Establishing Brand Personality of an Islamic Institution: An Empirical Study on International Islamic University Malaysia

Abstract

The notion of branding applies to all organizations, be it manufacturing or service oriented. Within service sector, universities are rarely studied with the lens of branding. After all, universities do compete with each other and desire to look different. Among various techniques that develop differentiation, Aaker’s brand personality model is one that is still valid yet its generalizability has been questioned when applied in various countries, cultures and even organizations. Moreover, limited research on Islamic brand personality in the context of Islamic organizations/institutions has been done. This research fills the gap by developing Islamic brand personality model of International Islamic University Malaysia. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied on data from 200 students. Results exhibit six factors with a cumulative variance of 68.237 per cent. Three new factors i.e. humbleness, trustworthiness, and cooperation emerged. Competence was the strongest factor with eigenvalue of 10.847 and variance of 41.720 per cent. Reliability of all factors ranged from minimum 0.722 to maximum 0.885, reflecting internal consistency of scale. The model can help Islamic institutions develop their branding strategies effectively based on the above factors. The model can be applied to other Islamic institutions such as Islamic University and University of the Punjab, Pakistan.