Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects
Department
Marketing and Sales
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
The University Brand Personality Scale was introduced in the Journal of Business Research in 2016. It establishes six dimensions for evaluating a university’s personality: prestige, sincerity, appeal, lively, conscientious, and cosmopolitan. The scale also illustrates how these dimensions relate to brand love, positive word-of-mouth, and students’ intentions to support their university as alumni. The goal of this project was to evaluate Western Kentucky University’s brand personality on these six dimensions based on student surveys. Results showed that among the six dimensions, sincerity and appeal ranked the highest, followed by prestige, lively, and conscientious, then finally, cosmopolitan. However, on average, each dimension was rated between 5 and 5.5 out of 7, showing that while all traits lean positive, there are no traits which students strongly apply to WKU. Results showed that on average students reported a positive but not strong amount of brand love and they sometimes to often engage in positive word-of-mouth activities. However, students were neutral on their intentions to support WKU as alumni. This study illustrates students’ perceptions of WKU and could be used as a tool to help the University make future branding decisions.
Advisor(s) or Committee Chair
Dr. Patricia Todd, Dr. Mary Jane Gardner, Dr. Chris Keller
Disciplines
Higher Education | Marketing
Recommended Citation
Childress, Nicole E., "WKU’s Brand Personality" (2019). Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects. Paper 817.
https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/stu_hon_theses/817