ELE 3777 Branding

APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2016/2017

ELE 3777 Branding


Responsible for the course
Peter Jarnebrant, Carlos Velasco

Department
Department of Marketing

Term
According to study plan

ECTS Credits
7,5

Language of instruction
English

Introduction
Branding, is an introductory course to the journey of building and managing strong and successful brands. The course relies mostly on consumer psychology and make students familiar with how and why people choose and attach to brands. This is a unique course due to its emphasis on the psychological mechanisms underlying consumers' brand behavior. After providing an understanding of consumers' brand behavior, the course introduces tools and techniques for practitioners to develop strategic brand management programs and create lifetime customer values. The course tries to apply latest scientific findings to expand students' understanding of consumers' brand behavior.

Learning outcome
Acquired knowledge:
On completion of the course the student shall:

  • Get familiar with and understand why brands exist, and how people develop relations to them, choose them and include them as part of their identity.
  • Get familiar with and understand the principles social influence and their applications in branding.
  • Get familiar with and understand how brands might influence the behavior, feelings and cognition of consumers.
  • Get familiar with and understand the most important principles of developing and evaluating a strategic brand management program, brand growth, and brand hierarchy.

Acquired skills:
On completion of the course the student shall:
  • Be able to give a presentation of different psychological drivers of consumers' brand behavior
  • Analyzing and designing programs to influence consumers' choice and preference with respect to a particular brand
  • Be able to develop suggestions for brand growth strategies, including extensions and architecture, as well as suggestions for designing and managing brand elements, considering consumer psychology.

    Prerequisites
    Introductory courses in Marketing Management, Consumer Behaviour, and Marketing Communication, or equivalent skills are required.

    Compulsory reading
    Books:
    Chip Heath and Dan Heath. 2007. Made to Stick: Why some ideas survive and other die. We will cover selective chapters from this book, through students' presentations.
    Kevin Lane Keller. 2013. Strategic Brand Management: Building and Managing Brand Equity. 4th Editiion. Selective chapters will be covered.


    Other:
    A Compnedium of articles. This compendium contains several easy to read yet important and essential articles which make students familair with recent findings and discoveries in branding. The articles will be covered and discussed in class and serve as complemtentary resources to the books and other referecnes in this course. The compendium will be availalble to students via Its Learning.
    In addition to book chapters, students will read a selection of interesting scientific articles every week. These articles are part of the course materials and inroduce students to the psychology of brand beahvior. Class discussions about these articles are an essential part of this course. These articles will be distributed via Its Learning and all students will have access to them.



    Recommended reading

    Course outline
    • What is a Brand: Corporates' vs. Consumers' Perspective
    • Customer Based Brand Equity and Brand Knowledge
    • Placebo Effects of Brands: The role of Priming
    • Consumer Naive Theories about Brands and the importance of various brand element design
    • Brand-Self Identity Connection
    • Luxury Branding and Conspicuous Consumption
    • Cognitive Feelings and Their Application in Naming Brands
    • Measuring and Interpreting Brand Performance in the Marketplace
    • The Psychology of Brand Growth: Understanding brand extensions, architecture and portfolio
    • The Psychology of Time and Culture in Branding Decisions

    Computer-based tools
    None required.

    Learning process and workload
    The learning outcomes are to be achieved through a combination of lectures, active discussions in class, reading selective book chapters and articles as well as group works on assignments.

    It is highgly recommended that students read the assigned articles prior to coming to class. Students are strongly encouraged to take active participation in scientific and managerial disucssions in the class based on the assigned course material.

    Three case studies and several short and weekly assignments will be handed during the course. These are to be solved in groups, and must be handed in at the assigned due dates and time. Solution of these cases and assignments will be discussed in class.

    Recommended use of hours:
    Activity Hours
    Participation in classes
    36
    Preparation for classes
    45
    Assignment work in groups
    60
    Self-study, preparations for the examination
    59
    Examination
    3
    Total recommended use of hours
    200



      Examination
      The final grade in this course will be based on the following activities and weightings:
      1) Active class participation and discussion of reading materials and articles (10%) (Class Activity)
      2) Class Presentation (10%) (Team-baed Class Acitivity)
      3) Assignments and Case Studies (20%) (Individual and Team-Based Hand-ins)
      4) A written examination, 3 hours , counts for 60% of the final grade

      Examination code(s)
      ELE 37772 Process evaluation, counts for 100% of final grade in ELE 3777 Branding,7,5 credits.

      Examination support materials
      For the written examination no support materials allowed except for a bilingual dictionary.
      Examination support materials at written examiniations are explained under examination information in the student portal @BI. Please note use of calculator and dictionary. https://at.bi.no/EN/Pages/Exa_Hjelpemidler-til-eksamen.aspx


      Re-sit examination
      A re-sit is held in connection with the next scheduled examination in the course.
      Students who are taking new examination must take the course all over including all parts of evaluation.

      Re-sit examination in Examination code ELE 37771 - Written examination (three hours), counts 100%, will be possible last time spring 2017.


      Additional information