• 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
• Demonstrate the ability to reflect on his/her own activities and interactions throughout the course by identifying a portfolio of own contributions and arguing for their substantiveness and relevance for solving the exam case.

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.

Online course

Indicative literature (more literature will be announced upon enrollment):

1. Aaker, J.L. (1997), Dimensions of Brand Personality, Journal of Marketing Research, 34 (3), pp. 347–356.

1. Fournier, S. (1998), Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research, 24 (4), pp. 343-353.

1. Hatch, M.J. and M. Schultz (2010), Toward a Theory of Brand Co-creation with Implications for Brand Governance, Journal of Brand Management, 17 (8), pp. 590-604.

1. Holt, D.B. (2002), Why Do Brands Cause Trouble? A Dialectic Theory of Consumer Culture and Branding, Journal of Consumer Research, 29 (1), pp. 70-90.

1. Keller, K.L. (1993), Conceptualizing, Measuring and Managing Customer-based Brand Equity, Journal of Marketing, 57 (January), pp. 1-22.

1. Louro M.J. and P.V. Cunha (2001), Brand Management Paradigms, Journal of Marketing Management, 17, pp. 849-875.

1. Merz, M., He, Y., and S.L. Vargo (2009), The Evolving Brand Logic: A Service-dominant Logic Perspective, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 37 (3), pp. 328-344.

1. Muñiz Jr., A. M., and T. C. O'Guinn (2001), Brand Community, Journal of Consumer Research, 27 (4), pp. 412-432.

1. Urde, M. (2013), The Corporate Brand Identity Matrix, Journal of Brand Management, 20 (9), pp. 742-761.

1. Vallaster, C. and S. von Wallpach (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, 66 (9), pp. 1505-1515.