggesting that brand equity should be improved. IPA results show that most of the attributes fell into “Quadrant B: Keep Up the Good Work”, and “Quadrant C: Low Priority.” When the two major competitors were included for comparison, the university should check the location of each attribute in the eight cells to identify its relative position and develop strategies accordingly.

Keywords: University, Brand, Brand equity, Competitor, Importance-performance analysis