PROFESSOR MICHAEL DRISCOLL

VICECHANCELLOR AND PREPRESIDENT TAYLOR’S UNIVERSITY

On how social media has impacted or promoted your business brand.

Thanks to the impact of social media, the relationship between a brand and consumer has changed dramatically over the last decade. In essence, insights and analytics gathered from social media has allowed more meaningful engagements within our communities and also across wider social networks that could relate to our brand more effectively.

On the company’s digitalisation efforts and how it has helped in branding.

Digitalisation has helped companies today in becoming more targeted in their branding and marketing approach. Reaching out to intended audience is now easier than before, making campaigns more successful. It allows a data-centric view of the customer in relation to things like demographics, user behaviour and interests, which helps us create campaigns that matter to our target audiences. In the future, digitalisation will be about creating great customer experiences throughout their journey with us, and even before they become part of our community.

Additionally, in the last couple of years we have started to shift our focus to create more branded content to push to targeted audience via social media platforms. Besides the shift in content, we have also expanded our marketing channels that are relevant to our target audience, including Spotify and YouTube.

Challenges faced by your company in a challenging economic environment.

Malaysia is becoming more attractive to internationally renowned universities to set up premises in the country. This has created a new challenge for the local private universities. To distinguish ourselves from the other institutions of higher education, internationalisation is becoming an important factor to us which would position Taylor’s as a truly international university. We have also maintained our distinctive strength in teaching quality and excellent student experience, a high level of graduate employment, a worldclass campus and an outstanding global reputation among the academic partners and employers. All these have successfully distinguished Taylor’s University brand from the rest of the competition.

On strategies put in place to boost the company’s brand image.

In the education sector, the brand image of a university depends very much on its reputation, be it in academic excellence, graduate employability, student experience or research excellence. We are fortunate that in the education sector, these are easily measured by rankings and ratings, conducted by both the local government agencies and independent international bodies. Taylor’s University has achieved outstanding local and international rankings which help boost our brand image not just locally but internationally. Taylor’s has been ranked in the top 150 universities in Asia and in the top 1% in Asia. We have also been ranked no. 29 in the world for Hospitality and Leisure Management subject, further strengthening the brand image.

Furthermore, close partnership with top employers to develop the curriculum as well as providing opportunities for students to gain real life experience while completing their degree is a strength of Taylor’s, placing the brand as the No. 1 private university in employer reputation in Malaysia.

The importance of a meaningful connection between a brand and a consumer in brand-building.

Consumers today want meaningful connections with the brand. The brands that collaborate with their consumers will be the ones that make meaningful relationships happen. This is especially true to the current generation of youths who are leaders of tomorrow. They seek to engage with brands in authentic ways through conversations that value their opinions. As such, co-creating content on social media platforms with students and potential students is increasing in its importance for Taylor’s University. More than anything, we seek to listen to our students to help inspire them to succeed. Their success builds the reputation of the University.