Exploring advertising in higher education: an ...

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Exploring advertising in higher education: an empirical analysis in North America, Europe, and Japan a

b

Antigoni Papadimitriou & Gerardo Blanco Ramírez a

Management and Leadership Program, Hellenic College, Brookline, MA, USA b

Department of Leadership in Education, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA, USA Published online: 10 Feb 2015.

Click for updates To cite this article: Antigoni Papadimitriou & Gerardo Blanco Ramírez (2015): Exploring advertising in higher education: an empirical analysis in North America, Europe, and Japan, Tertiary Education and Management, DOI: 10.1080/13583883.2014.999702 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13583883.2014.999702

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Tertiary Education and Management, 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13583883.2014.999702

Exploring advertising in higher education: an empirical analysis in North America, Europe, and Japan Antigoni Papadimitrioua* and Gerardo Blanco Ramírezb a Management and Leadership Program, Hellenic College, Brookline, MA, USA; bDepartment of Leadership in Education, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA, USA


(Received 18 November 2014; accepted 11 December 2014) This empirical study explores higher education advertising campaigns displayed in five world cities: Boston, New York, Oslo, Tokyo, and Toronto. The study follows a mixed-methods research design relying on content analysis and multimodal semiotic analysis and employs a conceptual framework based on the knowledge triangle of education, research, and innovation. The study reveals that education is overwhelmingly the strongest element emphasized across the five cities and that students constitute the most salient and central element in the majority of the advertisements. Keywords: advertising; competition; knowledge triangle; marketing; mixed methods; visual methods

Background and purpose The concepts of marketing and advertising have received increasing attention from scholars interested in issues of institutional identity, managerialism, and student consumer cultures in the context of higher education (Hartley & Morphew, 2008; Temple & Shattock, 2007). However, thus far the emphasis on studying advertising in higher education has followed a national or regional approach, with studies focusing on the United States (Saichaie & Morphew, 2014), Canada (Bélanger, Bali, & Longden, 2014; Metcalfe, 2012), Europe (Bennett & Ali-Choudhury, 2009; D’Andrea, Stensaker, & Allison, 2007; Huisman, 2007), East Asia (Ng, 2014) and the Middle East (Wilkins & Huisman, 2014). The purpose of this study was to analyze, from a comparative standpoint, messages and discourses embedded in campaigns for institutions of higher education located in five world cities: Boston, New York, Oslo, Tokyo, and Toronto. We carry out this analysis using a mixed-methods design and a conceptual framework that derives from the knowledge triangle areas (education, research, and innovation), along with the principles of visual analysis. The research questions for the study are: (1) What are the main messages present in the university marketing campaigns displayed in the five different cities? (2) What is the most salient visual element in each of the advertisements? (3) What similarities and differences can be identified across different cities in relation to the messages and the visual elements displayed?

*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] © 2015 European Higher Education Society

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A. Papadimitriou and G. Blanco Ramírez

Literature review


Looking at the major scholarly journals in higher education, it is noticeable that both empirical and conceptual articles on the topic of higher education marketing and advertising are few and recent. Notwithstanding, Waeraas and Solbakk (2009) noted that the sub-field of marketing for higher education has engaged with the topic substantially. There have, for example, been occasional books (Gibbs & Knapp, 2002; Lowrie & Hemsley-Brown, 2013; Maringe & Gibbs, 2009) and special issues of the Journal of Marketing for Higher Education. View books, pamphlets, and websites Several studies have focused on the identities that higher education institutions construct for themselves. In the United States, Hartley and Morphew (2008) utilized content analysis in order to study the messages present in view books, or catalogs, stemming from 48 different higher education institutions. Following a similar approach, but engaging with a different medium, Saichaie and Morphew (2014) analyzed 12 institutional websites. Saichaie and Morphew noted a striking similarity in the messages that these websites projected. In their analysis, they identified idealized representations of collegiate experiences that emphasize private benefits of higher education. Urciuoli (2003) analyzed advertising pamphlets for liberal arts colleges, suggesting that, through their representations, liberal arts colleges not only project excellence and diversity, but also reinforce excellence and diversity as desirable values. The existing literature on the topic of advertising in higher education suggests that advertising is increasingly multimodal, combining printed and electronic, textual and visual information to convey messages (Ng, 2014). The brand paradox In addition to the studies aimed at exploring marketing in higher education from the perspective of college choice, there have been several studies aimed at exploring the messages conveyed in advertising campaigns (e.g. Farber & Holm, 2005). After analyzing numerous university advertisements aired during televised football games, Clayton, Cavanagh, and Hettche (2012) concluded that ‘a sea of sameness’ (p. 182) characterizes the ways universities portray themselves. This conclusion is paradoxical given that, as the previous discussion of market segmentation suggests, one might expect advertising campaigns to make institutions appear different from their competitors, not similar. One of the challenges implicit in the process of advertising institutions of higher education is that, conventionally, brands are supposed to capture the essence of a product. According to Waeras and Solbakk (2009), universities may simply be too complex to reduce to a single brand. Branding is itself a paradoxical process and encourages university leaders to embrace the contradictions and multiplicity of meanings that universities encapsulate, rather than seeking a uniform, all-encompassing institutional brand (Lowrie, 2007). Global perspectives on higher education marketing It is possible to identify studies about higher education marketing in many countries: in the United States (Dholakia & Acciardo, 2014; Hartley & Morphew, 2008; Saichaie &

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Morphew, 2014), in Canada (Belanger, Bali, & Longden, 2014) and several in Europe (Bennett & Ali-Choudhury, 2009; D’Andrea et al., 2007; Huisman, 2007). One can also find studies conducted in Singapore (Ng, 2014; Sidhu, 2009), Malaysia (Idris & Whitfield, 2014) and the United Arab Emirates (Wilkins & Huisman, 2014). To the best of our knowledge, however, there have not been efforts to explore advertising at a regional level or to compare different national systems. In addition, the relationships between marketing communication and higher education processes and outcomes (i.e. education, research, and innovation) have not been sufficiently analyzed.


Conceptual framework To the extent that higher education becomes a global field (Marginson, 2011), institutions of higher education compete with each other in order to take a position in the system. Many resources are available to higher education institutions for this purpose. However, given that students have been construed as customers or consumers, advertising strategies become increasingly important for global competition (Maringe & Gibbs, 2009). In order to make sense of advertising campaigns, we argue that the content and form of marketing need to receive attention. As a result, we propose a conceptual framework that integrates open systems theory and knowledge triangle areas to analyze the content and communicative strategies displayed in advertisements for higher education institutions. Open systems In today’s competitive climate, universities worldwide need to adapt because the world around them is changing. This study deals with organizations and their environmental contexts. Scott (1981) stressed that ‘organizations are not closed systems, sealed [off from] their environments, but open to and dependent on flows of personnel and resources from outside their own systems’ (p. 22). Several scholars have discussed elements of open systems theory as it relates to higher education institutions. Enders (2004) characterized universities, for example, as ‘multi-purpose or multi-product’ (p. 362) organizations, and stated ‘universities are institutions that, in all societies, have performed basic functions which result from the particular combination of cultural and ideological, social and economic, educational and scientific roles that have been assigned to them’ (p. 362). Enders’ statement brings to mind what Kerr (2001) observed about US universities, which are ‘so many things to so many different people that it must, of necessity, be partially at war with itself’ (p. 7). In our study, we consider universities as open system organizations that cannot be understood in isolation from the environmental conditions within which they operate. The knowledge triangle In the knowledge economy, the role of the university is significant. Universities are the object of public and private investment, and society has placed great expectations upon them (Kerr, 1983). Today’s universities are increasingly being called upon to engage with economic development; they are required to live in the market (Clark, 1995), to be innovative (van Vught, 1999), and to be entrepreneurial (Clark, 1998). Hence, universities are required to build relationships with their stakeholders in several ways. The European Commission observed that, ‘Europe much strengthens the three poles of its

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knowledge triangle: education, research, and innovation. Universities are essential in all three’ (EC, 2005, p. 152). This study explores whether the knowledge triangle’s areas appear in our data, consisting of pictures we collected (captured) in five cities, and if the messages that derived from those pictures are aligned with those areas. Thus, our ambition was to begin identifying to what extent the knowledge triangle logic can be applicable to higher education advertisements.


Visual-multimodal semiotics Kress (2010) and Kress and van Leewen (2006) established a method for visual analysis; they argue that visual communication can rely on either narrative or conceptual processes and that analysis of images is to be conducted relying on saliency and composition. Narrative images show an action that takes place and is depicted by directionality or vectors. Conversely, conceptual images rely on symbolic relations, part– whole connections, or classification strategies. In addition, Kress and van Leewen (2006) call for attention to saliency and composition. The most salient object in an image takes the largest space and captures viewers’ eyes (Kress & van Leewen, 2006). Composition is to be analyzed in terms of centers and margins (Kress & van Leewen, 2006). When integrating marketing into the higher education sector, we believe that researchers need to take into consideration these concepts (saliency and centrality in both narrative and conceptual images). Therefore, we adapted Kress and van Leewen’s (2006) methodology for our analysis: we focused on saliency, the largest object in the composition and where one’s eyes go first, and centrality, the elements at the center of the image, for our analysis. Research design, methods, and data In order to answer the research questions of this study, we employed a mixed-methods design that relies on both textual and visual analysis. Qualitative and quantitative data analytical procedures were utilized sequentially. The text from the advertisements was transcribed; then, we used thematic analysis (Boyatzis, 1998) to attribute different themes to one or more of the three elements of the knowledge triangle. Once the whole text was coded in this way, the relative weight of each area was quantified. Multimodal analysis (Kress, 2010; Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006) was employed qualitatively. The final quantitative analysis was only possible after coding themes had been determined in the qualitative data analyses. Advertisements sampled With the purpose of identifying relevant university advertisements, both authors conducted observations in public spaces, for example, riding on the different routes of the public transportation system in the different cities included in the sample. Photography was the primary means of collecting data. Whenever we encountered an advertisement deemed relevant, that is, an advertisement of an institution of higher education, we would take a photograph (n ≈ 90). After assessing carefully and translating, we eliminated some repeated information or advertisements that were not relevant; the actual data for the final analysis were 59 pictures.


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Multi-stage qualitative and quantitative approach Coding categories and operationalization Stage 1: focusing of knowledge triangle areas. The text from the photographs was transcribed and, when necessary, translated into English. Through collaborative comparison, we discussed our interpretations of the different elements and identified themes in the text. The coding categories were based on the knowledge triangle areas. Combinations of categories were also distinguished in this study: education and research, education and innovation, research and innovation, as well as education, research and innovation. Stage 2: focusing on communicative areas. We adapted Kress and van Leewen’s (2006) methodology for this second stage of our analysis. In order to code each of the photographs, we used narrative or conceptual interpretations. Then, we focused on centrality, that is, what element is at the center of each picture, and on saliency, that is, what is the most salient element in both communicative processes. Stage 3: interconnection between marketing and higher education. In order to connect the visual analysis with the knowledge triangle areas, we focused only on the most salient element, and the element at the center of each of the pictures. For each of these elements, which sometimes coincided, we asked whether they matched the classification explained in Stage 1. This level of analysis focused on patterns and trends; further, the interconnection between marketing and higher education. Stage 4: comparative across cities. In this final stage, we identified trends and patterns within and across the five cities. The first two stages 1 and 2 employed qualitative analysis, while both stages 3 and 4 were quantitative. Trustworthiness and limitations Both researchers coded all of the photographs. Having established the codebook and operational guidelines, reliability was informally tested for all of the pictures. A second round of analysis, picture by picture, involved both researchers. There was a large degree of agreement from the beginning. Total agreement was achieved after further discussion of the meaning of the codes. We deemed it unnecessary to change the categories or instructions substantially, as the initial level of agreement was high enough. We also sought feedback from colleagues in Norway and Japan. Results The knowledge triangle areas Education Education was used as an a priori or prefigured category (Patton, 1980); we assigned thematic information, taken from the advertisement texts, into this category. The content placed in this category emphasized the different academic programs that the institutions we analyzed offered, the institution’s academic staff and the career preparation that they offer to prospective students. As a result of this diversity of topics, we developed smaller sub-categories. Examples under the education category included the following: ‘Your next degree is closer than you think: Associate’s Master’s Bachelor’s’; ‘Hands-on training, job placement assistance’; ‘Pharmacy technology, Massage Therapy, Business Administration, Network Administration & Security.’

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The category education was, by far, the most common identified in the text of the advertisements analyzed. This category was also the most frequent one in the visual analysis we conducted, which was based on the most central and the most salient elements in the advertisements (cf. Kress & van Leewen, 2006). In the rest of this section, we discuss the sub-categories we identified. Students. Students were the most evident sign of the preeminence of education in the text and visual analysis of advertisements. Students were the most salient element portrayed in the vast majority of the advertisements analyzed. This was the case in all five cities studied. Realistic and stylized portrayals of students were a recurrent visual theme displayed in the advertisements. In addition, the text reinforced the centrality and saliency of students. In Boston, one advertisement read: ‘Where your success matters.’ In addition, quotes from students were displayed in the advertisements, along with some of their personal information. In Tokyo, a student is quoted as follows: ‘I’m getting my future for real.’ In Toronto, a student is quoted and then a short biography indicates that he ‘also volunteers as a minor league hockey coach.’ In Boston, students were not only portrayed but also their names and their expected graduation year. In Oslo, the centrality of students was evident visually, while their personal information was kept confidential. A different way that students are part of the advertisement campaign was through the communicative strategy of the advertisements. In most of the advertisements, viewers are treated as prospective students. For example, in New York, an advertisement reads: ‘Our degrees are transferable, so why limit yourself?’ In Tokyo, an advertisement compels readers: ‘Your future has not been colored yet.’ In Oslo, an institution asks readers, construed as prospective students: ‘Did you know you can live off creativity?’ In Toronto, a poster claims: ‘We are ready to begin when you are.’ Career preparation. Many of the advertisements we analyzed emphasized career preparation and career placement. In Tokyo, one university advertisement suggests: ‘100% success rate for employment, with intimate education system.’ In Boston, an institution advertises a slightly lower success rate: ‘With a 99% job placement rate, college graduates of the programs in Eye Health Technology are one of a kind.’ In New York, two different advertisements read: ‘Medical careers start here!’ and ‘Lifetime job placement assistance.’ In Toronto, another advertisement quotes a graduate: ‘My experience at the School of Continuing Studies put my career two years ahead.’ In Oslo, the discussion of career preparation is more conceptual. There, one set of advertisements depicts a male and a female student. At the center of the female image, a legend reads: ‘Here is the Prime Minister.’ At the center of the male student, a legend reads: ‘Here is the Secretary of State.’ In summary, through statistical information on job placement, or through claims about successful careers, the advertisements analyzed tie together education with careers. Academic offer. Many of the advertisements analyzed, which we subsequently assigned to the education category, listed the different programs offered at the institution. In New York, for example, one advertisement read: ‘Associate and Bachelor Degrees: Accounting, Information Sciences, Business Administration, Medical Assisting, Health Information Technology.’ In Oslo, another advertisement suggested: ‘Take a bachelor in Graphic Design, Interior Design, Journalism, Creative Marketing Communications.’ The advertisement pictures collected in Boston, New York, and Oslo were more likely to list


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the academic programs offered at the institution. Conversely, in Tokyo and Toronto, the advertisements featured only one academic program at a time. Academic staff. A different set of messages coded under the category of education involved claims about the institution’s academic staff. In Toronto, for instance, the following quote from an academic staff member is included in the advertisement: ‘I love teaching because it’s a way of giving back.’ In Tokyo, another advertisement places the professor center stage, but through the voice of students: ‘What is a Developmental Disorder? Professor, Please teach us!’ In New York, an advertisement emphasizes the practical experience of a particular academic staff member: ‘Before he taught criminal justice at [institution’s name], he taught at the NY Police Academy. Talk about real world experience.’ In addition to the text in the advertisements, academic staff members (mostly white men) were the second most frequent element with the highest visual saliency – students (both male and female) were the most frequent one. This visual saliency of academic staff in the advertisements was evident. It is striking that in Boston, New York, Tokyo, and Toronto all of the academic staff portrayed were male, and nearly all were white. Academic staff members were not visually represented in Oslo. Among the advertisements from North America – Boston, New York, and Toronto – only one advertisement, displayed in New York, depicted a black individual in the role of a professor. Global scope. An additional element that deserves attention under the education category involves a global or international orientation. In New York, for example, an advertisement reads: ‘Urban focus, global reach.’ Another advertisement, also in New York, states: ‘International students welcome!’ In Tokyo, an advertisement suggests: ‘Be productive when you study abroad.’ In Toronto, an institution advertises its online education programs through a global focus: ‘Wherever you find yourself in the world, [institution’s name] can go there with you.’ In Boston, a university advertisement, strategically placed at the airport stop of the public transportation system, reads: ‘Challenge convention. Change our world.’ Visually, this last advertisement is unique because it does not portray students, academic staff, or even the institution. It depicts a world map with the legend ‘Change’ across the map. Research After carefully analyzing the text from the advertisements, we decided that no portion of the text was attributable to the category research. Nevertheless, two advertisements, one in Boston and one in Toronto, included visual references to research. In Boston, a young man – possibly a student – is depicted in an advertisement wearing a white laboratory coat, with rubber gloves and protective goggles. He is portrayed holding and observing a sample. The caption reads: ‘Inquisitive. Curious to learn more?’ Additionally, a text with small letters provided information about biology studies. In Toronto, a cartoon-like depiction of a female student seems to jump out of a glass beaker, which is heated with a Bunsen burner. The caption reads, ‘We offer degrees in “I never looked at it that way.”’ In these two instances, while the images make clear references to research, the text emphasizes education. It is noteworthy that, while discussions about quality and institutional reputation have shifted their emphasis toward research, advertisements highlight the educational mission of higher education institutions almost exclusively.

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Innovation Innovation was referred to, both in text and visually, albeit less frequently than education. In most instances, innovation was tied to education or presented as a result of the education provided at a given institution. In Boston, one of the advertisements encourages viewers to ‘challenge convention.’ Another advertisement, again in Boston, reads ‘Novel. You’re an original and we value your perspective.’ Yet another advertisement reads: ‘Imagine new possibilities and never settle for the status quo.’ In a similar vein, in Toronto, two advertisements for the same institution use the following punch line: ‘Challenge the way you think.’ In Tokyo, an advertisement announces: ‘We just signed a contract with the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in order to contribute to academic development of science and technology.’ Another connotation of innovation identified in the pictures we analyzed, connects innovation to pressing social issues. For instance, in Tokyo, an advertisement reads: ‘What is sustainable? We begin sustainable technology for a sustainable and developing society.’ In Oslo, an advertisement depicts a young man, likely a student, with the caption: ‘Here is the solution to the climate crisis.’ Next to him, a young woman is portrayed with the caption ‘Here is the entrepreneur that outperforms Google.’ In general, innovation was a more frequent category than research, but less salient than education – both in text and visually. The relative weight of these categories paints a very clear picture of how, from the perspective of educational marketing, teaching and learning, with an emphasis on career preparation, remains the most important message in the advertisements we analyzed across the five cities. Communication strategies Following the visual analysis strategy, based on Kress and van Leewen (2006), conceptual strategies for visual communication were more frequent than narrative approaches. In the aggregate, 80% of the advertisements utilized conceptual communicative strategies. This tendency was even more pronounced in Oslo, where all of the advertisements identified were conceptual. Conversely, in Tokyo, a higher proportion of narrative communicative strategies were visible, in 30% of all advertisements. In Boston, an even higher proportion (40%) of advertisements involved narrative strategies. Following the qualitative thematic analysis, we developed categories (codes) in order to analyze the most central and most salient element in each of the advertisements. We assigned codes to the following sub-categories: students, career preparation, academic programs, academic staff, global scope, research, and innovation. Notably, the first five codes refer to the category education from the knowledge triangle. Then, we assigned these codes to the most central and the most salient elements for each of the advertisements. In those instances where the central or salient elements did not coincide with the existing categories, we added new codes (e.g. logo/brand, students and professors, open campus). Centrality The most central elements for all of the advertisements analyzed, from the most to the least frequent were: students (n = 16), academic program (n = 13), career (n = 9), logo/ brand (n = 6), academic staff (n = 4), global scope (n = 3), students with professors (n = 3), other (n = 3) and open house advertisements (n = 2). Importantly, students,

Tertiary Education and Management Table 1.

Most frequent central and salient elements in advertisements, by city. Centrality

Saliency

Boston Students Academic Logo/brand programs New Students Academic Career York programs Academic programs Tokyo Students Academic programs Toronto Students Academic programs


Oslo

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Career

Logo/brand Career; global; open house Faculty; logo/ brand; students & professors

Students

Professors Faculty; global and students Students; Academic – logo/ programs; brand faculty Students Logo/brand Career; academic programs Students Open house Academic programs; global; logo/brand Students Academic Faculty; logo/brand; programs professors and students

career preparation, and academic programs comprised 65% of the most central elements in all of the advertisements analyzed. The most frequent central elements by city were: students and academic programs in Boston; careers for Oslo; students in New York; students and academic programs in Tokyo. Students were also the most frequent central element in Toronto. Saliency The most salient elements for the advertisements analyzed, from the most frequent to the least were: students (n = 29) – accounting for roughly 50% of the advertisements, logo/brand (n = 9), academic programs (n = 6), academic staff (n = 4), professors with students (n = 4), global scope (n = 3), open campus (n = 3), and career (n = 1). Students and academic staff were represented in 65% of the advertisements. Comparing elements across campaigns Despite the differences that characterize the data collection sites and institutional types, the resemblance of some of the campaigns in content and emphasis is at times remarkable. Table 1 summarizes the three most central and three most salient elements in the advertisements we analyzed, in total and by city. It shows that students receive more attention in the advertisements across all five cities, in terms of centrality. The same can be said regarding saliency. The preliminary findings of this study suggest that a high level of similarity can be observed among different advertisements. Discussion In recent years, universities have witnessed an explosion in marketing and advertising strategies. These campaigns are likely related to increasing global competition in higher education and the construction of students as customers (Lomas, 2007; Saunders, 2013). Marketing in higher education, therefore, needs to be understood as a response to increased competition (Urciuoli, 2003). These changes in the landscape of higher education call for critical engagement with the ideas of advertising and marketing in the context of higher education. This study analyzed advertisements collected in five different cities located in North America, Europe, and East Asia. Given that the purposes of


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higher education are contested and context-driven, we sought for a theoretical model that could be applied to different institutional types and different higher education systems. The knowledge triangle, with its emphasis on education, research, and innovation, served that purpose. Following a mixed-methods approach to research, with an emphasis on visual analysis, we examined the applicability of the knowledge triangle in five very distinct higher education settings, represented in higher education institutions’ advertisements. This process unearthed trends across the five cities we explored. The results from the study reveal that, despite the differences in national systems, education constitutes overwhelmingly the main component of the knowledge triangle represented in advertisements. Moreover, students constitute the main sign to convey the educational purpose of higher education institutions. In some instances, the similarities across the five cities were striking, as reflected by the analysis of centrality and saliency conducted for this study. Even if these results may seem predictable, this study is – to the best of our knowledge – the first to explore comparatively higher education institutions’ advertisements in more than one continent. In order to make sense of the similarities in content and communicative strategies across the five cities, the concept of isomorphism may offer some valuable insights. The present research project was not intended to test for the presence of isomorphism. The striking similarities in design, layout, and the display of visual and textual information may also indicate the presence of mimetic efforts to replicate existing and accepted marketing strategies. Even though the present study is preliminary and not without limitations, the comparative study of higher education advertisements is likely to be of interest for scholars of international higher education, and potentially for administrators and other practitioners interested in global competition. This study constitutes a first approximation to a complex phenomenon from an international perspective. Some of the challenges presented in the data involve the snapshot approach imposed by the need to travel internationally to collect data. This same snapshot approach presents the challenges of different academic calendars. For example, the photographs collected in Tokyo were taken during the open campus season, the time when prospective students visit universities. Data collection at a different point may reveal different results. Finally, we wish to acknowledge the interpretive nature of our research approach. While we consulted, when possible, with local experts, we cannot claim expertise in the cultural context of all five cities. Our analysis reflects our intersubjective sense-making. Implications for further research In this study, we applied theories of higher education to the study of marketing. Future research should explore in depth the relationship between isomorphic pressures (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983) and the development of marketing campaigns in higher education. Our future work is aimed at this goal. We also intend to further reflect upon the potential and challenge of utilizing mixed-methods approaches for conducting visual analysis. Visual analysis is relatively young in higher education, and this project has taught us valuable lessons in the application of mixed-methods analyses for the interpretation of visual information. In addition, future research shall explore websites. Exploring websites may provide a complementary perspective to the printed advertisements we have explored in this study.


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An additional line of inquiry that deserves further study is the relationship between marketing strategies and institutional type. Further research should seek to identify patterns connecting communicative strategies, like the ones identified here, and the organizational types and academic programs offered by different institutions. Conclusion This study suggests that, while diverse, the content and communicative strategies displayed in advertisements for higher education institutions are not boundless. The educational function of higher education clearly overpowers research and innovation, at least on the glossy paper displayed to advertise colleges in universities. This can be observed across five very different cities, characterized by diverse institutions of higher learning. Rather than conclusive, this study has been generative, leading to the identification of new areas for research. The specific forces at play that could explain the similarities in communicative strategies across different institutional types and national systems are yet to be fully explained. However, higher education institutions are under pressure to compete with each other, and advertising plays an important role in this increased competition. References Belanger, C. H., Bali, S., & Longden, B. (2014). How Canadian universities use social media to brand themselves. Tertiary Education and Management, 20, 14–29. Bennett, R., & Ali-Choudhury, R. (2009). Prospective students’ perceptions of university brands: An empirical study. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 19, 85–107. Boyatzis, R. (1998). Transforming qualitative information: Thematic analysis and code development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Clark, B. (1995). Places of inquiry: Research and advanced education in modern universities. Berkeley: University of California Press. Clark, B. (Ed.). (1998). Creating entrepreneurial universities: Organizational pathways of transformation. Oxford: Pergamon. Clayton, M. J., Cavanagh, K. V., & Hettche, M. (2012). Institutional branding: A content analysis of public service announcements from American universities. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 22, 182–205. D’Andrea, V., Stensaker, B., & Allison, J. (2007). Images and identity in the branding of the university – Exploring the symbolic and cultural implications. In B. Stensaker & V. D’Andrea (Eds.), Branding in higher education: Exploring an emerging phenomenon (pp. 34–53). Amsterdam: EAIR. Dholakia, R. R., & Acciardo, L. A. (2014). Branding a state university: Doing it right. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 24, 144–163. DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. (1983). The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48, 147–160. Enders, J. (2004). Higher education, internationalisation, and the nation-state: Recent developments and challenges to governance theory. Higher Education, 47, 361–382. European Commission. (2005). Mobilising the brainpower of Europe: Enabling universities to make their full contribution to the Lisbon strategy. Brussels: COM 152 final. Farber, P., & Holm, G. (2005). Selling the dream of higher education: Marketing images of university life. In S. Etherington, G. Holm, T. Daspit, & P. Farber (Eds.), Imagining the academy: Higher education and popular culture (pp. 117–130). New York, NY: Routledge Falmer. Gibbs, P., & Knapp, M. (2002). Marketing higher and further education: An educator’s guide to promoting courses, departments and institutions. London: Kogan Page. Hartley, M., & Morphew, C. C. (2008). What’s being sold and to what end? A content analysis of college viewbooks. Journal of Higher Education, 79, 671–691.


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