BUS-M 575 Brand Asset Management

• 7 weeks
• 1.5 credits
• Prerequisite(s): MBA Core

More and more companies are realizing that brands are a source of sustainable competitive advantage and are treating them as one of their most valuable assets. Too often however, marketing decisions regarding pricing, advertising or distribution are made in isolation without taking into account their impact on brand equity. To address these issues, M575 is an advanced MBA elective that covers the important branding decisions faced by and organization. Its basic objectives are to increase your understanding of the strategic issues and provide the tools, concepts and theories necessary in branding, measuring the impact of marketing decisions on brand equity, and building and managing brands or networks of brands.

To attain these goals, M575 examines branding from a theoretical, methodological and strategic perspective as follows:

1. Understand brands. In the first section, we will examine how and why brands are important from the company’s and consumer’s perspectives and define the central concept of brand equity.
2. Measuring the sources and consequences of brand equity. In the second section, we will review some of the most important techniques and methodologies that brand managers use to examine and value brand equity and to monitor the impact of marketing decisions on brand equity.
3. Building and managing brand equity. In the third section, we will address the strategies and tactics to build and manage brand equity including branding strategies to manage portfolios of brands and products over time and across geographical boundaries.

The course is roughly 50% case discussion and 50% lecture/discussion. Grades are based on written case analyses, class participation, a group project, and a final exam.