Abstract:

Focusing our attention on the role that public higher education plays in Mexico, the Execum portal of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) indicates that there are 177 public universities today, considering that the system has had high growth in recent years. Thus, according to Anzaldo (2004), the first public university in Mexico (the National University) was sponsored by three other universities in the world: Paris, Salamanca, and California. With this, and according to Malásquez (2008), the Mexican public university has become a key player in local development, both in terms of improving the human capabilities of the population and in the training and qualification of local human resources.

In this framework, the objectives of the present research were to:
(1) establish which are the most determinant variables of brand capital in the higher education sector, and
(2) decipher which are the most outstanding variables by Mexican university students.

Thus, and after reviewing the seven major proposals on brand capital models in the literature (Farquhar, 1989; Aaker, 1992; Keller, 1993; Faircloth, Capella, and Alford, 2001; Yoo and Donthu, 2001; Delgado and Munuera, 2002; Buil, Martínez and De Chernatony, 2010), we have considered four elements that are identified by these authors and were also deemed to be of importance in previous studies.

These are:
(1) brand awareness,
(2) brand image,
(3) perceived quality and
(4) brand loyalty.

Together with these contributions, research that supports each of the elements of brand capital in its application to the education sector was reviewed. In order to corroborate the established hypothesis, we accomplished empirical research quantitative in nature, by means of a survey in Mexican aimed at a group of 433 undergraduate students from the Faculty of Social Sciences from a public university in Guanajuato (Mexico), obtaining an amount of 401 useful surveys for our research.

Grade 5 Likert scales were used to measure the concepts of:
(1) brand awareness,
(2) brand image,
(3) perceived brand quality, and
(4) brand loyalty.

These scales are based on the measurement scales proposed by Aaker (1992) and Keller (1993) and were adapted to our field of study, higher education, using as a working tool SPSS v19 for Windows and SmartPLS 2.0.

As a result and firstly, the reliability was verified using three analysis methods:
(1) Cronbach’s α (CA),
(2) composite reliability analysis, and
(3) analysis of the average extracted variance (AVE), where we could confirm the convergent validity of the proposed model.

Secondly, the results suggest that the model designed in this research applied to the group of students is satisfactory to explain 2 of the 4 hypotheses raised, perceived quality and brand loyalty (considered the most outstanding variable).

To sum up, the realization of the present research supposes a scientific advance in the discipline of marketing; although there has been specific research into brand capital and the variables that compose it (Saavedra, 2007) it is considered that they do not exist research that thoroughly analyses the perception of brand capital through the opinions of university students in Mexico. It can also help university managers because, based on the results obtained on the significance of each of the variables of the educational brand capital and, especially, brand loyalty, they can generate appropriate strategies to maintain or improve it.

Keywords:

Marketing, brand capital, higher education, public universities, Mexico.