• Reflect on the main concepts and the purpose of branding.
• Analyse brand concepts in real-life setting by articulating the context of and the rationale for the application.
• Discuss the process and methods of brand management, including how to establish brand identity and build brand equity.
• Generate effective branding strategies for consumer and/or business products/services with the insights from marketing research.
• Conduct a brand audit using both primary and secondary sources and propose strategic recommendations based on the audit results.
• Compose, assess, and incorporate individual input to produce effective project output.

How does a company develop and fit together a brand portfolio? How can the value of a brand be measured? How does one develop a strong brand that is competitive in business and at the same time contributes to the society? Why do some brands fade away quickly? Why do some brands have such loyal followers? How should brands be managed over time and across different geographic areas? This course is designed to explore the concepts and tools that will help you answer these questions.

Brands are among the most valuable assets of a company. A strong brand can have a significant impact on consumer purchasing decision by communicating the value of and providing differentiation for products and services. Thus, effective brand management is critical to maintaining the long-term profitability of products and services. Moreover, effective brand management is critical for a better world as brands can have roles in recognising and resolving world's challenges (e.g., climate concerns, sustainability, social issues, health and well-being).

While branding is both an art and a science, there are certain patterns and predictability of branding activities that greatly increase the odds of success. Becoming familiar with the relevant theories and models of branding can help managers make better branding decisions by having deep business knowledge placed in a broad context (e.g., across boundaries, across time). Moreover, with the arrival of many interactive data management and communications tools, there are also growing challenges as well as opportunities in the process of branding. Hence, it is important to be analytical with the insights from market. 

This course aims to develop students’ understanding of the importance of brand equity as well as how to build, measure, and manage brand equity. It will cover topics in the utilities of branding, steps/process of building brands, methods of measuring brand equity, ways to leverage brand equity, strategies in managing brand portfolios, and management of brands over time, geographic boundaries, and market segments. The content of this course is divided into four learning modules:

Module 1: Understanding Brand

            This module gives a basic overview of branding. It covers what a brand is, why brands matter, characteristics of strong brands, and other fundamental concepts of branding. This module aims to familiarize the students with the key conceptual foundation of developing and managing a strong brand. 

Module 2: Developing Brand

            This module introduces the process of crafting a brand. It covers ways of developing brand elements, creating brand associations, and introducing a new brand, and designing marketing programs that effectively communicate the desirable brand identity to target markets. 

Module 3: Evaluating Brand

            This module reviews the methods of measuring and interpreting brand performance. It covers typical approaches of assessing brand equity, especially from a consumer perspective. It also offers both qualitative and quantitative tools for measuring brand image and strength.

Module 4: Managing Brand

            This module focuses on the management of brands over time, geographic areas, and market segments. It covers the strategies for more established brands as they attempt to grow and stay relevant over time by examining the concepts and tools in brand extensions, consumer-brand relationships, strategic alliances, brand portfolios, global branding, and brand repositioning. 

The learning modules aim the students to be able to understand how brands can (1) create prosperity, not only for business purposes but also for the general well-being of the society, (2) grow by relearning from their current positioning in the marketplace, and (3) create value from global connections for the local communities they exist.  

As a reference course book, the course will use Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity by Kevin Lane Keller and Vanitha Swaminathan, Pearson, Global Edition. 

However, the discussions and course material will not be limited to only the course book. More readings will be assigned during the term. 

As supplementary material, there are several books that provide useful perspectives and ideas on brand management: Aaker's Managing Brand Equity,Building Strong Brands, and Brand Leadership (with Erich Joachimsthaler), and Kapferer's The New Strategic Brand Management. 

For current industry information, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Fortune, Forbes, and The Economist have marketing articles that frequently deal with brand issues. Students can also stay up to date through alerts from WSJ’sCMO Today and MediaREDEF. ADWEEK is the industry trade publication, which students can also follow.