This course explores the role of International Brand Management for creating sustainable value. The course is about learning how to manage global brands sustainably. It builds on international marketing concepts and techniques to develop an in-depth understanding of international brand management. Brands are the most valuable assets of international firms. Brands embody the firm’s strategy and drive its execution. They represent what an international firm stands for and what it does. This course highlights the sustainability implications of managing brands and delivers a comprehensive set of strategic tools for effective international brand management. As such, this course is intended not only for students interested in branding, but also for those interested in sustainability, innovation, new product and service development, entrepreneurship, and value management. The course presents the types of decisions involved in managing global brands and addresses contemporary challenges and opportunities.

Please note that this course will be held online.

•    Explain the contingencies that affect the way global brands are managed sustainably.
•    Draw on analytical concepts used as the building blocks of managing global brands.
•    Evaluate the performance of brand decisions and assess sustainability implications.

Please note that the first (2 sessions on the first day) and last (2 sessions on the last day) sessions (days) are mandatory. If you do not attend the first session/day, you will be de-registered from the course. In order to obtain a grade for the course, students must attend at least 80% of the course. An absence of 4 hours (1 session) is permitted. 

The course aims at putting international brand management theory into practice by examining a number of real-world brands and case studies. Specifically, the aims of the course are to: a) create an understanding of the stratified process of international brand management, b) create awareness of the involved brand management decisions, and c) explore the criteria used to evaluate and monitor the sustainability of brand performance.

Teamwork

Students will be required to complete specific activities working in teams in each day of the course.  These activities will enable students to operate in a risk-free environment in order to experiment and make use of conceptual tools.

Individual Assignment and Reflection (100% Assessed):

In addition to these specific tasks of the team work, students be asked to prepare an Individual Assignment (ca 1000 words) and Reflection (ca 500 words), where you reflect on your personal key learning from this course.

Submission deadline: Submit your Assignment before the 31 October at 10am

Individual Assignment:

You are required to submit a ca 1,000 word written report as an individual assignment. The report is a recommendation for an action plan on a real-life brand or category of your choice that you are most familiar with. In preparing your recommendation of an action plan, use the following ‘executive’ format:

1.         The challenge (What is the challenge in the marketplace)

2.         Brand Objective (What is the company trying to achieve with the brand)

3.         Brand Strategy (The way by which the objective will be achieved) 

4.         Implementation (Value Proposition, Brand Iconography, Route to the Market, etc.)

5.         Resource Implications (Bottom-line implications)
 

Individual Reflection:

You need to write an individual reflection (ca 500 words) in which you reflect on your personal key learning from this course. What was the most valuable thing you learned in this course? How are you going to build on this insight? Be succinct and clear.

Assessment Criteria

Your individual assignment will be assessed against assessment criteria and you will receive feedback on the criteria detailed in the table below. Forward Guidance on the right of Table 1 will help you translate these criteria into what is needed for this particular piece of coursework. You can also use the general grade descriptors to help you critically evaluate your own work. The grade given to your work is a summary of the overall standard of the piece of work across all criteria.

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s.mouzas@lancaster.ac.uk

Stefanos Mouzas is Professor of Marketing and Strategy in the Department of Marketing at Lancaster University Management School. He has been Visiting Professor at WU Wien since 2013. He studied Economics (BSc), Law (LL.M) and Marketing (Ph.D.) and joined the corporate world to work with multinational companies Procter & Gamble, R.J.R-Nabisco, and Kellogg in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.  
Professor Mouzas was an Academic Lead of the Policy School in the Cabinet Office in London (2018-2019), where he was coordinating projects on tackling problems of social inequalities and climate change. He has been awarded two research grants (Knowledge Transfer Partnerships) that enable companies to respond to the challenge of climate change. He was co-investigator in the Catalyst-Citizen Transforming Society: Tools for Change, an EPRSC Cross-Disciplinary Interfaces Programme to investigate Citizen-led Innovation. His research was quoted by media (see The Independent) and the Program on Negotiation at Harvard University. For more details please visit the website:
 http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/marketing/profiles/stefanos-mouzas/

This course will be held online.