Now the appelation of IPB Becomes IPB University, Equipped with its New Promise
The Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB) made a mention of the translation of its name in English to IPB University. The brand change was delivered at the Preliminary Year Announcement with the theme “Forward Together Towards IPB Future 4.0” at Graha Widya Wisuda (GWW), Dramaga Campus of IPB, Bogor (30/1).
According to the Rector of IPB University, Dr. Arif Satria, Universities (PT) need to pause and evaluate the extent to which the PT brand is accepted by the public. Where is the current IPB brand in the eyes of its stakeholders. “We need to evaluate the health of a brand that is analogous to testing how meaningful the brand is in the eyes of its stakeholders.”
For a long time, there has been dualism in the translation of the Bogor Agricultural Institute into English. Although a more suitable translation is “Bogor Agricultural Institute”, IPB has long used the terminology “Bogor Agricultural University” in its English. The reason why the University was chosen was begun with the idea that IPB had long offered more and broader study programs, more than just agricultural and marine aspects. What has changed from this IPB brand is that if initially “Bogor Agricultural University” feels longer, it is simplified to become “IPB University”.
The results of stakeholder exploration studies provide input that the word “Agriculture” in the “Bogor Agricultural Institute” is often interpreted narrowly by prospective students and their parents. Because there have been more offers from these educational institutions, the word IPB University as a brand will have wider associations and promise higher values.
“There are several corporate brands that take this strategy to provide simplicity in their pronunciation but are more solid in their exposures and explain the promise of the brand. For this reason, IPB changed the brand “Bogor Agricultural University” to “IPB University”,” Arif Satria explained.
This rebranding activity also sees the new needs of future students and other stakeholders. The old slogan “Searching and Serving the Best” was felt to have become a necessity and the strength of the Institution. To face increasingly fierce competition, IPB University feels the need to have new promises that are more distinctive, different from other universities. The results of research and discussions with key stakeholders obtained a set of words for their new promises: “Inspiring Innovation with Integrity”.
‘Integrity’ is a word that is very often glued by stakeholders towards IPB, both describing its graduates and teachers and students, and all of its members. The next word is “Innovation” which has long been proven by IPB with various awards given by institutions at home and abroad, but it is still not well communicated. Meanwhile, ‘Inspiring’ means enlightening and giving ideas to do something good.
“There are various approaches to evaluating brand health. There is a ‘shortcut’ method vs ‘search carefully’. Because services in higher education are services that have multiple stakeholders, shortcuts are not recommended. The Ethnography Marketing approach chosen in this research is a long way to explore to understand consumers holistically from various angles and perspectives,” he said.
In this case IPB through professionals has conducted a series of searches for primary and secondary data with various techniques, namely internal workshops with key figures, in-depth interviews with future students, parents, teachers in schools, and of course not forgetting to involve key figures in the Institution either in individual separate discussions and focused discussions in groups.
The results of the scientific study of changes in the IPB brand have been conveyed in various meetings with stakeholders, including at the Academic Senate meeting. Furthermore, the term English and this new tagline will be ratified through the decision of the IPB Board of Trustees (MWA). (RYS)
