Brand Management and Marketing Communication / Brand Management and Marketing Communication

The Academic Board of Business Administration, Odense
Teaching activity id: 8222001.
Teaching language: English.ECTS / weighting: 10 ECTS / 0.167 full-time equivalent.
Examination language: English.
Exam activity id: 8222002.Approved: 10-11-17.
Period: Spring 2018.
Grading: Internal grading.
Assessment: 7-point scale.
Offered in: Odense.

Subject director:
Associate Professor Gry Høngsmark Knudsen, Department of Marketing & Management.

Prerequisites:
There are no prerequisites in terms of knowledge about Brand Management or Market Communication.
In the course, for the assignments and class preparation, the SDU library facilities are used, especially the digital article subscriptions and databases. There should be a general understanding of the workings of these systems, the more detailed skills to negate specific subscriptions and databases will be provided in the class.
Students should have acquired English skills on a level that allows them to read and understand English academic articles, and to communicate in oral and written forms in English.

Purpose:
The course intends to enable the students to develop a basic understanding of the diverse conceptual approaches towards brand and market communication management, to critically reflect the posibilities and restraints of diverse views on brands and to apply the conceptual tools to real life examples of brands and marketing communication.

Content - Key areas:
The class contains the following areas of study:
  • Consumer brand relations: Developing an understanding of different types of relationships and hwo to manage them
  • The value of brands: Here several concepts for analysing the value of brands are presented (i.e. financial approaches, psychological constructs and socio-cultural understanding)

Brand strategies: Based on the consumer relationships with brands and the brand equity model, strategies are presented to develop and maintain the value of brands,
  • Brand portfolio: The discussion is expanded to the management of several brands, which includes brand stretching and retrenching, as well as the horizontal and vertical relationships between brands (brand hierarchy and brand architecture).

Marketing communication strategies:
  • Advertising strategy: the discussion encompass message construction, textual analysis, and consumer response
  • Integrated marketing communication: how to communicate as an organization with a variety of goal to a a variety of segments and audiences.

A basic differentiation for the whole class will be made between functional and symbolic brands, to assure that the brand management discussions incorporate branded fast moving consumer goods as well as highly symbolic and iconic brands.

Goals description (SOLO taxonomy):
After the course, the student should be able to perform an analysis and conceptualization of concepts and theories from the course. The student should be able to demonstrate that he or she can:
  • Correctly define and describe theoretical concepts.
  • Use theoretical concepts in thinking about strategy for a specific brand or marketing campaign.
  • Discuss potentials and limitations of a theoretical frame for specific brands or advertising examples based on specific perspectives (e.g. consumer, manager social scientist perspectives).
  • Show directions to identify and handle potential conflicts and tensions in the theory application by critically evaluate and reflect on conceptual approaches in their contextual adequacy with respect to advantages and disadvantages.
  • Question existing brand conceptions in their heuristic value to solve practical problems.
  • Be able to discuss and evaluate potential results of branding efforts through the analysis of specific communication tools.

Literature:
For example:
Stephen Brown (2016), Brands and Branding, London: Sage
Larry Percy & Richard Elliott: Strategic Advertising Management. Oxford University Press. Seneste udgave.
Hackley, Chris & Rungpacka Amy Hackley, (2015) Advertising & Promotion, Sage
+Selected articles and cases


Time of classes:
Spring.

Scheduled classes:
3 lectures and 2 exercise classes per week for 15 weeks.

Form of instruction:
Through lectures, exercises and case studies the course gives a coherent overview and understanding of the main concepts of brand and market communications management. It integrates a macro- and a micro-perspective on brands. And it discusses how market communication tools are used to design communication around brands to relevant audiences.
In this way, this class intends to develop a thorough understanding of the contextual nature of brand management, which means the relevance of brands in certain historical and socio-cultural environments.

Distribution of workload:
Lectures: 45
Exercises: 30
Class Preparation: 105
Exam Preparation: 86
Exam: 4
Total: 270

Time of examination:
Ordinary examination in June.
Reexamination in August.

The form of the reexam is subject to change. This will be announced 14 days befiore the reexam takes place.

Registration for the course is automatically a registration for the ordinary examination in the course. Cancellation is not possible. If the student does not participate in the examination, the student will use an examination attempt.

Examination conditions:
None.

Form of examination for the certificate:
Written exam.

Supplemental information for the form of examination:
The exam is in the form of questions allowing the student to demonstrate his or her academic level compared to the learning goals.

Duration: 4 hours.
Location: SDU. Students using own PC.
Internet Access: Necessary
Hand out: In the examination room.
Hand in: Via SDU-assignment in the course in Blackboard.
Extent: 10 pages
Exam Aids: All exam aids allowed. Exam aids, such as own PC, may not be removed from the examination room during the exam. During the exam no communication is allowed, except with the university representatives.

The examiner can allow that the exam assignment can be answered in Danish. Information on this issue will appear on the course page in Blackboard. 

Programmes:
Marketing, Branding og Kommunikation
2nd semester, mandatory. Offered in: Odense
BSc. Economics and Business Administration - Marketing & Brand Management
2nd semester, Not chosen, mandatory. Offered in: Odense