How the University of Chester used a sofa and a hashtag to share the real story of their brand

This case study examines how the University of Chester set about differentiating its offering by creating opportunities for its staff and students to become valuable brand advocates. By creating a common space for stakeholders to share their own unique experiences, the University of Chester found a way to communicate key insights into their brand through emotive and honest storytelling. The case study considers the difficulty in differentiation in UK higher education and the pull towards institutional data and metrics that the marketisation of the sector has created. In trying to find ways to differentiate while sharing core elements of the university’s story, the University of Chester not only created valuable and successful content, but started to learn some important lessons about itself and its stakeholders. The case study concludes with an assessment of the insights that the university was able to gather and reflects on the longevity of standard marketing theory in an age of digital natives and social media.