*2.3. Brand Reputation*

Reputation is considered the most valuable asset of an organization, for the following reasons: its positive effects on reducing stakeholder uncertainty about future performance; the trust it creates in the public; the expectation of being rewarded for the excellence of goods and services. Fortune Magazine published a list of The World´s Most Admired Companies, which reveals that a 5 percent increase in reputation of an entity corresponds to a 3 percent increase in its market value. According to Fombrum (1996), such an organization attracts qualified employees and external investors; so, the defense of reputation is the cause of the growing interest in corporate brands. Vidaver-Cohen (2007) based her concept of reputation on the Rep Trak model (Fombrum 2006), which was successfully adapted to a business school. Suomi (2014) and Priporas and Kamenidou (2011) followed the same model in their studies of branding and reputation in higher education. The prime objectives of this study are: to measure and define the concept of brand relationships (relationships among brands) and demonstrate the validity and reliability of its dimensions; to integrate the concept of brand relationships in the management of corporate brand identity as an antecedent of the external part of identity; and to

integrate the concept of brand reputation in the management of corporate brand identity, showing that it is a result of the management of the external part of identity under a relational approach.

#### **3. Methodology**

Service brands act in dynamic contexts, where brand building is developed with the help of consumers. In higher education, this is particularly visible, as students are consumers (they pay to attend university) and staff are part of the university´s identity. We thought it would be appropriate to interview a sample of engineering students, as engineering faculties are recognized for developing highly salient brand identities based on their societal interventions (e.g. building bridges and private infrastructure, developing innovative artifacts, processes, and technologies for industries that are frequently funded by national/international research centers).
