GRA 4145 Brand Management

APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2014/2015

GRA 4145 Brand Management


Responsible for the course
Bendik Samuelsen

Department
Department of Marketing

Term
According to study plan

ECTS Credits
6

Language of instruction
English

Introduction
If strong brands are among the company's most valuable assets, managing and developing them becomes of crucial importance for the long term profitability of a firm. Brands are special, they are managed by companies, but their positions will often reside in consumers' minds. This implies that a brand strategist has to combine deep customer insight with clear strategic vision. This course gives an introduction to both of these areas of skills.

Learning outcome
The first course segment "Core brand issues" is dedicated to generate customer insight, to understand the way customers perceive brands, store brand associations, and use brand knowledge when choosing among different brands. This serves as a ground for the following sections on establishing brand positions, giving the brand identity, and establishing a credible brand value proposition. Having completed this section, students should know the "nuts and bolts" of branding. This enables a shift to more strategic brand issues.

The main learning outcomes are:

  1. In general, to enable the students to develop skills with respect to manage brands strategically
  2. Establish the abiltiy to elicit and analyze brand associations, and derive stratgic implications for positioning, brand elements, and the usage of secondary brand associations.
  3. Establish basic understanding of different methods for brand valuation
  4. Establish skills enabling the students to assess growth-opportunities for brands, e.g., brand extension strategies
  5. Understand and apply principles for brand portfolio-management, including the challenges inherent in the continuum from corporate brands to branded articles, from house of brands to branded house.

Prerequisites
Marketing management is a basic prerequisite. Students would also benefit from having taken a consumer behavior course.

Compulsory reading
Books:
Keller, Kevin Lane. 2013. Strategic brand management: building, measuring, and managing brand equity. 4th ed., global ed. Pearson

Collection of articles:
Compendium of articles will be available to buy from the document centre

Other:
During the course there may be hand-outs and other material on additional topics relevant for the course and the examination.


Recommended reading
Books:
De Chernatony, Leslie. 2010. From brand vision to brand evaluation: the strategic process of growing and strengthening brands. 3rd ed. Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann
Kapferer, Jean-Nöel. 2012. The new strategic brand management: advanced insights and strategic thinking. 5th ed. Kogan Page. Chapter 3
Aaker, David A. 1996. Building strong brands. Free Press. Chapters 3-5
Aaker, David A., Erich Joachimsthaler. 2000. Brand leadership. Free Press

Course outline
1: Core brand issues:
- Customer based brand equity, the brand value chain, the brand resonance model (CBBE pyramid), brand awareness and –knowledge
- Brand positioning

2: Strategic brand management applications
- Developing consumer-brand relationships
- Strategies for leveraging secondary associations (co-branding,
ingredient-branding, licensing, CoO)
- Building for growth: the brand and line extension strategies
- Developing a brand portfolio-strategy
- Corporate branding challenges

Computer-based tools
It's learning

Learning process and workload
A course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of 160-180 hours.

The class will be organized around discussing selected topics illustrated by theory and practical cases. The students are expected to be well prepared and highly involved in the discussions. Major topics to be covered are:
- Introduction to brand management. History of branding and future challenges. Consumers and their brands.
- The Customer Based Brand Equity framework. Brand knowledge and -associations
- Brand elements
- Brand positioning strategies
- Tying the knot: the relationships between brands and their buyers
- Secondary brand associations: how can they help to leverage and fortify the brand position
- Leveraging the brand: gaining competitive advantage through brand- and line extensions
- Establishing a brand portfolio strategy: from house of brands, endorsed brands, sub-brands, to a branded house
- Corporate branding issues

Students will also be assigned three cases during the course. Groups of 2-3 students hand in a write-up for each case. The case write-ups are handed in though it's learning one week before the case is scheduled to be discussed in class. Other cases might also be utilized, but without write-ups in advance.

Please note that it is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class that is not included on the course homepage/It's learning or text book.


Examination
The course grade will be based on the following activities and weights:
60% write up of three case assignments (solved in groups of minmum two (2) and maximum three (3) students) and class participation. Each case counts 20%, 60% in total.
40 % Individual three hour written exam
To get a final grade in the course, students need to complete and achieve a passing grade in all parts of the evaluation.

Please note that even though class participation is not compulsory, active participation will be rewarded, and vice versa. Participation in case-discussions in particular and in lectures in general is expected, and will be considered extensively when deciding on the final grade in this course. Specific information regarding student evaluation beyond the information given in the course description will be provided in class. This information may be relevant for requirements for term papers or other hand-ins, and/or where class participation can be one of several elements of the overall evaluation.

This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam elements) and one final exam code. Each exam element will be graded using points on a scale (e.g. 0-100 or letter-grades). The elements will be weighted together according to the information in the course description in order to calculate the final letter grade for the course. You will find detailed information about the point system and the cut off points with reference to the letter grades on the course site in It’s learning.

Examination code(s)
GRA 41454 continuous assessment accounts for 100% of the final grade in the course GRA 4145.

Examination support materials
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 in the section on support materials.

Re-sit examination
It is only possible to retake an examination when the course is next taught.
The assessment in some courses is based on more than one exam code.
Where this is the case, you may retake only the assessed components of one of these exam codes.
Where this is not the case, all of the assessed components of the course must be retaken.
All retaken examinations will incur an additional fee.

Additional information
Honor Code
Academic honesty and trust are important to all of us as individuals, and represent values that are encouraged and promoted by the honor code system. This is a most significant university tradition. Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the ideals of the honor code system, to which the faculty are also deeply committed.

Any violation of the honor code will be dealt with in accordance with BI’s procedures for cheating. These issues are a serious matter to everyone associated with the programs at BI and are at the heart of the honor code and academic integrity. If you have any questions about your responsibilities under the honor code, please ask.

Semesters

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