Spanish Universities Online Branding. Functional and Emotional Values Online Analysis in their Corporative Websites

Abstract

This paper shows an analysis of the websites effectiveness as a tool that is used by the totality of the Spanish universities. The study explores the variables related to the brand, in what extent they are used and the differences of use by the different institutions. Spanish universities websites has been analyzed by a combination of content and multivariable analysis. Results show that Spanish universities pay more attention to the functional values, related to the traditional activities of teaching and researching. Despite this, those institutions that have more developed communication and online branding strategies start to focus their attention to emotional factors, specially their brands’ international projection.