The effect of brand positioning strategies for universities to student satisfaction and loyalty: A research on universities in İstanbul

Positioning is the most neglected, misunderstood and mismanaged marketing component by universities. A good positioning strategy bases marketing mix and increases efficiency and effectiveness marketing practices of universities. In this framework, first main purpose of this dissertation is to identify positioning typologies in which universities might engage in their positioning strategy. The second purpose of the dissertation is to determine the effect of the identified positioning typologies to the corporate image of the university, student satisfaction and students loyalty. This research is designed in two stages in order to achieve these purposes. In the first stage of the research, positioning typologies of university were identified through their promotional videos by analyzing content analysis according to basis of qualitative methodology. In the second stage of the research, a field research was conducted to determine the effect of identified positioning typologies to the corporate image of the university, student satisfaction and students loyalty. The population of the research consists of students studying at universities in Istanbul. The quota sampling method was used and the data were collected 1050 students. The gathered data were analyzed by the Structural Equation Model and SPSS. As a result of the research nine different typologies in which universities might engaged in their positioning strategy were identified, and the effect of each typologies to the corporate image of the university, student satisfaction and students loyalty were determined. In accordance with these results, some suggestions about how to develop a positioning strategy and typologies universities might engage in were made. Keywords: Positioning, Positioning Strategies for Universities, Corporate Image, Student Satisfaction, Student Loyalty, University, Istanbul