Bakgrund: Kamp om talanger är ett problem som kan finnas på en arbetsmarknad. Därför måste organisationer differentiera sig för att kunna tävla om talanger. Att kunna attrahera och rekrytera har blivit allt mer viktigt för organisationer. Organisationer vill kunna attrahera och rekrytera talanger då det innebär marknadsfördelar och att organisationen kan bli mer attraktiv. Därför är det viktigt att belysa varför och förstå hur organisationer kan använda Employer branding för att attrahera och rekrytera talangfull personal.  Syfte: Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur organisationer kan använda Employer branding för att attrahera och rekrytera talangfull personal liksom att förklara samband mellan studier samt näringsliv.  Metod: Till studien användes en kvalitativ metod. Det gjordes sex intervjuer med chefer från olika organisationer. Intervjuerna utfördes för att få en djupare förståelse hur Employer branding kan användas av organisationer praktiskt. Utöver intervjuer utfördes observationer på organisationernas sociala medier för att undersöka hur detta stämmer överens med vad som har sagts i intervjuerna. Respondenterna selekterades utifrån deras relevanta yrkesroll i respektive organisation som anses ha kunskap och erfarenhet inom Employer branding och rekrytering. Resultat/Slutsats: Studien har kommit fram till att de deltagande organisationerna har svårt att definiera talang, men att talang är viktigt. Organisationer kan använda Employer branding som marknadsföringsstrategi för att attrahera och rekrytera talangfulla arbetstagare till sin organisation. För att organisationer ska kunna använda Employer branding kan de arbeta med fyra olika komponenter: organisationsattribut, marknadsföring & kommunikationskanaler, skapande av arbetsgivarens image och arbetsgivarattraktivitet. Studiens organisationer är positivt inställda till de olika komponenterna och använder dessa i stor utsträckning. Organisationerna använder sig av marknadsföring och kommunikationskanaler för att visa upp sitt varumärke, vilka kandidater de söker och vad som är viktigt med tjänsten. Samtliga organisationer tycker att det är viktigt med en bra image för att det visar att organisationen är attraktiv i framtiden. Organisationernas medlemmar försöker uppträda bra i organisationens intressen utanför arbetsplatsen. Därmed kan Employer branding användas som en strategi för att attrahera och rekrytera talanger på en arbetsmarknad. / Background: The struggle for talents is a problem that can exist in a labour market. Organizations must differentiate themselves to compete for talent. To attracting and recruiting has become a more important dilemma for organizations. The organization wants to attract and recruit the talents to its organization, since this means market benefits and that the organization can be more attractive. Therefore, it is important to highlight why and to understand how organizations can use Employer branding to attract and recruit talented staff. Purpose: The purpose is to investigate how organizations use Employer branding to recruit talented staff and thereby explain the connection between studies and business. Method: In order to be able to answer the purpose of the report, a qualitative study with six interviews was conducted with managers at each organization. The interviews were conducted to gain a deeper understanding of how Employer branding can be used by organizations. In addition to interviews, observations were performed on the organisation's social media to investigate how this corresponds to what has been said in the interviews. The respondents were selected based on their relevant professional role in each organization, which is considered to have knowledge and experience within Employer branding and recruitment. Result/Conclusion: The study has concluded that the organizations find it difficult to define talent. The organizations that has been interviewed to the study agreed that talent was important with talented staff. Organizations can use Employer branding as a marketing strategy to attract and recruit talented workers to their organization. To use Employer branding organizations can work with four components: organizational attributes, promotion & communication channels, formation of employer image and employer attractiveness. The study organizations are positive towards the components and use them to a large extent. The organizations use marketing and communication channels to showcase their brand, which candidates they are looking for and what is important with the service. All organizations also think it is important to have a good image because it shows that organizations can be attractive in the future. The organizations members try to perform well in the organizations interests outside the workplace. Employer branding can thus be used as a strategy to reach out to talents in a labour market.

Esta dissertação parte da discussão sobre a relação entre as pessoas e as imagens, cujo marco de relacionamento é o capitalismo baseado no emocional e simbólico. Nessa medida surge uma visão crítica aos produtos multimídia no espaço público que alteram a relação do sujeito com o mundo que o rodeia. Este espaço também é alterado pelos discursos da publicidade e sua projeção dos imaginários comerciais no tecido social. As transformações das tendências artísticas e imagéticas no século XX nos oferecem elementos para usar o conceito de espetáculo, como espaço regulador da prática artística e publicitária na sociedade, levando em consideração que aspectos da interação nesses espaços têm raízes político-econômicas que suscitam posturas ideológicas nas artes em razão à relação usuário-interator e obra-produto, no contexto da hegemonia do capitalismo atual. O branding ao converter-se em eixo da criação estética contemporânea, junto à economia de consumo e a cidade como espaço para sua expansão, modificou através da semiose corporativa as linguagens artísticas e seus métodos, homogeneizando sua produção e recepção na superprodução de informação; o que, em resposta, propiciou nas artes a possibilidade de somar essas técnicas como matéria de trabalho plástico e conceitual. Para um aprofundamento nestas questões, analisam-se as obras Mecânica das emoções de Maurice Benayoun (2004-2011), 1000 platitudes (2003) de Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Pure murder (2004) de Minerva Cuevas, Toywar - Etoy.share (2000-2001) de Etoy. Estes trabalhos artísticos integram usos particulares do branding, como parte da sua estratégia estética, poética e de conceito, que, ao fazer uso das estruturas de comunicação, contrasta os usos político-econômicos convencionais da imagem com táticas e estéticas que gerem posturas e atividades nos interatores, como possíveis formas de intervenção na sociedade do espetáculo. / The present dissertation stems from the debate on the relation between people and images, whose relational hallmark is capitalism based upon the emotional and the symbolic. Hence a critical view on multi-media products pervading public spaces, which change the relation between the subject and the world surrounding him. Public spaces themselves are also changes by the publicity discourses and their projection of commercial imaginaries onto the social tissue. The transformation of imagetic and artistic tendencies throughout xx century offer elements to validate the term spectacle as the regulating environment for social artistic and publicitary practices, taking into account that aspects of the interactions in such spaces have political and economic stems which originate ideological postures within the arts due to the relation between user-interactor and opus-product, in the present capitalist-hegemony context. As branding reaches the axis of contemporary aesthetic creation, together with consumption economy and the city as the place for its expansion, has changed, through corporative semiosis, the artistic languages and their methods, rendering homogeneous their production and reception within information over-production; such has permitted the appropriation of those techniques as matter for plastic and conceptual work in response. In order to produce a deeper understanding of the issues, we analysed The mechanics of emotions by Maurice Benayoun (2004-2011), 1000 platitudes (2003) by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Pure murder (2004) by Minerva Cuevas, Toywar - Etoy.share (2000-2001) by Etoy. The former artistic Works integrate particular usages of branding, as part of their aesthetic, poetic and conceptual strategies, which, in using communication structures, contrast conventional political economic uses of images with tactics and aesthetics which generate postures and activities within interactors, as a possible means of intervening int the society of the spectacle.

Este trabalho aborda diversos aspectos da extensão de marcas. A construção de marcas fortes tem sido uma alternativa para criar diferenciação e vantagem competitiva. O sucesso em um determinado mercado costuma ser decorrente de fatores que vão além do próprio produto; a percepção do consumidor sobre uma marca é formada por um complexo conjunto de associações onde coexistem aspectos racionais, funcionais e objetivos, bem como elementos emocionais, subjetivos e abstratos. A marca representa um código, um resumo de todas estas associações e percepções, e o posicionamento psicológico da marca influencia a decisão de compra dentro de uma categoria. Muitas empresas adotam as extensões de marca como uma estratégia de crescimento, o que resulta em uma proliferação de marcas estendidas para categorias adicionais de produto, categorias muitas vezes sem similaridade com a categoria original da marca. O objetivo principal e razão de ser da extensão é a transferência de valores da marca original para o novo produto, encurtando os caminhos que ele deve percorrer para sua consolidação e aumentando suas chances de sucesso. Entretanto, há diversos casos de extensão onde a marca não passa de um nome que caracteriza a origem do novo produto ou, pior ainda, sua aplicação naquela categoria resulta na erosão de seu significado. Sendo assim, este trabalho busca trazer referências que indiquem se faz sentido estender uma marca para outras categorias. A metodologia adotada consiste em duas etapas: uma de revisão bibliográfica, que aborda os principais aspectos da extensão de marca-suas motivantes, vantagens e riscos, resultados de pesquisas anteriores, o processo de avaliação pelos consumidores, a reciprocidade da marca estendida na marca original; e uma etapa de verificação de uma realidade específica usando a visão de uma empresa-alvo de estudo de caso. Os resultados apontam para uma relação entre o posicionamento psicológico da marca e sua extensão para categorias próximas e distantes daquela onde a marca se originou, indicando a possibilidade de que quanto mais filosófico o posicionamento da marca, isto é, menos vinculado ao produto em si e seus aspectos funcionais, maior sua capacidade em ser aplicada em categorias de produto diferentes da categoria original. À medida que a dissimilaridade entre o produto original e o estendido aumenta, é cada vez menos freqüente e intensa a transferência de valores de marca. Os valores transferidos para categorias mais dissimilares, ou seja, os valores de maior alcance de extensão, têm natureza predominantemente subjetiva ao invés de racional ou vinculada a atributos de produto. Os resultados também sugerem que os atributos e benefícios considerados relevantes dentro de cada categoria funcionam como um filtro para a transferência de associações, ressaltando a influência do contexto da categoria da extensão no processo. / This study analyzes many aspects of brand extension. Building strong brands is seen as an opportunity to create differentiation and competitive advantage. Success in certain markets is a result of factors beyond the product itself; brand consumer perception is formed by a complex set of associations of rational, functional and objective aspects as well as emotional, subjective and abstract elements. A brand represents a code, a summary of all these associations and perceptions. The psychological positioning of a brand influences the purchase decision inside a category. Many companies implement brand extensions as a growth strategy. This results in a huge list of extended brands to additional product categories, many times without any similarity to the original brand category. The main reason and objective of an extension is transferring brand equity from the original product to the new one, reducing the path towards product consolidation and improving its chances for success. Nevertheless, there are many cases when brand extension is nothing more than just a name that reminds the product\'s origin or, even worse, its application in a certain category will result in loosing brand value and meaning. Based on this assumption, this study aims at bringing new references that indicate if it makes sense to extend a brand to other categories. The adopted methodology consists of two phases: one is a reviewed bibliography about the main aspects of extension - its motivations, advantages and risks, earlier researches results, consumer evaluation process and reciprocal effect of the extended brand over the original one; and second, the verification of an specific case study with a target company. Results point out a relation between brand\'s psychological positioning and its extension to closer and farther categories in relation to the original brand. It indicates that the more philosophical the brand positioning, meaning little association to the product itself and its functional aspects, the bigger its capacity of being applied to product categories different than the original one. As soon as dissimilarities grow in between the original product and the extended one, the least frequent and intense is the brand equity transfer. Values transferred to less similar categories, or, values of bigger extension capacity have a subjective nature instead of rational one linked to product attributes. Results also suggest that relevant attributes and benefits in each category works as an associations transferring filter, reinforcing the category content influence over the extension process.

Design e Marketing. Duas áreas do conhecimento que, graças à amplitude de atuação, permitem agregar valor a produtos, podendo atuar separadamente ou em conjunto. Mesmo antes de serem áreas consagradas profissionalmente, já apresentavam caminhos que demonstravam ser possível estas interdependências de atuação. Esta pesquisa inicia abordando conceitos de Design e Marketing e toma, como estudo de caso, o trabalho desenvolvido pela estilista Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, no início do século XX. / Design and Marketing. Two areas of knowledge that, due to their wide range of actuation that both provide, can work apart or together in order to be a plus to many products. Even before being professionally acknowledged fields, they both established ways that shown to be possible those acting interdependences. This research starts analising Design and Marketing concepts and takes Mademoiselle Gabrielle Bonheur Chanels work as a case study in early twentieth century.

A presente pesquisa apresenta um estudo em torno do cross-branding, parceria entre duas ou mais marcas a fim de lançarem um produto e/ou serviço, e da cocriação de coleções no varejo de moda brasileiro. O cross-branding vem sendo bastante utilizado no mercado e é uma das ferramentas de marketing em evidência. O objetivo principal deste trabalho é identificar - a partir de uma discussão em torno do fast-fashion e da moda como resultado da expressão contemporânea - como se dá a estratégia do cross-branding, bem como suas influências no desenvolvimento de coleções. O trabalho é realizado a partir de uma revisão bibliográfica em torno da história da indústria da moda, conceitos em desenvolvimento de produtos, reflexões sobre inovação, cocriação e o varejo atual. Foi possível discutir não só como se dá o cross-branding, como também os reflexos advindos da utilização da estratégia no varejo de moda. Foram realizados estudos de casos das coleções cápsulas das lojas de departamento C&A e Riachuelo, frutos de cross-brandings com marcas e estilistas brasileiros. / This research presents a study about the cross-branding, partnership between two or more brands willing to launch a product and / or service, and the co-creation of collections in brazilian fashion retail. The cross-branding has been often used in the fashion market and is one of the marketing strategies in evidence. The goal is to identify, from a discussion about fast-fashion and fashion as a result of contemporary expression, how is the strategy of cross-branding as well as their influences on the development of fashion collections. The work is done from a literature review about the history of the fashion industry, product development concepts, reflections on innovation, co-creation and nowadays retail. It was possible to discuss how the crossbranding works, as well as the reflections arising from the use of strategy in fashion retail. Case studies of capsule collections of department stores, as Riachuelo and C&A, the result of cross-brandings with Brazilian designers and brands, have been conducted.

Syftet med studien är att se hur liknande företag i samma bransch arbetar för att utmärka sig i deras arbete att hitta nya medarbetare och vidare hur detta tas emot och tolkas av potentiella medarbetare, i denna studie analyseras tre större företag från kafébranschen. Detta kommer behandlas genom tre frågeställningar som berör hur kafékedjorna arbetar och hur potentiella medarbetare tolkar detta: Hur använder sig kedjorna av text och bild i försök att skapa en attraktiv arbetsplats genom sina hemsidor? Hur upplever potentiella medarbetare kedjornas framställning? Genomsyrar employer branding som koncept deras hemsidor? Till grund för att besvara dessa frågeställningar har jag använt teorier kring branding, medialisering samt representation. Empirin kommer att samlas in genom en kvalitativ metod genom en text- och bildanalys samt enskilda intervjuer. De slutsatser som nås är att alla tre kedjor använder sig av ett personligt språk och tilltal för att locka till sig medarbetare genom deras hemsidor, något som ger en positiv bild av dem hos respondenterna. Dock blir det i vissa fall för personligt och det slår över till att ge en negativ bild av arbetet. Employer branding kan synas både genom kedjornas mål mot att få nya kunder och medarbetare. Avslutningsvis är detta ett område som bör utforskas mer inom den medievetenskapliga forskningen för en chans att företag ska förstå vikten av employer branding inom samhällets medialisering.

Esta tese investiga a relação simbólica entre cor e marca, manifestada na comunicação visual estratégica marcária, e os vínculos de sentido que (co)produz junto aos públicos. Os objetivos são: identificar, analisar e classificar os modos em que as cores significam marcas (os potenciais efeitos da cor sobre os indivíduos-consumidores) e os usos estratégicos da cor, pelas marcas (as funções para as quais as marcas utilizam as cores) e, relacionando os modos e os usos, propor uma tipologia dos discursos cromáticos de marca, inspirada na tipologia semiótica do discurso, de Charles W. Morris (1946). A literatura transdisciplinar acadêmica e de prática de mercado foi combinada com os achados da pesquisa de campo - entrevistas em profundidade (com especialistas em comunicação, gestão e design de marcas), visitas de observação e coleta de artefatos físicos e digitais. Foram delimitados cinco modos da cor significar uma marca (atentivo, designativo, apreciativo, prescritivo e transformativo) e quatro principais usos que as marcas fazem das cores (informativo, avaliativo, incitivo e sistêmico). Ao final, foram distinguidos e exemplificados 13 tipos de discursos cromáticos de marca, conforme o modo e o uso proeminentes, que se revelaram interdependentes e não excludentes / This thesis investigates the symbolic relationship between colors and brands, manifested in strategic visual communication, and the signification it (co)produces with the audience. The research purposes are to identify, analyze and classify the modes in which colors signify brands (the potential effects of color on consumers) and the strategic usages of color by brands (the purposes for which brands use colors) and, relating the modes and the uses, to propose a typology of brand chromatic discourses, inspired in the semiotic typology of discourse, by Charles W. Morris (1946). The transdisciplinary academic and industry literature was combined with the field research findings - from in-depth interviews (with brand communicators, managers, and designers), participant observations, and physical and digital artifacts collection. Five color modes of signifying a brand (attentive, designative, appraisive, prescriptive and transformative) and four primary color usages by brands (informative, valuative, incitive and systemic) are distinguished. Finally, 13 types of brand chromatic discourse, interdependent and non-exclusive, are delineated and exemplified, according to their dominant signification and use.

Contemporarily, the hosting of mega-events (MEs) is one of several strategies used by cities and governments to bring about improvements in a place s image and recognition. While London, host of the 2012 Olympic Games, is already considered to be a leading global city (e.g. Anholt & GfK Roper, 2011), the potential image benefits to be accrued from hosting the Games may in fact impact more upon internal, domestic perceptions rather than on external, international perceptions (Anholt, Oon, Masure et al., 2008). A key objective, therefore, for those involved in the development and delivery of the 2012 Olympic Games is to further enhance the image of the city (both domestically and internationally) and to minimise the risk of negative image formation (DCMS, 2008). However, image, in the context of MEs, is not an easy component to control, as previous Olympic Games have demonstrated (Shoval, 2002; Smith, 2005). The main purpose of this critical-realism-informed project, underpinned by theoretical-methodological social representation theory (SRT) (Moscovici, 1961, 1984), was to evaluate the domestic image impact of hosting the 2012 Olympics, pre- and post- Games, for the city of London. Based then on social representation theory, and a combination of abductive and retroductive research strategies, a survey was carried out among British citizens to identify their opinions concerning London as a city (or place brand), the Olympics as a ME, and the 2012 Games as a one-off event. Exponential non-discriminative snowball sampling was used to recruit participants (UK citizens, pre-event, n=561, post-event n=215) who completed a mixed-methods questionnaire both before and after the 2012 Olympics were held. The main part of this questionnaire was comprised of randomised free word-association tasks (qualitative) using London, the Olympics and 2012 London Olympics as inductor terms; i.e., Please give the first 10 words that come to mind when you hear the term . Data analysis involved collating the responses of the free word-association tasks into semantic word clusters, with one word (or phrase) representing each theme be that an object, emotion, an opinion, etc. Only words or phrases cited by 15% of participants were used to construct the image of each entity. The next level of analysis involved producing a similarity index and subsequent dendrogram, based on Kendal s correlation coefficient, that established the strength of the connections between the various elements of each social representation. The content and the structure of these pre- and post-event social representations were analysed and then compared to determine whether a.) hosting the 2012 Olympic Games represents an appropriate strategy to develop the city s domestic brand; b.) a co-branding process occurred, expressed by an image transfer, from the event to the place, or vice-versa; and c.) the major differences between the images generated by those living closest to London, compared to those living elsewhere in the UK. While London s overall image does not go through any significant changes pre-to-post event, the results of this study corroborate the value of sporting events in place branding strategies from a domestic perspective, but highlights some limitations, such as the exacerbation of London s pre-existing negative associations. In terms of co-branding, the results do not reveal a co-branding process to have occurred between London and the overall image of the Olympics, but there is some movement of elements from London to the 2012 event (related mainly to pre-Games anticipation) and between the 2012 event and the overall Olympics (related to the latter s unique defining associations). Finally, in terms of the differences between the images generated by those living closest to London, compared to those living elsewhere in the UK, there is a difference which appears to have been facilitated, at least in part, by a 2012-effect, with the event seemingly contributing to London being perceived as generally busier, more expensive and more congested by those living closest to the city, but more vibrant and more multicultural by those living elsewhere in the UK.

In Canada, the rise of political branding coincided with the adoption of the permanent campaign, creating an environment in which politicking is now normalized and politicization is expected. With Canada Day 2017 as a case study, this thesis adopts Marland’s Branding Lens Thesis (2016) as a conceptual framework to analyze if a national holiday became part of the Liberal Party of Canada’s master brand. The key conclusion of this thesis is that the Liberals integrated their ‘master brand’ into Canada Day 2017 by integrating political branding into their government communications. This thesis also shows that Justin Trudeau played a bigger role during Canada Day than expected by a Prime Minister. Significantly, this thesis shows the Liberal government altered the themes and messaging of Canada 150 to parallel that of their master brand, applying a Liberal tint to Canada Day and Canada 150.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This study investigates how the three selected Western Cape Province (WCP) institutions of higher education position their brand imageries and awareness in a localised global way. It explores the branding discourses and strategies used by three WCP universities namely: University of the Western Cape (UWC), University of Cape Town (UCT), and Stellenbosch University (SU). The study applies the qualitative-interpretative approach with multiple methods such as interviews, observation, and document analysis to collect the data. Using the framework of Critical multisemiotic discourse analysis (CMDA), which combines CDA, and multimodality, the researcher analyses how the universities construct and position unique brands to the world and how the students as stakeholders consume these brands. The study also explores how the universities deploy, manipulate, and circulate linguistic, visual and extra-visual semiosis across multiple modalities to create attractive brand imageries. The CMDA framework illuminates the ways in which language and other semiotics are used to construct social reality and ideologies, and negotiate meanings in the universities’ branding practices. The study findings show that the universities are using different types of modalities to relay their institutional brand promotional messages to reach their target audience. These modalities include print media, word of mouth testimonials, alumni, social chatrooms such as Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and semiotic landscape to mention a few. Open days and orientation days are also used to showcase the brands and these events are resemiotised in different media and even posted on the universities websites so as to reach a wide audience from all over the world. In this case, the study demonstrates how the universities are able to promote their brands to their South African communities within their physical vicinity and reach the regional and international community online. This includes showing how some of the modes such as selected architecture and scenery, mission statements, branded goods, logos, historical artefacts together with particular semiotic materials and discourses are recirculated by means of being deterritorialised from the different contexts and reterritorialised into the universityscapes, to accentuate and sell the brands and create attractive brandscapes. Moreover, the study particularly demonstrates that the demise of apartheid and segregated universities in South Africa has prompted the universities to redefine, rebrand and realign themselves to the local, regional and international communities. This has necessitated new repositioning strategies in the post-apartheid South African universities under study. The universities have appropriated materialities of globalisation, commodified heritage and aesthetics of both their academic and social life as branding materials. The universities have adopted the social transformation agenda that tries to eliminate segregation in higher education institution. They all champion inclusive higher education that promotes internationalisation through quality education. Given their historical background, the seemingly effective drive towards transformation through redressing and internationalisation processes still mirrors apartheid inequalities among the HBUs and HWUs. These processes filter into these academic contexts differently. The relentless drive to commercialisation in the market economy from an unequal footing, places the HBUs in a weaker position, where they are always trying to catch up. In addition, the study demonstrates that the universities have adopted the culture of consumerism and the market economy that perpetuates an excessively materialistic and exploitative view of living. The traditional identities of universities, as sites of higher education, have been replaced by corporate-like brand identities, which ensure that they are well known for what they have, they do and lastly what they are. The ideological shift in brand identity is displayed in the imagery of the mission statements, logos, branded goods, buildings, historical artefacts, students, sports and academic resources, all of which are remediated in documentaries, social media, YouTube, television advertisements and other media. This ideological shift and a focus on brand identities, as icons of consumption, have resulted in practices that create unequal subject positions among the universities both at a local and international level, as it widens the competition gap between the HBUs and the HWUs. Through evaluating the students’ brand perceptions and analysis of the brand materials, the study further highlights the undeniable problems in these universities’ branding processes, such as the discrepancy of effective branding trajectories that adequately support the historically disadvantaged institutions to be on the same competitive ground with the historically white universities. The forces of globalisation, technologisation and commodification do not make it easier either as these inherited inequalities on development, cause massive differences in wealth among the universities and citizens accessing resources in these universities. The analysis in this study clearly demonstrates how the universities are able to appropriate multiple semiosis and discourses between the reproduction of the racial social order through subtle traces of resistance or through trying to hold on to the past and branding themselves as inclusive university brands both at a national and a global level. This study brings to the fore that institutional branding is not simply a matter of explicit lexical self-description and attribution, but also pertains to an organisation’s use of semiotic features and patterns, such as particular metaphors or types of modalities. The study therefore contributes to the debates on post-apartheid socio-economic transformation in South African universities, and hints that pretending that the inherited inequality in these universities will correct itself, is futile as it is evident that cultural dialogue and communication based on equity, are necessary in order to avoid widening the gap between the contexts of higher learning in South Africa. Even in light of the latest 'Rhodes Must Fall' and 'Fees Must Fall' campaigns, this study provides information that can positively influence perspectives on access to higher education in South Africa. Against the backdrop of globalisation and internationalisation on these universities, the study recommends that the universities and stakeholders work and rethink new ways of university branding and collaboration that facilitate positive growth. The study thus undoubtedly contributes to the field of language and communication particularly in understanding the concepts of institutional brand identity and consumption as practices, which can be actively changed and negotiated for authentic transformation that is beneficial to both the institution and its stakeholders. This implies that institutional brand identity should not only put emphasis on the business world but on the social world as well how people interpret meanings in their lives. Ultimately, the study calls for an understanding and incorporation of the relatively new concepts of institutional branding and brand identity consumption in modernity practices where communication is characterised by many meaning-making semiotics other than the verbal aspects of human interaction.