PROFESSOR GRAEME WILKINSON
VICECHANCELLOR SUNWAY UNIVERSITY
On how social media has impacted or promoted the brand of your business.
Social media for Sunway Education Group (SEG) brands are primarily used to develop and engage with the brand’s community consisting of students, parents and stakeholders. We strive to be a source of information related to education, the brand and on trending news related to the community. Based on this focus, our brands (Sunway University & Sunway College) holds 21% engagement share, the highest among top Malaysian Private Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs) (January 1 to October 15, 2017).
On the company’s digitalisation efforts and how it has helped in branding.
It has helped us expand our brand reach to multiple new platforms, when once were traditional, are now digital. Our digitalisation efforts and initiatives have provided us with the opportunity to reduce the cost of engagement, expand our reach and contact points while providing focused platforms to brand, market, sell and engage.
Challenges faced by your company in a challenging economic environment.
Whilst some educational institutions reduced teaching levels and lowered quality standards in an effort to offer parents low entry costs to private education, at Sunway, we have taken a more long-term approach. As education in Malaysia continues to enjoy an enhanced reputation worldwide, we have continued to support the MOHE by recruiting even more leading international academic talent to the region, continued to invest in state-of-the-art equipment and introduce new concepts like the Sunway Innovation Labs (Sunway iLabs). This is a remarkable dedication to education in Malaysia, when you consider that SEG is a not-forprofit organisation owned and governed by the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation (JCF), which administers operating surpluses for the benefit of students - through reinvestment into the institutions or for the disbursement of scholarships and research grants. The JCF has disbursed over RM330mil in scholarships to date.
On strategies put in place to boost the company’s brand image.
Student engagement has seen our students create television commercials for the brand, season videos, create campus events and become an integral part of the brand moving forward. Coupled with blue-chip brand alignments with YOUTUBE, NAT GEO, F1 and the United Nations, for example, the brand enjoys the flexibility to engage at many differing levels or, on occasions like our 30th Anniversary celebrations, bring them together. That night EPSON & Sunway University combined to showcase the FIRST EVER four Projection Mapping Light Show in the ASEAN region. Managed by students as a project and attended by over 4000 students on the night, the success saw the event featured on CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg as well as all local channels.
The importance of a meaningful connection between a brand and a consumer in brand-building.
The Brand connection between Sunway and our current and potential audiences has always focused on our core values of Integrity, Humility and Excellence, coupled with a high degree of trust that parents seek. Our passion is to build and maintain a long-term relationship with parents and students who progressively maintain their relationship with the brand through our extensive Alumni programme. We encourage our students to develop an affinity with the brand and a Sunway state of mind that see many return to campus and contribute back. In fact many continue on as part of the Sunway family, even after completion of their studies, and take up permanent positions within the greater Sunway Group of companies too.