Advances In Management
Vol. 10 (6) June (2017)
Claims of Global B-Schools - A Stethoscopic Study
Dulababu T.
Alliance School of Business, Alliance University, Chikkahagade Cross, Chandapura, Anekal Main Road, Anekal, Bengaluru - 562 106,
Karnataka, INDIA
[email protected]
4. ‘We develop leaders, who develop people, who develop
business’of Insead Business School of Paris. The B-School
claims that it develops leaders who in turn develop people
and businesses.
Abstract
A slogan, a group of words is used to create an effective
message. It is also called as punch line. It is an
important part of advertisement. Slogans are usually
made in short but in rhyme so that the readers or
audience can recall easily and quickly. Further most of
the slogans carry a message to make customers
understand and feel the benefit which is called key
factor.
5. ‘America's first business university’of Bentley University
in Massachusetts, Business School of Boston. Through this
claim, Bentley University positions that it is the first
Business University in America.
6. ‘Shaping global leaders for tomorrow’ of IMI,
International Management Institute, New Delhi. This BSchool claims that it imparts global leadership skills required
for future period of time.
This research paper is aimed to determine the most
likely (optimum) size of the slogans, significance of
rhyme factor in designing a slogan and the most
desirable content (key benefit) to deliver through the
slogans.
7. ‘Real world, Real learning;A new school of thought;Your
intelligent option’ of IMD Business School, Switzerland.
The B-School has used multiple but related captions and on
the whole claims that the learning will be real and with real
world situations to yield for new thoughts and finally
acclaims that whoever is intelligent will opt the B-School for
studies.
Keywords: Slogans, Rhyme Factor, Key benefit, Branding.
Introduction
The present society is led more by information and
technology base. The universities are spreading their arms
beyond national borders and thus internationalization of
education is taking place at rapid strides. It is inevitable for
the B-Schools to share what heights they are achieving and
what benefits the students of management course can reap
etc. by way of persuasive, informative and corporate
advertisements.
8. ‘Leadership energy’ of Moscow Business School, Russia.
The Moscow B-School claims that it is known for the
developing energetic leaders.
9. ‘Educating business leaders since 1910’ of John Cook
School of Business in St. Louis, Missouri. The B-School
positions itself that it has been training and educating
business leaders for more than 100 years.
A slogan is a group of words used for the creation of
effective message. Slogan is direct, short, and also easily
remembered. They are tools to conduct the recall tests of
marketing research. An attempt is made here to present the
overview of the slogans used in their advertisements:
10. ‘Leadership for the global marketplace’ of College of
Business Administration at San Diego State University,
USA. The B-School claims that many of its graduates have
become global business leaders as the B-School gives global
exposure at their learning process.
1. ‘Leading through innovation ‘of Haas School of Business,
full-time and part-time MBA, Berkeley. This explains that
the institute trails blazer its content and curriculum and
methods are innovative and hence the B-school is always
leading the others.
Thus, Slogans of B-schools convey the following features or
key benefits:
i) Global exposure
ii) Effective learning
iii) Global position or rank of the b-school
iv) Application of knowledge
v) Training to face future challenges
vi) Age and experience of the institution
vii) Growth or progress orientation
viii) Content-Knowledge –wisdom qualities of the package
or program.
ix) Better and skills oriented training
x) Vision (Futuristic) orientation.
xi) Commitment and leadership
2. ‘A better place to think about business’ of Haskayne
School of Business in Calgary, Canada. The B-School’s
claim is that it provides a better environment to think and
analyze about business to enhance the aptitude for business
on the part of aspirants.
3. ‘In the world, for the world’ and ‘a great place to learn’
of MIT Sloan School of Management, Cambridge. The BSchool says that in the entire world its campus is a great
venue to learn by the citizens of the world.
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Advances In Management
Vol. 10 (6) June (2017)
xii) Position or rank of the institution
xiii) Unique Selling Proposition (USP) or Benchmark and so
on.
alcoholic and carbonated beverages, juices, baby foods or
pet foods. It is found that the use of health claims is not wide
spread and claims regarding taste and quality are prominent.
Across the year, it is found no systematic increase as
expected from the attention given to the use of health claims.
Review of Related Literature
The available literature on the studies on advertising in
general is significant but not the specific issues or specific
elements of advertising. An advertisement has to do
research, namely verbal elements and non-verbal elements.
Verbal elements include: headlines, claims, body text,
slogans and non-verbal elements include: pictures, symbols,
trademarks, color, size of the ads, appeal etc. Brief review of
the research works on the claims or slogans of global bschools is presented as follows:
Sheluga David and Jacob Jacoby7 had conducted a
laboratory experiment to know whether comparative claims
encourage comparison-shopping. The experiment disclosed
that comparative claim is somewhat effective on capturing
attention but little effect on subsequent search for product
information.
There are only two studies found on slogans. Katz Michael
and John Rose5 have made a first work (“Is your Slogan
Identifiable”) on slogans in terms of recall. The authors
discuss the effectiveness of advertising slogans for
individual products with in heavily advertised product
categories. Similarly, Larson Carl and Hugh G Wales did a
research work on slogans titled “Slogan Awareness in the
Chicago Market”. The authors correlate slogan awareness
with a variety of variables, the most important of which were
age, income, sex and race.
The first work on claims was about the interaction between
comparative advertising and copy claim variations. In this
work, the impact of attribution theory on the credibility and
effectiveness of comparative advertising is examined in a
controlled field experiment. It revealed two-sided claims to
affect overall advertising believability and claim acceptance,
but only to mediate behavioral response.8
Another study was on trends in factual claims in ads in
magazines. A random sample of 1079 ads obtained from
three general magazines namely: The New Yorker,
Newsweek and Readers’ Digest. Content of these ads is
analyzed for being factual (defined as containing objective
signification) or non-factual (subjective signification). The
analysis reveals that while ads may contain non-factual
claims, the vast majority also contains factual claims in all
three periods (1958, 1968 and 1978) across all three
magazines, having found that there is no significant change
in the trend3.
Thus, there is no ample research on slogans of business and
trade but slogans are used extensively by every company to
position and convey the theme of the advertisement. In
service industry, also slogans are in vogue for example,
insurance, banking, mutual funds, healthcare providers,
telecom service providers and educational institutions too.
There has been innate or deep-seated growth in demand for
management education due to revolutionary growth of
industry and service sectors resulting in steep growth of
management institutes in the world.
Pitta Dennis6 has made a study on the effects of product
involvement on the communication of implied advertising
claims’. This study examines the effects of two message
types namely assertions Vs. implications and the receivers’
product involvement on recall on three types of beliefs such
as: descriptive, informational and inferential. This work is
basically an experiment using actual radio commercials as
the stimuli conducted with 148 college students. It is
revealed that there was no significant impact of message
types or product involvement on the measures studied.
The following are the interesting areas to investigate about
slogans of B-Schools:
a) the need and purpose or purposes of slogans for BSchools.
b) determination of length of slogans (short vs. lengthy)
and finding the benefits of having a shorter slogan.
c) whether rhyme is needed and the benefits rhymed
slogans.
d) exploring the key-benefits to focus through the use of
slogans.
Ivan L Preston4 had presented a paper on contrasting types
of advertising content by examining number of pairs of
terms that have been used to describe advertising claims
such as objective-subjective, factual-evaluative etc. He
concluded that the numerous pairs of terms can be
represented by a total of four types of advertising claims with
an enhanced descriptive ability.
Due to productization, B-Schools have started using marketoriented communication to educate and persuade students
and their parents. In this process, slogans are direct, short
and powerful lines to tell the purpose, the benefit and the
importance of their package to the prospects.
Statement of Problem
In 1987, a research work was done on Health claims in food
advertising to find a bandwagon effect if any. The study is
based on print ads from 21 general magazines of one-year
issues. The study includes all ads of food items except of
The following are some of the important research questions:
How much length a slogan of a B-School should be? How to
measure the length of a slogan? Does a slogan should
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Advances In Management
Vol. 10 (6) June (2017)
possess rhyme? What is key benefit be conveyed and
focused through a slogan?
to the variables as per the objectives of the study and
tabulated for further analysis.
Based on the above stated research questions, the statement
of problem for the research work is: “Ascertaining the
characteristic features of slogans global b-schools in terms
of length, finding whether rhyme factor is used, investigating
the key factors conveyed and focused through the slogans.
The researcher can advise the b-schools about the key
benefits to embed in devising a good and effective slogan as
critical part of its marketing communication”.
c) Statistical tools used: The data is analyzed in terms of
percentages to know the use of rhyme and to draw the
priorities or rank of importance with respect to the key
benefits conveyed and focused through the slogans. The
basic statistical tools such as arithmetic mean, median and
mode are used to know the average and most likely size of
slogans and standard deviation to determine average
variation in terms of number words.
Significance of the Study
d) Limitations of the study: The sample of slogans
available for 60 b-schools may not be sufficient to generalize
the conclusions.
The value of a slogan depends on what it makes the readers
to understand. Good slogans are idea-centered rather than
word centered2. Writing slogans is a challenging and
creative work. Slogans put flesh and blood into an
advertisement copy. Basically they draw attention to the
strength of the firm or the product and are very much useful
in positioning the product. The following are the
characteristics of a good slogan:
•
•
•
•
Results and Discussion
The findings or observations of the study are as follows:
1) Length of slogans: The descriptive statistics of the length
of slogans is presented in table 1. The length of slogans is
measured in terms of number of words and then computed
the descriptive statistics.
the slogan should be simple and straightforward.
the slogan carries some pleasing sale ideas.
the slogan conveys more in a compact form.
the slogans finish the job in the least number of words.
Table 1
Descriptive Statistics of Length of Slogans
Particulars
MEAN
STANDARD ERROR
MEDIAN
MODE
STANDARD DEVIATION
SAMPLE VARIANCE
KURTOSIS
SKEWNESS
RANGE
MINIMUM
MAXIMUM
SUM
COUNT
In the marketing communication, slogans (Punch lines) are
direct, short and powerful lines to convey the purpose, the
benefit and the importance of the product or service of the
B-School to the prospects. Hence the study is useful to BSchools to prepare, and structure the slogans to make their
advertisements more effective. Further this research work is
significantly useful in bringing out the standard features such
as determining the length in number of words, justifying the
use of rhyme factor and critical benefits to expose to the
target market.
Objectives of the study
The following are the objectives of the study:
a) To determine the size of slogans in terms of number of
words.
b) To study whether use of rhyme in slogans is significant.
c) To explore the key benefits that are conveyed or focused
through the slogans.
d) To offer suggestions on making slogans.
No. of Words
4.65
0.19
4.00
4.00
1.79
3.20
0.87
0.86
8.00
2.00
10.00
409.00
88.00
Note: N=60, some b-schools have more than one slogan, hence
count = 88
Research Design
As per table 1, the average length is 4.65 words and median
and mode length is 4 words, implying that a majority bschools are with a slogan of 4 words.
The following is the research design frame work:
a) Data type and sources: The required data for the study is
basically secondary in nature. The data is collected from
http://www.textart.ru/advertising/slogans/business-schools.
html.
2) Significance of rhyme in slogans: The use of rhyme
factor is determined in the sample of slogans by classifying
them into two; namely with rhyme and without rhyme and
presented in table 2.
b) Data classification and tabulation: The data from the
above-mentioned source is collected, classified with respect
Only 21.6 % of the slogans are with rhyme factors and 78.4
% the slogans are not rhymed. This implies that rhyme is not
important in making the slogans.
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Advances In Management
Vol. 10 (6) June (2017)
by studying there followed by effective learning (18%),
position (rank of b-school is high 14%), application of
knowledge (12%) and training to face future challenges
(7%).
Table 2
Use of Rhyme Factor
Rhyme Number
Percentage
19
21.6
YES
69
78.4
NO
Total
88
100
Note: N=60, some b-schools have more than
one slogan, hence count = 88
Table 3
Key Factors focused through the Slogans
Key factor
TRAINING TO FACE
FUTURE CHALLENGES
APPLICATION OF
KNOWLEDGE
POSITION
EFFECTIVE LEARNING
GLOBAL EXPOSURE
OTHERS
TOTAL
3) The most desirable message content: The most desirable
message content that should be conveyed through slogans is
explored from the sample of slogans and is presented in
table 3.
According to the table, the most desirable message content
is ‘global exposure’ (22.5%), a promise by the b-schools to
the prospective students that they will get global exposure
Number
Percentage
5
7.04
9
12.68
10
13
16
18
71
14.08
18.31
22.54
25.35
100
Annexure I
Master Table – Slogans of Global Business Schools
Slogan(s)
S.N.
Name of the B-School
1.
Haas School of Business,
full-time and part-time MBA
Haskayne School of Business
in Calgary, Canada
Stanford Graduate School of
Business
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
MIT Sloan School of
Management
Insead, business school
HEC Paris, top business
school in Europe,
management programs for
undergraduate and
postgraduate students, MBA,
Master, PhD and Executive
education programs
Vlerick Business School,
MBA and Masters programs
(post-graduate degrees), postexperience management
courses
Bentley University in
Massachusetts, business
school
Hult International Business
School, MBA, Master
program, undergraduate
Rhyme
Factor
Yes / No
No
Key Factor
Leading through innovation
Length
(No. of
Words)
3
A better place to think about business
7
No
Position
a) Change lives. Change organizations.
Change the world. Shape the future.
b) Make a difference
a) In the world, for the world.
b) A great place to learn.
a) The business school for the world.
b) We develop leaders, who develop
people, who develop business.
c) Lift your career beyond
expectations
a) The more you know, the more you
dare.
10
No
Uniqueness
3
6
5
6
Yes
Yes
No
Position
9
Yes
5
7
No
Yes
b) The MBA that builds character.
5
No
c) Local roots, global reach
4
Yes
a) We don't teach. We develop what's
already inside you.
b) Learning the practical value of
knowledge
9
No
6
No
a) Business in a whole new light.
b) America's first business university
6
4
No
No
Get plugged in to the world
6
No
8
Innovation
Position
Position
Position
Learning
Leadership
Sharpening
the skills
Application
of
Knowledge
Innovation
Position
Global
exposure
Advances In Management
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
Sauder School of Business in
Vancouver, Canada
Keele Management School at
Keele University
Kingston Business School,
London
Dublin Business School,
undergraduate and
postgraduate business
education
IE Business School in
Madrid, Spain
Odette School of Business
China Europe International
Business School (CEIBS),
provides MBA, EMBA and
Executive education
programs
Executive education
programs at Wharton
Cranfield School of
Management, part of
Cranfield University, UK.
The Fuqua School of
Business at Duke University
20.
ESSEC, international
business school in Europe.
21.
Taxila Business School in
Jaipur, India
School of Business
Administration at University
of San Diego, full-time MBA
EMLYON, international
business school in Lyon,
France
The Hong Kong Polytechnic
University, faculty of
business
IMI, International
Management Institute, New
Delhi, corporate B-School in
India
Ashridge Business School,
MBA education
NYU Stern School of
Business, full-time and parttime MBA.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
Vol. 10 (6) June (2017)
Opening worlds
2
No
The thinking manager's MBA
4
No
Take control of your career
5
No
Excellence through learning
3
No
Effective
learning
Spirit of innovation
3
No
Innovation
We have the degree that works… For
business!
8
No
a) China depth, global breadth.
b) The learning interface
4
3
Yes
No
a) We're all business.
b) Executive education that works.
c) The learning experience of a
lifetime
a) Think… Knowledge into action.
b) Knowledge into action
3
4
6
No
No
No
Application
of
knowledge
Global
exposure
Application
of
knowledge
Effective
learning
4
3
No
No
a) We educate thoughtful business
leaders worldwide.
b) An environment of performance
6
No
4
No
a) You have the answer.
b) My business attitude - innovation,
responsibility, humanism.
c) Acting first
Beyond education.
4
6
2
No
No
No
2
No
A world of opportunity
4
No
Educating entrepreneurs for the world.
5
No
Qualified for the real world
5
No
Shaping global leaders for tomorrow
5
No
Do you want to go further?
6
no
We're swift, we're smart, we're Stern
6
Yes
9
Global
exposure
Application
of
knowledge
Placement
Application
of
knowledge
Effective
learning
Results
oriented
Solution
oriented
Wholeness
Position
Extra
learning
Global
exposure
Application
of
knowledge
Application
of
knowledge
Training to
face Future
challenges
Effective
learning
Effective
learning
Advances In Management
28.
29.
30.
University of Edinburgh
Business School
The University of Chicago
Booth School of Business
Adam Smith Business School
at University of Glasgow.
Vol. 10 (6) June (2017)
The latest school of thinking
5
No
Innovation
Triumph in your moment of truth
6
No
Success
Where theory meets practice
4
No
Application
of
knowledge
Example
Global
exposure
Locational
advantage
Locational
advantage
Influence
Effective
learning
Application
of
knowledge
Global
exposure
Effective
learning
Global
exposure
Innovation
Best choice
Global
exposure
31.
Aston Business School, UK
a) Inspiring you to be an inspiration.
b) Take on the world.
c) In the heart of Birmingham
6
3
5
Yes
No
No
32.
CBS, Columbia Business
School in Manhattan, New
York
a) At the very center of business.
b) The power of possibility.
c) Learning that powers performance
6
4
4
No
Yes
Yes
33.
Durham University Business
School
a) Better business thinking
b) Makers of business leaders
3
4
No
yes
34.
The Open University
Business School, United
Kingdom
a) In the real world.
b) Where the determined succeed
4
4
Yes
Yes
35.
IMD Business School,
Switzerland
a) Real world. Real learning.
b) A new school of thought.
c) Your intelligent option
4
5
3
Yes
No
No
36.
MBS, Melbourne Business
School, Australia, executive
education, MBA (full-time,
part-time and executive) and
PhD programs
Bradford University School
of Management, England,
undergraduate, postgraduate
and doctoral degrees in
management, including MBA
Solvay Brussels School of
Economics & Management,
Belgium
Yale School of Management
Global. Business. Leaders
3
No
Seize the moment. Take up the
challenge.
7
No
Global
exposure
Effective
learning
Belgians secret weapon.
3
Yes
Effective
learning
Educating leaders for business and
society
Leadership energy
6
No
2
No
Developing leaders in a time of
relentless change
8
No
The Netherlands business school
4
No
Effective
learning
Effective
learning
Training to
face Future
challenges
Position
Learn everywhere. Manage anywhere
4
Yes
Global
exposure
Building dynamic minds
3
No
Effective
learning
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
Moscow Business School,
Russia
Ross School of Business at
University of Michigan
Nyenrode Business
University
ESCP Europe, business
school, MBA education in
Europe
School of Business at
University of Buckingham
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Advances In Management
45.
Vol. 10 (6) June (2017)
John Cook School of
Business in St. Louis,
Missouri
Rotterdam School of
Management at Erasmus
University, Netherlands.
ESMT, European School of
Management and Technology
in Berlin, Germany.
Educating business leaders since 1910.
5
No
Positioning
a) The business school that thinks and
lives in the future.
b) Connect now
a) The business school founded by
business.
b) ESMT. Learning for leading
10
No
Visionary
Networking
2
6
No
Yes
4
Yes
48.
London Business School
a) London experience. World impact.
b) Transforming futures.
c) Leadership for a changing world
4
2
5
No
Yes
No
49.
MBS, Manchester Business
School
a) Arrive prepared.
b) Forward thinking
2
2
No
No
50.
Tuck School of Business at
Dartmouth
a) Thought leadership. Business
results.
b) Think and work differently.
c) Access the power of new ideas.
Learn from the leaders
4
No
4
6
4
No
No
Yes
You are ready
3
No
Truly global
3
No
Preparing global leaders
3
No
Ranked 1st in Latin America.
5
No
Learn here, lead anywhere
4
Yes
On course to excellence
4
No
The globally networked management
school
5
No
The new world of business is here
7
No
Global
exposure
Leadership for the global marketplace
5
No
Global
exposure
46.
47.
51.
Cambridge Judge Business
School
52.
Kelley School of Business at
Indiana University, full-time
MBA
Thunderbird School of
Global Management
UCLA Anderson School of
Management
IPADE Business School in
Monterrey, Mexico
LeBow College of Business
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
Leeds University Business
School
Maastricht School of
Management in the
Netherlands, MBA, DBA,
PhD
Graziadio School of Business
and Management at
Pepperdine University
College of Business
Administration at San Diego
State University, USA
Application
of
knowledge
Effective
learning
Global
exposure
Training to
face Future
challenges
Effective
learning
Training to
face Future
challenges
Effective
learning
Innovation
Innovation
Application
of
knowledge
Training to
face Future
challenges
Global
exposure
Global
exposure
Position
Global
exposure
Effective
learning
Global
exposure
differentiation makes a b-school unique. The recall power of
a slogan is important and hence the slogan should be
structured in such a manner that whenever the stakeholders;
students, parents, recruiters, teachers, directors recall a
slogan of a b-school, they should first get to their mind
Implications
A good slogan is useful in branding, positioning, image
building and market targeting. Such effective slogans
support in image building and value creation in terms of
competitive advantage, positioning, awareness creation and
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Advances In Management
Vol. 10 (6) June (2017)
4. Preston Ivan L., Contrasting Types of Advertising Content – A
case of Terminology Gone Wild, Proceedings of the 1987
Convention of American Academy of Advertising, Florence G.
Feasley, ed., 25-30 (1987)
global exposure, effective learning, rank of the b-school or
position, application of knowledge and ability to face future
challenges and so on.
Scope for Future Research
5. Katz Michael and John Rose, Is your Slogan Identifiable,
Journal of Advertising Research, 9(1), 21-26 (1969)
The following are the areas to take-up for future research:
a) An analytical and comparative study of b-schools of
BRICS nations vis-à-vis top 10 b-schools in the
developed nations.
b) An analytical study of the impact of slogans of b-schools
on marketing performance: placements and prospective
admissions.
c) Slogans of b-schools: its role in word of mouth
publicity.
6. Pitta Dennis A., The Effects of Product Involvement on the
Communication of Implied Advertising Claims, Proceedings of the
1985 Convention of the American Academy of advertising, ed.,
Nancy Stephens, 52-57 (1985)
7. Sheluga David A. and Jacob Jacoby, Do Comparative Claims
Encourage Comparison shopping?, The Impact of Comparative
Claims on Consumers’ Acquisition of Product Information, In
Current Issues and Research in Advertising 1978, Eds., Leigh
James and Martin Claude R., University of Michigan Press, 23-37
(1978)
References
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Management, IISM, Ranchi, 1(1), page (2002)
8. Swinyard William R., The Interaction between Comparative
Advertising and Copy Claim Variation, Journal of Marketing
Research, 18(2), 175-186 (1981).
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Himalaya Publication, New Delhi, 90-92 (2000)
(Received 04th May 2017, accepted 16th May 2017)
3. Dan Sarel, Trends in Factual Claims in Ads in Magazines, 1958,
1968 and 1978, Journalism Quarterly, 61(3), 650-54, 743 (1984)
*****
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