URI Perceptions Survey: Final Results

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URI Perceptions SurveyFinal Results

• Ruby R. Dholakia, Professor of Marketing
• Dan Sheinin, Associate Professor of Marketing
• Assisted by
• Syagnik Banerjee, Ph.D candidate in Marketing
• Adriana M. Bóveda-Lambie, Ph.D candidate in
  Marketing

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What Is a Brand?
Brand A perception resulting from experiences
with, and information about, an organization, a
company or line of products.
What is Marketing Communication?
Marketing Communication Creating, delivering,
managing, and evaluating brand messages which are
the information and experiences that impact how a
brand is perceived.
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PHASE 1FOCUS GROUPS

• Objective
• Discover from selected key target segments which
  beliefs are most important to them when thinking
  about URI and key competitors
• Allows segments to indicate unaided what is
  top-of-mind when thinking about URI

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Focus Group Results

• Conducted by The Center for Research Public
  Policy, CT during February/March 2007
• Among High School Seniors in RI and NY/NJ/CT,
  current URI students and Alumni
• List of attributes, unaided and aided and list of
  URI strengths and weaknesses
• Qualitative insights but no quantitative
  conclusions

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PHASE 2SURVEY

• Objective
• Obtain quantitative data on beliefs about URI
  from key target segments using a structured
  instrument
• Basis
• Existing URI surveys and Phase 1 data

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Survey Questionnaire

• Demographics
• Age, income, first member, hh income, etc.
• Importance General URI specifically
• Academic Quality/Reputation Social Life
  Tuition, Location, Extra-curricular,
  Administrative support, Quality of Faculty,
  Majors Available for Study, Internships/Career
  Services, Technology, Value Relative to Other
  Universities, Transportation
• Perceptions Attributes
• Academic Quality Location, Extra-curricular,
  Quality of Faculty, Career Services, Technology,
  Social Community Cost/value
• Perceptions Global
• Benefits, Attitude, Affect, Satisfaction
• Comparative Differentiation

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Survey ImplementationApril - June 2007

• Telephone (621)
• Student Applicants (277)
• Alumni (229)
• Opinion Leaders (53)
• Recruiters (62)
• Online (791)
• Current Students (474)
• Faculty Staff (317)
• TOTAL (1412)

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Demographics

• Students 474
• Age   Ethnicity
• 16 to 20 years 46.6 White 82.3
• 21 to 25 years 33.8 Non-white 9.7
• gt25 years 19.6   Refused  8.0
• Staff 317
• Age Sex
• 21 to 35 years 6.0 Male 37.5
• 36 to 55 years 59.0 Female 58.4
• gt55 years 33.0
• Potential Students 277
• Age   Ethnicity
• 16 to 20 years 89.9 White 54.9
• gt21 years 0 Non White 34.0
• Missing/Refused 10.1 Missing/Refused 11.1
• Alumni 229
• Age Income
• 21 to 35 years 11.4 lt40,000 pa 4.0
• 36 to 55 years 42.8 40,000-100,000 pa 32.8

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FINDINGS

• Perceptions of URI Brand
• Global Level
• Attribute Level
• Comparative Level
• Importance of Brand Attributes

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URI BrandGlobal Perceptions
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URI Brand Perceptions
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Attribute Level PerceptionsBy Subgroup
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What is Important?
DIRECTLY
INFERRED STATISCALLY
Number One EDUCATIONAL QUALITY/ ACADEMIC
REPUTATION
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Attribute ImportanceDirect Measure

• General
• Next are a few characteristics of varying
  importance to people when one thinks of
  universities. Please use the 7-point scale to
  rate these characteristics in importance to you
  when you think of universities in general.
• URI
• Please rate the importance of these same
  characteristics when you think of URI
  specifically. Please use the 7-point scale to
  rate the importance of these URI characteristics.

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Attribute Importance
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Attribute Importance
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Confidential - Do not circulate
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Explaining Global PerceptionsAttribute Importance

• Benefits Satisfaction Attitude Affect
• Students EQ EQ EQ, EQ, Tech
  Fac, EC
• Potential EQ EQ EQ EQ,
• Students Tech CS
• Alumni EQ Fac EQ Loc
• 
  C/V, Fac
• Staff EQ, SC EQ EQ, EQ
• EQEducational Quality TechTechnology ECESxtraCu
  rricular FacFaculty
• SCSocial Community CScareersjobs LocLocation
  C/VCost/Value

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Comparative Differentiation
Compared to other state universities
URI offers unique courses or programs
URI faculty is superior
educational quality at URI is lower
educational programs at URI are less innovative
URIs (overall) reputation is more positive
job and internship opportunities are more
plentiful
URIs location is poorer
URIs community is friendlier
URIs facilities are more modern
URIs tuition is higher
URI tuition offers a better value
URI campus is more attractive
URI students are less motivated
Overall, URI is not much different from other
state universities
Confidential - Do not circulate
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Comparative Differentiation
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Comparative Differentiationby Subgroups
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Conclusion

• Brand Perceptions
• Modestly positive
• More Positive Globally than on specific
  attributes
• Individuals who say they are more familiar with
  URI hold more positive perceptions than those who
  say they are less familiar
• Most Important Attribute Governing Perceptions
• Educational Quality
• Group Differences
• Current Students and Staff More Negative than
  Potential Students and Alumni
• Comparative Differentiation
• Limited differentiation friendlier, unique
  programs, attractive campus

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Using Research

• FORGE, in combination with other data, will focus
  on unique and important differentiating
  characteristics to build the brand positioning
  and brand meanings
• Quantitative Benchmark
• Metric for measuring communication effectiveness
• More detailed investigation in the future
• Educational Quality/Academic Reputation its
  actual components to be determined in greater
  detail by other subgroups college, graduate
  students, etc.