Social media marketing strategy for enhancing brand awareness: the case of UEH Honours College

Abstract

This thesis investigates the impact of social media marketing activities on brand awareness of UEH Honours College in the context of Vietnam’s increasingly digitalised higher education market. Drawing on Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT) and Social Exchange Theory (SET), the study focuses on five key dimensions of social media marketing: Entertainment, Interaction, Trendiness, Customisation and Electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM). Data were collected from 211 respondents including current students, prospective students, alumni and parents who have interacted with UEH.ISB on social media platforms, using a structured questionnaire with Likert-scale items. The reliability and validity of the measurement scales were verified through Cronbach’s Alpha and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to examine the effect of the five dimensions of social media marketing on brand awareness. The results confirm that all dimensions have a positive and statistically significant influence on brand awareness, with descending impact levels: Interaction, Customisation, Trendiness, Entertainment and eWOM. These findings highlight the critical role of two-way communication and personalised content in shaping how stakeholders recognise and recall the UEH Honours College brand. Based on the empirical evidence, the study proposes four practical solutions: (1) a TikTok livestream series, (2) a mobile app “UEH Honours College Student”, (3) a culturefocused contest “Exploring the Culture of UEH Honours College”, and (4) the integrated campaign “The Journey of Breaking Free from the Cocoon - The Era of Growth”. The thesis contributes to the limited body of research on social media marketing in the Vietnamese higher education environment and provides applicable implications for UEH Honours College in designing data-driven social media marketing strategies to strengthen brand awareness among young audiences.