By Christopher DeMarcus (Contributor) – Email
Print Edition: October 9, 2013
The UFV bookstore is holding a fashion show on October 23. Student models will be showing off ready-for-fall selections of university-branded jackets and hoodies.
On the surface, the fashion show seems like another way for the bookstore to sell us stuff.
But the embroidered scarves and engraved pens they offer are part of key concept in our modern culture: branding.
In decades past, a brand was a symbol shaped by a manufacturer to give identity to a product. Today, in a social media world where the consumer has a louder voice than a company, a brand can be shaped by the consumers as much as the producer. Branding has become a two-sided conversation – we shape our brands as much as they shape us.
So what do we want from the brand of our university? Are we academics or consumers?
On September 24, UFV’s Centre for Environmental Stability held a public talk about the influence of market forces on academic research, both in the sciences and the arts. The lead lecture was given by English professor Trevor Carolan, who said, “Reading selections [for classes] are made by conference tote bag-carrying poets, not the essential writers.”
During the open discussion period, a UFV instructor added the comment, “I feel that the corporate model has been adopted by our university. And it affects what I choose to teach.”
The language of academia has changed. Business terms like “branding” and “marketable” have become part of the vernacular in university life. Professors feel pressure to focus their research and instruction topics on those that fit well in the current economic climate.
But branding isn’t just about the marketplace. It can be how a community shapes itself.
“We stock hoodies and athletic wear products for students. We are here to serve them and build student community.” says bookstore manger Cameron Roy. “We want to create a culture at UFV that embraces the vast amount of academic research and teaching that is done here.”
For the bookstore, branding is more about how to create a form of unity, academic solidarity, and pride at UFV.
Indeed, Roy is right about the output of academic work at the university. Groundbreaking research written by UFV faculty—published by both academic journals and mainstream printing houses—can be found throughout the bookstore.
Roy also explains why students should come to the bookstore outside of the book-buying season.
“We encourage students to shop at the bookstore because it helps support the university,” he says. “We pay our staff union wages. Amazon doesn’t do that.”
But the line between branding and school spirit can be hard to draw. In Benjamin R. Barber’s book Consumed, he writes, “In the new world of brand identity, values are transferred through trivialization. Inauthenticity becomes a kind of simulated authenticity.”
In short, Barber feels that using branding to set values removes quality from the identity of people and institutions.
In contrast, Leslie Courchesne, director of marketing and communications at UFV, says the UFV brand sets value on authentic quality and connectedness.
“It’s all about quality and location,” she explains. “UFV is recognized for our students’ success, personal and supportive student-focused environment, and our close connection with the Fraser Valley communities we serve.”
Of course, she too is aware of the economic forces that determine a brand.
“A brand is basically the essence of what makes a product or service different from other choices available,” she says. “Prospective students are exhibiting more consumer-like behavior when choosing which post-secondary institution to attend. So telling prospective students why they should come here, what makes UFV different, is important regardless of the economic climate.”
The connection between local community and UFV’s brand is strong amongst students.
“UFV seems to attract its academic ‘consumers’ by promising that students get a high quality education at a reasonable price, while also supporting the local economy,” says recent Bachelor of Arts graduate Natasha Smith. Fourth-year geography major Diandra Bactawar feels the same: “I chose to go to UFV because it is close to home, class sizes are smaller, and the instructors are excellent.”
At the same time, Smith sees universities as competing entities in the market.
“UFV seems to have to work harder then the bigger universities (UBC being the Coca-Cola of the industry), so it provides smaller classrooms for a more intimate atmosphere, with the great additive of approachable, humble instructors,” she says.
Like Smith and Bactawar, fourth-year political science major Jay Mitchell looks at UFV as a local brand.
“I think UFV tries to stand for that hometown school feel, and it’s what they’re provincially mandated to do as a ‘regional university,’” he says, “but a commercializing shift in post secondary education has forced them to balance financial responsibility against their desired image.”
The commercializing effect that Mitchell refers to is at the crux of the branding debate. Students, professors, and administrators have to weigh the benefits of economic choices and personal values.
In 2012, the Guardian held a roundtable debate between university students and communications consultant company Purpose. The conclusion was that student values and university expectations are—like universities themselves—dynamic. Students choose universities based on their own values and on the values that are implicit in their particular degree program. On top of the values of a specific program, student demand in an institution is influenced by their local community. The overall university brand is formed by its connection to the community, scholarly values, and the values of each program.
Courchesne explains she sees different programs under the same general brand.
“Some of our programs are widely known, others have a strong reputation in their particular sector or industry, while others are less known,” she says. “But all are inseparable from the overall reputation of UFV. Our athletics teams have the Cascades brand, but it is still connected to the UFV master brand.”
And the term “brand” is not used solely to describe market and cultural principles. Branding is a process that labels both sides of the definition; economic values and human values. However, some—like Barber—worry that we’ve slipped too far into a market culture; we think too much like brands, when we should think more like people.
That fact is that all institutions, both private and public, have decided to wield the concept of branding to shape their identities. The mechanics of branding are multi-disciplinary. It requires the craft of writing, the quantitative analysis of statistics, and the creativity of visual arts. What is unclear is how the methods of product branding influence institution-building as a whole. That commercialization effect mentioned by Mitchell may result in damaging the UFV brand itself. Do we want the new student union building named after a corporation, or would we rather see it named for a local hero?
If nothing else, one thing is becoming clear: it seems that as budgets shrink, institutions will rely more and more on free market principles to run themselves.
