Investigating the perception of brand personality using an archetypal approach and its relationship with personality dimensions: A case study of Yazd University

In the past, marketing was used only in business and had no role in education. The role of educational institutions was to serve the community, conduct research activities and teach students the skills that were useful to them in the workplace. In fact, these institutions were only used to develop knowledge. But now, marketing departments have found a special position in the organizational structure of higher education institutions. Higher education managers consider marketing activities as important as the financial, human resources, quality assurance and the other internal departments of these institutions. The reasons for the importance of marketing in higher education centers is the increased competition between universities over attracting students and professors and obtaining financial support. The decline in government financial support, along with the declining trend in university admissions, is putting additional pressure on higher education institutions. In recent decades, the term branding has been used in the higher education marketing literature. In these complex and highly competitive markets, universities and other higher education institutions consider branding as a way to resist the challenges. Brand is one of the most valuable assets of any organization whose appropriate management can pave the way to success in any organization. Therefore, it seems necessary to pay attention to the issue of branding in the universities in order to achieve a competitive advantage. Brand is one of the most important factors that improve the competitive position of universities. The ideal brand of a university encourages decision makers to continue their studies to choose that university; thus becoming confident that they will receive advantages such as high-quality education, suitable physical facilities and suitable job market opportunities. Because universities are an effective instrument for providing education for applicants, it seems necessary for these institutions to have the social credibility and a proper mental image. Having a proper mental image of a university brand attracts students and professors and gains access to foreign resources to invest in the university. As a key factor, it persuades students to choose that university by students. Therefore, for effective brand management, consumers' mental image of the brand and their inference and perception of brand personality must be understood. So, if the personality perceived by the consumer fits the identity that universities are trying to present, the factors creating this fit should be strengthened. Also, if there is a discrepancy, the factors causing it should be detected and corrected. The purpose of this study is to determine the perception of the brand personality of Yazd University through the archetypal approach and the most frequent archetype of each personality type. The study also seeks to investigate the relationship between the personality of students and professors of Yazd University and the archetype that is the most selected. Another purpose of this study is to understand whether the selected archetypes of all the five personality types are the same or not.

The present study is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive analysis in terms of method.. Secondary sources and libraries were used to collect the data on the background of the research. Preliminarily, the data were collected using a questionnaire appropriate to the research topic. The students and professors of Yazd University formed the statistical population of the research. The necessary data for the study were collected from 118 questionnaires completed by the students and professors in different faculties and educational grades. They were selected through random sampling. Statistical analysis was performed using the contingency table and Cramer's V.

The results show that the selected archetypal personalities for Yazd University brand are innocent, ruler,  explorer and magician archetypes, Also, by the analysis of the personality traits of individuals using the neo-approach and the archetype of their choice, it was found that people with different personality traits agree in choosing the most selective archetype, i.e., the innocent archetype for the brand personality of Yazd University. All the five personality types chose this option more than the others. The choice of this archetype had nothing to do with the characteristics of neuroticism, conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreement, and only the association of this archetype with the characteristic of empiricism was confirmed.

It is better for the personality of a brand to be clear and tangible so that the majority can have the same perception of the personality of that brand. The results of this study show that this happened correctly about the brand of Yazd University. The results confirm that people, regardless of their personality traits and types, choose the same archetypes for the Yazd University brand, and people with five different personality traits are significantly unanimous in their choice of archetypes. In general, all the five personality types considered innocent archetypes as their first choice for this brand. The three personality types with the characteristics of neuroticism, openness to experience and agreeableness, in addition to agreeing on the first chosen archetype, did the same in the second choice, namely the choice of the ruling archetype. From these results, it can be deduced that the brand of Yazd University has an intimate and reliable personality that seeks happiness and focuses on independence. The brand seeks to change and improve the world. It avoids illiteracy, disability and inefficiency. This brand can also help people find the way to what they can be, recognize their inherent potential, and put it to practice. This brand does not accept inertia and monotony and seeks change in life and tries to help achieve its goals by turning threats into opportunities. It is not only a successful brand, but it can be considered as a leader in its field, looking for new services and methods.