<![CDATA[In an increasingly competitive digital higher education environment, private universities often struggle with promotional homogenization and weak institutional differentiation. Integrating indigenous cultural values offers a strategic mechanism to enhance brand resonance, yet empirical evidence regarding its moderating role remains scarce. This study investigates the direct effect of digital marketing strategies on private universities' brand identity and evaluates the moderating role of Sundanese cultural orientation. Drawing on the Resource-Based View and Consumer Culture Theory, an associative quantitative research design was conducted using a structured five-point Likert survey administered to 300 prospective and first-year undergraduate students across ten private higher education institutions in eastern West Java, Indonesia (Majalengka, Sumedang, and Kuningan). Data were analyzed using classical linear regression diagnostics and hierarchical Moderated Regression Analysis (MRA). The empirical results demonstrate that digital marketing strategies exert a significant positive direct effect on campus brand identity (β = 0.421, p < 0.001). Furthermore, Sundanese cultural orientation exhibits a significant direct effect (β = 0.298, p < 0.001) and acts as a statistically significant quasi-moderator (β = 0.176, p = 0.004), amplifying the positive impact of digital marketing campaigns on brand identity formation. The regression model accounts for 52.1% of the total variance in campus brand identity (R2 = 0.521). These findings highlight that indigenous culture is an inimitable strategic asset rather than a cosmetic feature, enabling universities to build authentic, human-centric narratives that drive sustainable competitive differentiation in digital higher education marketing.]]>
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