2014/2015  KAN-SVW  New Frontiers in Branding: From static to dynamic branding approaches

English Title

New Frontiers in Branding: From static to dynamic branding approaches

Course information
Language	English
Course ECTS	7.5 ECTS
Type	Elective
Level	Full Degree Master
Duration	One Quarter
Course period	Second Quarter
Timetable	Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Max. participants	100
Study board	Study Board for MSc in Economics and Business Administration
Course coordinator
Sylvia von Wallpach - Department of Marketing (Marketing)
Main academic disciplines
Communication Marketing
Last updated on 25-04-2014

Learning objectives

The course supports students in understanding the evolution from static to more dynamic branding approaches. Students will learn to understand brands as complex, dynamic phenomena and will be provided with theoretical and methodological input to deal with this complexity. The course helps students (a) to enhance their ability of expressing themselves academically and (b) equips them with relevant knowledge for pursuing a career as “state of the art” marketing manager or communications expert. At the end of the course, the excellent student should be able to Understand, reflect upon and contrast conventional static with dynamic branding approaches Identify and apply appropriate research methods for studying brands as dynamic phenomena Identify and discuss practical implications and limitations of dynamic branding approaches Identify potential new research topics related to dynamic branding approaches and generate his/her own conceptual framework

Examination

Individual Home Assignment: Exam ECTS 7,5 Examination form Home assignment - written product Individual or group exam Individual Size of written product Max. 10 pages Assignment type Project Duration 2 weeks to prepare Grading scale 7-step scale Examiner(s) One internal examiner Exam period Autumn Term Make-up exam/re-exam Same examination form as the ordinary exam

Course content and structure

In today’s business environment brand management is no longer in the position to unilaterally “manage” brands while perceiving consumers and other brand-interested stakeholders (e.g., employees, investors, or suppliers) as passive recipients of brand messages. Empowered by new social media, brand-interested stakeholders actively contribute to brands that affect their personal lives.   This course confronts student with and prepares them for a complex branding reality in which brands can no longer be “managed” in the conventional sense.   The course reviews conventional static branding approaches and supports students in understanding the recent evolution towards a more dynamic, process-oriented understanding of brands. Students will be provided with theoretical input which helps them making sense of brands as complex social phenomena in constant flux. For this purpose, interdisciplinary insights (e.g., from philosophy and organization theory) into process theories will be provided; formerly static brand-related concepts will be discussed from a dynamic perspective (e.g., brand knowledge / meaning, brand identity, brand manifestations, etc.); relevant concepts like multi-stakeholder brand co-creation and social brand discourse will be introduced.   Furthermore, this course will provide students with methodological input which supports them in gaining empirical insights into brands as complex social phenomena (e.g., netnographic methods, observation, discourse analysis).   The theoretical and methodological discussion will be complemented with input from managers who are confronted with this “new branding reality” on an everyday basis and have developed successful ways to deal with this complexity.

Teaching methods

This is a fully online course. The course will run over 8 weeks. The course will consist of asynchronous and/or synchronous online lectures, asynchronous and/or synchronous online discussions, quizzes and individual and/or group assignments. Research articles on the specific topics will be assigned for reading during the quarter. They will also build the foundation on which we will discuss cases online, and they provide the necessary knowledge to work with home assignments. The lecturer will be available for asynchronous and/or synchronous online discussions throughout the 8 weeks in which the course runs.

Further Information

Online course

Expected literature

Indicative literature (more literature will be announced upon enrollment): 1.     Csaba, F. F. & Bengtsson, A. 2006. Rethinking Identity in Brand Management. In: Schroeder, J. E. & Mörling, M. (eds.) Brand Culture. London: Routledge, 118-135. 2.     Gregory, A. 2007. Involving Stakeholders in Developing Corporate Brands: The Communication Dimension. Journal of Marketing Management, 23 (1-2), 59-73. 3.     Hatch, M.J. & Schultz, M. 2010. Toward a Theory of Brand Co-creation with Implications For Brand Governance. Journal of Brand Management, 17 (8), 590-604. 4.     Jones, R., & Kornum, N. (2012). Managing the co-created brand: Value and cultural complementarity in online and offline multi stakeholder ecosystems. Journal of Business Research, Special Issue on Virtual Dialogue. Volume 66, Issue 9, 5.     Kozinets, R. V. 2002. The Field Behind the Screen: Using Netnography for Marketing Research in Online Communities. Journal of Marketing Research, 39 (1), 61-72. 6.     Merz, M. A., He, Y. & Vargo, S. L. 2009. The Evolving Brand Logic: a Service Dominant Logic Perspective. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 37 (3), 328-344. 7.     Muehlbacher, Hans and Andrea Hemetsberger (2013). Brands as processes and their outcomes – a social representations perspective. in Scholderer, Joachim and Karen BrunsØ (Eds.) Marketing, Food and the consumer. Festschrift in Honour of Klaus G. Grunert. Essex: Pearson Custom Publishing, pp. 31-46. 8.    Vallaster, Christine; von Wallpach, Sylvia (2013). An online discursive inquiry into the social dynamics of multi-stakeholder brand meaning co-creation. Journal of Business Research, Special Issue on Virtual Dialogue. Volume 66, Issue 9, pp. 1505-1515.  9.   Vargo, S. L., & Lusch, R. F. (2008a). Service-dominant logic: continuing the evolution. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 36 (1), 1-10.