Abstract:

The competition among higher education services providers in Europe is becoming tougher, as all universities strive to gain more students by offering attractive study programs, adapted to current market needs. However, convincing students to enrol each year can become a daunting task, as traditional methods are not always working that well. Therefore, there is an increase in the need of managing all the modern digital marketing strategies in order to design a certain positive image associated with a name, brand and even a logo, in the overall perception of the future beneficiaries of these higher educational services. Choosing and using the right weapons in fighting this type of new battle is not an easy process. It all comes down to creating the proper perception and to raise and maintain an optimal brand awareness level among the present and future students. In order to gather more knowledge on these particular issues, the authors conducted an online research among the current and presumably future beneficiaries of these educational services. Also, the overall online presence and digital marketing strategies used by different European universities have been analysed, with the aim to find additional valuable information on what forms and enhance their brand awareness level in the perception of their present and future beneficiaries.

Keywords:

Brand awareness, digital marketing, higher education, European universities.