Abstract:

The last two decades some highlights has emerged in the literature related to brand relationships, nowdays, within the post-Covid19 period, Universities are looking for advantageous positions in the education sector, positions that allow them to keep students interested in their programs, to enroll and complete the study program. The current context has forced higher education institutions to digitalize their educational programs, therefore, to ensure that students are interested in the program some links must be generated, links with the institution and links with their collegues, it is necessary to implement practices that contribute to the strengthening of human relationships and relationships with the brand in the cold digital ambience, due the long distance education. Achieving these goals is one of the bigest current challenges. To respond to the current panorama, the use of offline tools that in a digital sense give strength to ordinary educational activities is considered. Then, is given way to the use of digital storytelling.

This research was carried out to examine the role of digital storytelling in higher education and its contribution to create brand communities with its students in Mexico. For this purpose, the main contributions of the literature related to the study of storytelling in the Mexican educational sector were analyzed, identifying which variables add the most to create brand communities in the higher education sector. Once threshold concepts in digital storytelling in the Mexican higher education sector was established, an empirical study was realized using a valid sample of 1,430 responses from undergraduate students from one public university and one private university in Guanajuato state (Mexico). The results obtained show how storywork impacts on brand community of the universities within the digital environment, repercussion of using storytelling are: brand awareness, brand image, and brand engagement. The results obtained confirm that digital storytelling is essential to create a virtual brand community, or contributes to increase its size, or enhance its internal relations, or simply strengthen it if it already exists.

Keywords:

Digital storytelling, brand community, brand engagement, higher education, Mexico.