Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi

MBA (IB) 20-22 Batch

Course: Brand management
Elective
Course Co-ordinator: Dr. Arunima Rana
Email: arunima@iift.edu
Term: V Credits: 2

Course Introduction
The concept of brands is pivotal to the entire marketing discipline. Consciously or unconsciously, directly or
indirectly, every marketer, at some point of his or her career is involved in a brand building process. Needless
to say, brands are among the most valuable assets for organizations, and budding professionals seeking
marketing as career options will be apt custodians for the same. Attempts to understand the nature of brands
is a daunting task, since brands, like any other physical entity, are constantly changing. Interestingly, while
brands are crafted and finessed by stakeholders across the organization’s value chain, their ultimate abode is
in the mind of the consumer. The challenge lies in establishing a degree of coherence in the way the creators
have perceived the brand and the way it is perceived by the end users.

This specialized course on brand management will focus on understanding the key concepts of brand
management. The course will explore how brands are viewed, built, managed, and measured to ensure firms’
superiority and sustainability in profits. After the completion of the course, participants should gain a clear
understanding of the major concepts involved in brand design and valuation, with insights into the process of
evolution of brand and development of brand equity. While brand management in itself is a lifetime pursuit,
it is expected that this course will help building the foundations on which further practical applications of
brand management may be applied and leveraged in future.

Course Objectives

The course aims at:

• Understanding ‘brand’ concept and process of forming customers’ brand knowledge
• Augmenting the student ability to think creatively and critically about the strategies and tactics involved
in building, leveraging, defending and sustaining inspired brands
• Developing an understanding towards measuring the performance of the brands
• Providing insights into the process and activities of a brand manager, with focus on brand and product
management as career options
• Elucidating the emerging and recent trends in brand building and management amidst Covid-19
pandemic, with focus on online branding and service marketing

Programme Learning Goals covered through this Course

LG3: Managing complex, uncertain business situations

• Student should be able to clearly identify the central problem or issue in complex business situations
• Student should be able to define the challenges and risks related to an uncertain and complex
business situation and suggest strategies to effectively manage them.
Pedagogy
This course will be a mix of lectures, discussion, case studies and class participation. A participant centered
learning, aided by discussion on the cases, with relevant theoretical inputs and background provided from the
instructor. Students need to act as co-producers of learning by pre-reading the cases and submitting solutions to
cases (in groups/ individually) for each class. Each session would involve discussion around the theory/ material
for that session, with focus and application on the prescribed cases relevant for the session. Students would act
as co-contributors to the case study method, facilitated by the instructor. Students are also expected to perform a
project (details in following section), demonstrating an application of their course learnings over the entire course
duration and subsequently report their progress to the instructor. Case studies, additional readings (and reference
materials, other than the main text), wherever applicable will be supplied in print/online to the students.

Linkages with Other Courses

Brand management is pivotal to marketing management discipline. Understanding of basic concepts of marketing
management is prerequisite for the course. The subject should help in understanding of services marketing, retail
management and strategic marketing. It is also closely linked to consumer behavior and product policy, both of
which derive valuable insights from this course

Evaluation Component

• Mid-Term Quiz: 30%

• Case study: 10%
• Class Assignments: 10%
• Group Project/Assignment: 10%
• End Term: 40%

Text Book / Reference Text

Text Book
• Keller, Kevin Lane, M. G. (2018) Parameswaran, and Isaac Jacob. Strategic brand management:
Building, measuring, and managing brand equity. Pearson Education India, 5th edition
Reference Book
• Kapferer, J. N. (2008). The New Strategic Brand Management: Creating and Sustaining Brand
Equity.Kogan Page
• Aaker, D. A. (2009). Managing brand equity. Simon and Schuster.
• Kornberger, M. (2010). Brand society: How brands transform management and lifestyle. Cambridge
University Press.
• Heding, T., Knudtzen, C. F., & Bjerre, M. (2015). Brand management: Research, theory and
practice. Routledge.
 Session Plan
Session Topic and Sub topics Reading
Reference
1 Role of Brands in Marketing • Text- Chapter 1
Defining and understanding the importance of branding • Chapter 5
Differentiation between product & Brand Understanding (Reference book
evolution of Brand & brand diversity 1)
Branding commodities, goods &services, people & place
Brand Building as a source of competitive advantage

Readings:
• Dawar, N. (2004). What are brands good for? MIT Sloan Management
Review, 46(1), 31.
• Strong brands across categories: Kantar Global Brand Report-2020
Douglas B.Holt, John A. Quelch and Earl L.Taylor (2004) How Global
Brand Compete by
Discussion:
A global view of how consumer behavior is changing amid COVID-19
2-4 The Concept and Building Brand Equity • Text- Chapter 2&3
Customer based brand equity (CBBE): various sources of brand equity
Brand Knowledge as one of the crucial sources for creating brand equity • Session no 3:
Brand positioning: Identifying and establishing. Evaluative Class
- Steps of building a strong brand and brand Communities Assignment
- The brand value chain

Readings:
• Keller, K. L. (2003). Brand synthesis: The multidimensionality of
brand knowledge. Journal of consumer research, 29(4), 595-600.
• Keller, K. L. (2000). Brand Report Card
• The CEO of Levi Strauss on Leading an Iconic Brand Back to
Growth by Chip Bergh (2018) Harvard Business Review
• Frederike Schulz-Mu¨ llensiefen and Aenne Stockmann (2016),
Uniqlo: A Case Study on Creating Market Share with Affordable
and Timeless Designs
Case Study:
• Creating a Coffee Culture: Starbucks Brand Review
 How Starbucks’ Growth Destroyed Brand Value
 Starbucks’ New Logo: A Risky Move
 Why It Took Starbucks 47 Years to Open A Store in Italy
5-7 Brand Integration • Text- Chapter 4,
Choosing different marketing activities and programme to build brand 5, 6, & 7
equity: • Chapter 10 &
-Brand Elements like memorability, meaningfulness 11 (Reference
-Marketing programme like the product strategy, pricing strategy, channel
book 1)
strategy
- Integrated marketing communications affect brand positioning, brand • Session no. 5:
knowledge to create brand equity Evaluative
-Secondary brand association as another important element of brand equity Class
Assignment
 Readings: • Case Study:
• Keller, K. L. (2001). Building customer-based brand equity: A Evaluative
blueprint for creating strong brands. (Marketing Science Institute Component
01- 107)
• Wertz (2017) 7 principles to building a strong brand (Forbes)
• Keller, K. L (1994). Integrating Marketing Communications: To Build
Brand Equity
• Branding Game of Thrones Across Media: HBO’s Visual Creation of a
Brand Identity by Julie Escurignan
• Sivan Portal, Russell Abratt, Michael Bendixen (2018) Building a
human brand: Brand anthropomorphism unravelled
• Stephens Balakrishnan, M. (2008). Dubai–a star in the east: A case
study in strategic destination branding. Journal of Place management
and Development, 1(1), 62-91.
Case Study
• Red Bull: Building A Brand in Non-Traditional Ways
- Questions for class discussion
 Describe red bull’s sources of brand equity. Do these sources
change depending on the market or the country?
 Analyze red bull’s marketing program in terms of how it
contributes to the brand’s equity. Discuss Strength and Weakness
 If any brand extension is required? If yes, then what and how it
should be planned.

Mid Sem Quiz- 30 Marks

8-9 Measuring Brand Performance & It’s Value • Text- Chapter 8,

Techniques of measuring brand equity 9&10
- Conducting brand audits
- Brand tracking- designing and conducting
Capturing customer mind set using qualitative as well as qualitative
method:
-projective techniques, ethnographic and experiential methods
Capturing market performance using various methods.
Readings:
• Holt (2016) Branding in the age of social media, Harvard Business
Review, March 2016, (pp.40–48, 50)
• Aaker, D. A. (1996). Measuring brand equity across products and
markets. California management review, 38(3), 102.
• Steven A. Taylor, Kevin Celuch, Stephen Goodwin, (2004) "The
importance of brand equity to customer loyalty", Journal of Product &
Brand Management, Vol. 13 Issue: 4, pp.217-227
Case Study:
• Rolex Brand Audit
-Question for Class Discussions, in the context of Rolex Case
 What are brand inventory items used for brand audit?
 Discuss the elements of brand exploratory.
 Based on brand exploratory, what can be the future strategy for
Rolex?
Activity:
Activity based on ZMET and HVM maps
10-11 Brand Sustenance • Text- Chapter 11, 12,
Developing brand portfolio to maximize brand 13
equity Brand hierarchy and brand architecture • Chapter 12 & 14
guidelines (Reference book 1)
New product and brand extensions- Ansoff’s Growth Matrix
- Advantages and disadvantages of
extension Understanding how to manage
brands over time
- Reinforcement and revitalization
Readings:

• Keller, K. L. (1999). Managing brands for the long run: Brand

reinforcement and revitalization strategies. California management
review, 41(3), 102-124.
• Ranasinghe, W. T., Thaichon, P., & Ranasinghe, M. (2017). An
analysis of product-place co-branding: the case of Ceylon Tea. Asia
Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 29(1), 200-214.
• Kill a Brand or Keep a Customer: Nirmalya Kumar (HBR Review)
• Vanitha Swaminathan, Alina Sorescu, Jan-Benedict E.M. Steenkamp,
Thomas Clayton Gibson O'Guinn and Bernd Schmitt (2020),
Developing Brands in a Hyperconnected World, Journal of Marketing

Case Study:

• Sephora Direct: Investing in social media, video and mobile. Evaluative Component
-Question for Class Discussions,
 How Bornstein should invest in social media, video and mobile
with an understanding of the Sephora brand and its customers.
 What metrics can be proposed to measure the success of
Sephora direct brand’s digital presence
 What do you think should be the brand positioning
going forward?

12-13 Overview of the course

Closing remarks
Discussion on Group
project

Any Other Detailed Instructions / Information

• Group Project: Students will form teams (between 2 to 4 members) to work on this project. The group
will be selecting a real brand and perform the following analysis (More details would be uploaded at
campus 360). The students will be present the final analysis during 12th and 13th lecture.
i. Image Identity Gap Analysis: Brand image is defined as the set of
actual associations the consumer has with a brand; Brand identity is defined as the set of aspirational
associations the organization would like to have of its brand. Perform a preliminary image-identity gap analysis
by capturing the brand associations from these two perspectives (internal + external).
ii. Experience Map: Create map that captures the emotional state of a user through an essential interaction with
your brand. That experience can be anything from buying and unboxing a new Oppo Phone to calling Axis
Bank customer service. Whatever the experience, it should be one that informs a user’s lasting attitudes and
opinions about your brand. Your map should highlight the best and worst parts of the experience and how those
moments relate to the brand’s intended personality.