Branding in higher education: testing the effectiveness of corporate visual identity

Research in environmental psychology indicates that characteristics of a setting (e.g. a room) are transferred to a person in that setting. Thus, an executive office conveys social standing, intelligence, and power upon its occupant. The effect has not been investigated for other forms of implicit communication, such as Corporate Visual Identity (CVI). This research project investigates the effects of CVI upon person perception, using similar methods to those originally employed in this field. Its focus is upon CVI systems applied to universities and their effect upon lecturers associated with it. This is a live research project involving a Public University in Malaysia, the Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) or Sultan Idris Education University. The main intention is to rebrand and therefore to reposition the university via a new CVI and other devices. This is a mixed methods research; qualitative methods were used during the preliminary stage to support design development of the new CVI, and later two of the CVI including traditional (heraldry) and modern logo were tested using a quantitative survey. The results indicate a positive association for heraldry in relation to perceived intelligence and trustworthiness, providing substantiation of the 'CVI Effect'.