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You write that higher education institutions should be able to develop unique brands because the retail industry has at least 150 distinctive marques ("Swap camels for custom vehicles", 8 September). However, buying a "low-involvement" consumer item such as a Mars bar is not quite the same as a "high-involvement" purchase such as a university education.

Low-involvement purchases are cheap, habitual, familiar to the consumer and low risk. High-involvement purchases are expensive, infrequent and demand extensive research because consumers have far less pre-purchase product knowledge.

A closer "retail" equivalent to a university education costing tens of thousands of pounds would be buying a luxury car; I am not sure that there are 150 distinctive brands in that area.

Hillary Shaw, Senior lecturer and food research consultant, Department of business management and marketing, Harper Adams University College