A university-accreditation brand alliance occurs when the university forms an association A university-accreditation brand alliance occurs when the university forms an association with an accreditation agency; and uses the agency's name or logo in the university's promotional materials, such as their website. Past research shows that brand alliance is a win/win strategy for both brand partners. However, it is important to ascertain how the accreditation brand alliance should be communicated by the university, in order to achieve a favorable response amongst prospective students. This research examines the effect that a university's message strategy has on the university's perceived quality and students' application intention. Results clearly show that communication of the accreditation brand alliance benefits the university brand; as it significantly influences prospective students' perception of the university brand. The positive impact of the accreditation brand ally's cue is more pronounced in the case of a low equity university brand than that of a high equity university brand. Also the university's communication strategy is more effective when the accreditation brand ally includes descriptive information relating to the accreditation agency, than when only the ally's logo is presented. In the latter's case, the impact of the university's alliance on the students' application intention is less influential.