Unit 41 Brand Management

Introduction

This unit gives students a comprehensive overview of brand management − starting with why brands are so important and how they are formed, through to measuring brand value and managing a portfolio of brands over time.The unit is designed and structured to give students an end-to-end understanding of brand management. It explores a range of tools and techniques that can be employed to maximise brand value, while looking at a number of case studies that contextualise information within real-world examples to aid understanding of how effective brand management can be achieved.

Learning outcomes

LO1 Demonstrate an understanding of how a brand is built and managed over time

Building brands:

• Present an overview of brands and how they are developed, the use of the brand pyramid.
• The advantages of branding for organisations, consumers and intermediaries.
• What is brand equity?
• How do organisations develop and grow brand equity?
• The role of marketing in building brand equity and brand positioning and techniques.

Managing a brand over time:

• How to strengthen brand equity, brand extensions, reinforcing and revitalising brands through innovation.
• Overcoming brand crisis, transmedia branding and specific communication strategies for recovering and restoring a brand.
• Interacting with customers: exploiting converging technologies to engage customers.

LO2 Analyse how brands are organised in portfolios and how brand hierarchies are built and managed

Portfolio and hierarchy management:

• Brand portfolio strategies, including the house of brands and branded property models.

Hierarchy building:

•  corporate branding, umbrella branding, family branding, endorsed sub brands and individual product branding.
• How brand equity is built at different levels of the hierarchy.
• Using the customer based brand equity model to develop and manage brands.
• The use of market research as a key brand management tool.

LO3 Evaluate how brands are leveraged/extended over time domestically and internationally

Brand extension and leverage:

• Brand extension approaches and strategies.
• ‘Fit and leverage’ in brand extensions.
• Determine the different ways that brands can be reinforced and revitalised.
• Brand collaborations and partnerships.
• Global branding and positioning.

LO4 Evaluate techniques for measuring and managing brand value over time

Measuring and managing brand value:

• Different brand measurement techniques for measuring brand awareness, market share, consumer attitudes and purchasing intent.
• Brand equity audit and management and brand tracking techniques.
• The relationship between branding and finance.
• The concept of brand value and different approaches: cost, market based and financial based methods to brand valuation.

Resources

• AAKER, D. (2011) Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant. 1st Ed. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
• KAPFERER, J. (2012) The New Strategic Brand Management: Advanced Insights and Strategic Thinking. 5th Ed. London: Kogan Page.
• WHEELER, A. (2012) Designing Brand Identity: An essential guide for the whole branding team. 4th Ed. Holboken NJ: Wiley and Sons.