Brands are at the centre of the world’s best marketers’ attention. Strong brands give them and their organizations purpose and direction, guiding marketing decisions about products, services, prices, distribution modes, shop designs, advertising campaigns, and many others. Marketers that know how to build great brands can change the world with them -- for good or worse.

In this course, students will learn what brands are, why consumers and customers value them, how they are built from the ground up, and how to analyze and manage brands in global markets. A critical look is taken at the practice of branding, but also at brands in relation to sustainability, equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and emerging communication technologies.

On successful completion of this course, students are expected to be able to:

• explain the economic, cultural, and social significance of (global) brands,
• understand and apply the main branding concepts, models, and theories to effectively analyse and grow existing brands, as well as develop new brands,
• understand the idiosyncrasies of international markets and how to craft brand strategies for international expansion,
• identify, comprehend, and apply brand-relevant academic research, and
• employ analytical and creative skills to tackle real-world brand management challenges,
• and critically assess positive and negative impact that global brands can have on consumers’ lives around the globe.

Throughout this course Students will also develop their

• ability to collaborate effectively in international teams,
• deal with uncertainty and a lack of empirical data when making decisions,
• professionally communicate the results of their work to peers, professors, and practitioners,
• and critically reflect on their role, style, and effectiveness as co-workers in teams.

Attendance in the first and the last session is mandatory. Students that do not attend the first session will be de-registered from the course. To obtain a grade for the course, students must attend at least 80% of the sessions. An excused absence of 1 session is permitted.

Students will acquire global branding knowledge and skills through a combination of interactive lectures, practitioner talks, case work, and practical branding work. Therefore, preparation of assigned reading, listening, or viewing materials as well as attendance and participation in class discussions is critical to the success of the course.

1) Brand Pitch                         50 points
2) Special Topics Study        30 points
3) Multiple-Choice Test        20 points

Details Assessment 1: Brand Pitch (50 Points)

In the final session of this course, students will give a “brand pitch” presentation to professors, peers, and marketing practitioners. The aim of this presentation is to provide students with an opportunity to develop and present innovative ideas for a thoroughly researched, cleverly positioned, and creatively designed start-up brand in the sustainable business space. The new brand that students will create can provide either an innovative new product in industries such as fashion, food, beauty, travel, or entertainment, for example, offer a new service, local or digital, or promote an important idea in the form of an NGO.

Students will combine knowledge acquired during their previous business and international marketing studies with the knowledge acquired in this course to effectively analyse the market that they have chosen to enter (international or domestic), define target customers, and develop a brand in all its facets that is likely to appeal to their target consumers and will have a positive impact on society and the environment. Ideas about communicating this new brands to the target audience are welcome.

Thinking boldly is encouraged. Students may envision a new automobile, a new social media app or fashion store, an elderly care service, or any other new offering with potential to improve the human condition without producing dirt. The new products and services shall not be entirely unrealistic to implement (otherwise they have no value) but it can be assumed that scarce financial resources are not an issue.

Each team will develop a slide deck with their main analyses and ideas and present it within about 20mins in the final session. The cover slide of the deck should include a photo of the team, full names, and student ID numbers.

Details Assessment 2: Special Topics Study (30 Points)

In three of the lectures, the class will discuss emerging trends in global branding and how they shape branding practices now and in the future. Each group will be assigned, prepare, and present one topic in class. Criteria for great presentations will be discussed in class.

Details Assessment 3: Individual Test (20 Points)

The third assessment element is a Multiple-Choice Test. The test will be based on all slide decks as well as selected reading materials marked as “test-relevant” on Canvas.

The test will have 25 questions. Each question will have entails five choices, which may be all correct, or partially correct. The points will be calculated as follows: Each alternative answer has the same weighting and is interpreted as a single-choice question (yes / no question). The score is obtained from the following formula: (number of correctly answered alternatives - number of incorrectly answered alternatives / 2) / (number of correctly answered alternatives + number of incorrectly answered alternatives). Resulting score is multiplied with the maximum achievable points per question. Students cannot get minus points for questions, i.e., the lowest possible score obtained per question is 0.

Please log in with your WU account to use all functionalities of read!t. For off-campus access to our licensed electronic resources, remember to activate your VPN connection connection. In case you encounter any technical problems or have questions regarding read!t, please feel free to contact the library at readinglists@wu.ac.at.

Personal meetings with the lecturer are possible after all classes.

  For appointments, please contact Ms. Taylor at imm@wu.ac.at

All course readings and further materials will be made available on Canvas. Students that enjoy working with textbooks to gain an overview and deepen their understanding of global branding are recommended the textbook below. The book will be made available by the WU library. The 3rd edition will be published some time in March/April 2024, which might be too late for our course. 

Beverland, Michael (2021), “Brand Management: Co-creating Meaningful Brands”, 2nd edition, Sage.