Promotion, Positioning, and School Choice: The Mediating Role of Brand Equity in an Indonesian Islamic Senior High School

Abstract

The decision-making process of students and parents in selecting a school is increasingly influenced by marketing-oriented factors such as promotion, positioning, and brand equity. In a competitive educational landscape, schools are required not only to deliver quality learning but also to communicate their value effectively to prospective students. This conceptual paper aims to explore the relationships between school promotion and positioning on school choice, with brand equity serving as a mediating variable. Drawing upon theories of consumer behavior and educational marketing, the study positions school promotion as the strategic communication efforts to attract prospective students, while positioning represents the distinct identity created in the minds of the community. Brand equity, in turn, functions as a psychological bridge that enhances trust, reputation, and perceived value of the school, which can ultimately shape students’ decisions to enroll. This research adopts a quantitative explanatory design, proposing a structured survey distributed to students and parents at Madrasah Aliyah Swasta (MAS) Cendikia Bunayya, Kabanjahe, North Sumatra. Data will be analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test both direct and mediating effects. The expected contribution of this paper is twofold: theoretically, it extends the application of brand equity as a mediating construct within the educational marketing domain; practically, it provides actionable insights for school managers and policymakers to strengthen strategies that align promotion and positioning with brand equity, thereby enhancing competitiveness in the education sector.