BE440-6-SP-CO:
Brand Management
2017/18
Essex Business School
Colchester Campus
Spring
Undergraduate: Level 6
Current
Monday 14 January 2019
Friday 22 March 2019
15
-
Requisites for this module
(BE400 or IA711) and BE511
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
BSC NN25 Management and Marketing,
BSC NN2M Management and Marketing (Including Placement Year),
BSC NNF5 Management and Marketing (Including Year Abroad)
Module Description
This module builds upon your prior knowledge of marketing and management by considering the more specific field of brand management. In this module you will explore the fascinating world of brands from various perspectives. To that end, the module highlights the ubiquitous presence of brands in our contemporary cultures and explores consequences for contemporary marketing practices and for organisational practices more generally. Further, we will examine the relevance and impact of brands for businesses, consumers, and within society at large.
The module deals with the meaning of brands, their relation to products, services and other entities that are being “branded”, the choices regarding brand strategy, and their management. Attention is paid to the notion of brand identity, brand image, the issues of brand development and extension, and the consumption of brands. The module introduces managerial and marketing issues central to brand management while also engaging in critical analysis of branding understood as a cultural practice within society at large.
All this will, hopefully, challenge some of the preconceptions about brands you may have, show you the potential breadth and depth of branding as an exciting subject area to study and make you aware of how all this is potentially relevant for your future professional and personal lives.
Module Aims
What you can expect from this module:
This module aims to enable you to debate branding with confidence by being able to navigate the various perspectives and (academic) discourses about brands and to make sense of their relevance for businesses and their role within society in general. Your engagement with key branding concepts, strategies, and issues throughout the module will provide you with a good foundation. Ideally, at the end of the module you will have developed your own position in reference to the relevance and impact of brands and branding for businesses, consumers and society. Also, you will be able to express, apply, and justify that position while acknowledging the diverse, ephemeral and often contested nature of brand management recommendations and knowledge. I will introduce you to these debates, concepts and strategies and help you to develop your understanding and grasp of these things.
...and what you cannot expect:
This module will not provide you with a one-size-fits-all toolbox and with a solution for all branding problems, nor does it pretend to provide easy answers. I leave that to the many popular business books you can find in every airport bookshop that tell you about the “ten immutable laws of branding” and the like. Instead, the module aims to raise your awareness of the manifold nature of branding issues and equip you with a conceptual framework with which you can investigate and comprehend brand management challenges of the future that are likely to be much different from those of the past.
…so what?
Branding is a fascinating but rather multifaceted subject area. That is why I love it. Brands are as much a marketing and business phenomenon as they are social and cultural entities and they have a material dimension as much as they are mental constructs (here I beg to differ and disagree with many mainstream marketing textbooks, but more about that in our lectures and classes). If the key premise of this module states that brands are now a ubiquitous feature deeply implicated in our daily lives within a globalised, turbulent, and diverse world (and we will see that this premise is rather sound) than the issues surrounding brands and brand management are likely to be complex and ambiguous. The good news is, you already know a great deal about all sorts of brands, they are already part of your lives after all (whether you like it or not).
Again, I will guide you through that multifaceted terrain of branding knowledge and I will help you to develop your own take on these things. I believe this is your right and should be your aspiration as a final year, soon to be graduated, university student.
I expect you to be curious and studious in equal measures and I hope you take the module with an ambition to achieve the specified learning outcomes. Be invited to join the captivating debate about brands and branding we are going to unfold throughout the module and welcome to the world of brands!
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
1. Explain the role of brands for contemporary marketing and the historical emergence of brands and branding as a business practice.
2. Analyse the role of brand management for companies and locate brand management within its wider social, economic, and cultural context.
3. Evaluate the theoretical and practical implications of branding concepts and strategies and discuss them critically in relation to a variety of contemporary issues of brand management.
4. Apply brand management concepts and strategies to business problems and justify their suitability for a business problem at hand while being able to identify possible limitations.
No information available.
No information available.
SKILLS FOR YOUR PROFESSIONAL LIFE (TRANSFERABLE SKILLS)
Taking this module will help you develop the following additional skills for your professional life:
* Written Communication – through the diligent preparation of seminar tasks and assignments
* Oral Communication – through your active and thoughtful participation in class discussions
* Research Skills – through your independent location, evaluation and use of reliable and valid information sources (academic and non-academic)
* Critical Thinking – through your reflective engagement with the subject area and its theoretical principles and practical implications
* Teamwork/Collaboration – through your active participation in group work and discussions
* Digital and Technical Fluency – through your use of information technology to source information and compose assessed documents
* Innovation and Curiosity – through your independent exploration and research of the subject area and its theoretical principles and practical implications beyond the basic issues introduced in class
* Data and Analytics – through your active and informed use of academic and commercial databases and your use of relevant information sources
* Personal Brand – through your creative application of the subject area and its theoretical principles and practical implications to your own life
The module will be delivered in weekly lectures and fortnightly seminars. In this way you are being broadly introduced to the content of a brand management topic area in each lecture providing you with a foundation for independent further study. The seminars enable you to deepen your understanding of brand management issues by way of interactive activities such as small group work and in-class discussions of concepts and examples. Required readings and preparation activities for sessions will be provided before each session on Moodle. You are expected that you prepare by reading the material and complete the required tasks beforehand and that you actively participate in class activities and discussions.
- Pervan, Simon. (2015) Strategic Brand Management, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course. The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students. Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
BE440 COURSEWORK |
|
40% |
| Coursework |
COURSEWORK ASSIGNMENT TWO |
|
60% |
| Exam |
Reassessment Main exam: 120 minutes during Summer (Main Period)
|
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Erik Jacobi, email: ejacobi@essex.ac.uk.
Amir Homayounfard
ebsugcol@essex.ac.uk
Yes
No
No
Dr Emma Surman
The University of Keele
Lecturer
Available via Moodle
Of 50 hours, 50 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
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