Abstract
The premise of this article is that brands help people create their identities. When institutions of higher education engage in explicit branding activities, an appearance-focused brand culture, in which a coherent system of symbols, actions, and meaning, may emerge. This article explores how students in a Swedish business school use the school’s brand for self-branding. The branding processes have implications for student postures toward their university education and the development of their self-conceptualizations. The article presents a theoretical framework for branding and for student self-branding at the studied school, demonstrates how the school is the focal point for this self-branding, identifies the branding vocabulary used at the school, and analyzes how students develop self-conceptualizations in a meaning system infused by branding. The article concludes by posing questions on the significance of self-branding in higher educatio