Brand Management: Strategic Design and Creative Applications
People
Course director
Course director
Description
Strategic brand design is articulated around three main spheres:
- Morphology, consisting in decisions allowing customers to sensorially experience and recognise a brand. Strategic decisions revolve around the choice of the brand name, logo/symbol, brand character, aural identity, and more.
- Axiology, consisting in the grounding values, visions, and ideologies that make a brand be unique, authentic, and relevant. Axiological design allows brands “to stand for something”.
- Narratology, consisting in the way narrative contents are constructed, disseminated and consumed. Story-making, storytelling, and story-living are key strategic steps the Course addresses.
In line with the first part of the Course, creative methodologies are applied to:
- Brand morphology, in terms of creative ways to express a brand through packaging, product design, visual identity, merchandising, digital activation, etc.
- Brand axiology, in terms of creative ways to understand a brand’s own reference market, and build consumer insights.
- Brand narratology, in terms of creative ways to stage stories through appropriate touchpoints and connect dominant ideologies with appealing brand stories.
Objectives
Standing from the perspective of brand managers/companies, the Course aims at familiarising participants with both the strategic thinking and the creative abilities requested for today’s branding in phygital environments.
The first part of the Course – Branding: Strategic Design – focuses more on the strategic conception of brands. It posits that brands are not mere identification signs, but identity platforms capable of establishing relationships with customers and multiple audiences, which exceed commercial transactions.
The second part of the Course – Branding: Creative Applications – focuses on how creative brand decisions intersect brand strategic design. After clarifying the difference between creativity and creation, the Course investigates how distinct creative approaches boost brand appeal, identity, and value. Creativity is proposed as a means for brands to provide significant value to the market.
Overall, the Course aims at:
- Developing multidisciplinary and multi-epistemological understanding of processes behind brand management and consumer interaction with brands.
- Improving students’ ability in designing and fostering brand recognition (brand morphology), brand essence (brand axiology), and brand narratives (brand storytelling).
- Acquiring theoretical understanding and practical skills in the context of contemporary branding.
- Decoding and practicing creativity in the context of brand management.
Teaching mode
In presence
Learning methods
The Course engages students in rich and critical discussion about brands’ function, nature, construction, and execution. Discussion combines research-driven evidences with real-life examples. It also implies application of theories to concreate realms of brand creative activation (group project).
Students have to attend at least 60% of the in-presence classes for each of the two blocks (Prof. Visconti’s and Prof. Heilbrunn’s parts) to validate the Course. In case of personal impediments, students need to inform professors and discuss with them the best way to proceed.
Examination information
Assessment is based on an individual written exam (accounting 50% of the grade and specific to the first part of the Course) and a group project (accounting for the remaining 50% and elaborated for the second part of the programme).
Detailed evaluation criteria are set at the beginning of the Course.
Bibliography
- (PDF) Kapferer's Brand-Identity Prism model | Awais Pirvani - Academia.edu
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Aaker, Jennifer L.. "Dimensions of Brand Personality" Journal of Marketing Research, 34, 3 (1997): 347-356.
10.1177/002224379703400304 -
Borghini, Stefania, Diamond, Nina, Kozinets, Robert V., McGrath, Mary Ann, Muñiz, Albert M., Sherry, John F.. "Why Are Themed Brandstores So Powerful? Retail Brand Ideology at American Girl Place" Journal of Retailing, 85, 3 (2009): 363-375.
10.1016/j.jretai.2009.05.003 - Burkus, David. The myths of creativity: the truth about how innovative companies and people generate great ideas. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2013.
- Csíkszentmihályi, Mihály. Creativity: the psychology of discovery and invention. New York: HarperPerennial Modern Classics, 2013.
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Diamond, Nina, Sherry, John F., Muñiz, Albert M., McGrath, Mary Ann, Kozinets, Robert V., Borghini, Stefania. "American Girl and the Brand Gestalt: Closing the Loop on Sociocultural Branding Research" Journal of Marketing, 73, 3 (2009): 118-134.
10.1509/jmkg.73.3.118 - Ed, Catmull. Creativity Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces that Stand in the Way of True Inspiration. Random House, 2014.
- Holt, Douglas B.. How brands become icons: the principles of cultural branding. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press, 2004. (Chapters 1 and 2)
- Keller, Kevin Lane, Swaminathan, Vanitha. Strategic brand management: building, measuring, and managing brand equity. Fifth edition, global edition. Harlow: Pearson, 2020. (Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, and 11)
- Koestler, Arthur. The act of creation. Reprint edition. United States?]: Last Century Media, 2014.
- Lévi-Strauss, Claude. The savage mind. 12th ed.. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2018.
- Morhart, Felicitas. Research handbook on luxury branding. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020. (Only the article by Douglas B. Holt and Douglas Cameron, pp. 24.27)
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Muniz, Albert M., O'Guinn, Thomas C.. "Brand Community" Journal of Consumer Research, 27, 4 (2001): 412-432.
10.1086/319618 - Sternberg, Robert J.. Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
- Triumph of a Better Ideology (Only the article by Douglas B. Holt and Douglas Cameron, pp. 24.27)
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van Laer, Tom, Visconti, Luca M., Feiereisen, Stephanie. "Need for narrative" Journal of Marketing Management, 34, 5-6 (2018): 484-496.
10.1080/0267257x.2018.1477817 -
van Laer, Tom, de Ruyter, Ko, Visconti, Luca M., Wetzels, Martin. "The Extended Transportation-Imagery Model: A Meta-Analysis of the Antecedents and Consequences of Consumers' Narrative Transportation" Journal of Consumer Research, 40, 5 (2014): 797-817.
10.1086/673383
Education
- Master in European Studies in Investor Relations and Financial Communication, Lecture, Suggested Elective Course, Elective, 2nd year
- Master of Science in Communication and Economics in Corporate Communication, Lecture, Thematic Area: Crossmedia, Transmedia and Multimodal Communication, Elective, 2nd year
- Master of Science in Communication and Economics in Corporate Communication, Lecture, Thematic Area: Customer Experience and Value, Elective, 2nd year
- Master of Science in Communication and Economics in Corporate Communication, Lecture, Thematic Area: Organisation and Human Resource Management, Elective, 2nd year
- Master of Science in Communication and Economics in Corporate Communication, Lecture, Thematic Area: Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Elective, 2nd year
- Master of Science in Communication and Economics in Corporate Communication, Lecture, Thematic Area: Visual and Material Culture, Elective, 2nd year
- Master of Science in Communication and Economics in Marketing and Transformative Economy, Lecture, Thematic Area: Crossmedia, Transmedia and Multimodal Communication, Elective, 2nd year
- Master of Science in Communication and Economics in Marketing and Transformative Economy, Lecture, Thematic Area: Customer Experience and Value, Elective, 2nd year
- Master of Science in Communication and Economics in Marketing and Transformative Economy, Lecture, Thematic Area: Organisation and Human Resource Management, Elective, 2nd year
- Master of Science in Communication and Economics in Marketing and Transformative Economy, Lecture, Thematic Area: Visual and Material Culture, Elective, 2nd year
- Master of Science in Communication and Economics in Marketing and Transformative Economy, Lecture, Thematic Area: Stategy and Entrepreneurship, Elective, 2nd year
- Master of Science in Communication in Media Management, Lecture, Thematic Area: Crossmedia, Transmedia and Multimodal Communication, Elective, 2nd year
- Master of Science in Communication in Media Management, Lecture, Thematic Area: Customer Experience and Value, Elective, 2nd year
- Master of Science in Communication in Media Management, Lecture, Thematic Area: Organisation and Human Resource Management, Elective, 2nd year
- Master of Science in Communication in Media Management, Lecture, Thematic Area: Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Elective, 2nd year
- Master of Science in Communication in Media Management, Lecture, Thematic Area: Visual and Material Culture, Elective, 2nd year