Minor in Excellence in Brand Strategy and Analytics

A minor gives you the opportunity of having a second specialization in your degree. The minor is a bundle of three to four electives that can be chosen separately but if chosen together rewards a minor.

The "Excellence in Brand Strategy and Analytics" minor offers a rigorous and comprehensive education in the strategic management of brands. It equips you with the knowledge, skills, and practical experience needed to excel in branding across a variety of contexts and industries, making you well-prepared for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in the field of brand management.

In today's dynamic and competitive business landscape, the significance of branding and its strategic management cannot be overstated. Brands serve as the cornerstones of organizational identity and market positioning, influencing various stakeholders both within and outside the company. As markets experience acceleration there is a need for organizations to reflect on their purpose based on a deep understanding of the interplay between brand orientation (their vision, mission, values, and competencies) and market orientation (proposing credible and compelling value propositions to key customer groups and wider stakeholder audiences). Balancing these orientations requires deep understanding of the organization, its market, and its customers.

This minor presents the student with real-world case studies, and advanced analytical techniques to foster the development of analytical, critical, and creative skills essential for driving business growth through branding. Using a variety of pedagogies, the minor focuses on student-led learning to create an environment where students are exposed to and explore multiple perspectives that will equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate the multifaceted world of brands effectively.

The below table lists the structure and the ECTS credits of the individual courses. The course descriptions are available in the online course catalogue. Direct links are inserted in the below table.

This program is built around three key skillsets. Firstly, the ability to understand and work at the intersection between brand strategy and business processes. When managed properly, brands can be the driving force of organizational and market transformation by providing a common meaning and purpose across diverse, multiple stakeholders both outside and inside the organization. This requires brand leadership that operates at the strategic level in the organization, where brand managers have a deep understanding of innovation and change processes on the one hand, and brand leadership skills on the other. Secondly, students are exposed to theoretical diversity to develop their skills sets in reflection and analysis. Brands and branding are contested terms: they can be understood from different theoretical perspectives which, in turn, has profound implications for how they are managed. This enables students to develop skillsets and language sets that enable them to work with multiple stakeholders and to develop deep and critical insights into how brands and the value they (co-) create is perceived by these diverse stakeholders. Thirdly, students need to understand how to measure and strategically manage the value of brands by organizing marketing activities around positioning, communication, and optimization of brands and brand portfolios. This requires the ability to collect, analyze, and interpret data from different sources to assess brand performance, develop and optimize brand strategies based on market information and theoretical insights.
 

Brand Strategy & Business Processes

The first course, "Brand Strategy and Business Processes," delves into the strategic dimensions of branding from a business process perspective. Brands, when harnessed effectively, have the power to drive organizational and market transformations by providing a shared purpose and meaning across diverse stakeholders. This course emphasizes the need for brand leadership at the strategic level, wherein brand managers must possess a profound understanding of innovation and change processes, as well as brand leadership skills.

Students will explore the intricate relationship between innovation, change processes, and the role of branding in steering these transformations to enhance business development. Key foundational concepts, such as innovation and change processes, defining the brand platform, corporate brand identity, and managing relationships with strategic stakeholders, will be explored. Real-world case studies will then be analyzed, fostering the development of analytical, critical, and creative skills essential for driving business growth through branding.
 

Perspectives in Strategic Brand Management

The second course, "Perspectives in Strategic Brand Management," confronts students with the complex reality of branding, where the concept of "brand" can have diverse meanings.

Brands are valuable resources in a competitive environment, be it for for-profit or not-for-profit organizations, for people, communities and places. As the brand concept becomes used more widely, ways of managing brands become more complex and meanings more diverse.

In this course students will be confronted with the most renowned theoretical branding perspectives and will learn how brands ought to be managed depending on the branding perspective they adopt.

The theoretical discussion will be complemented with input from brand academics and practitioners as well as with hands-on applications of different branding perspectives to actual branding cases.

The course will prepare students who want to work with brands in different contexts in their future career. It provides the basis for development of knowledge and understanding of how brands are created and maintained in relation to multiple stakeholders in dynamic environments and prepares the student for a challenging career in branding.
 

Brand Analytics

The third course, "Brand Analytics" offers insights into the multifaceted nature of brand equity, exploring the drivers behind it, and mastering the analytical methods needed to track and manage brands in the digital era. This approach is highly relevant for both large corporations and smaller startups, laying a solid foundation to understand the ways in which brands drive organizational value.

At the heart of the curriculum are analytical and experimental methods for measuring brand value. Students delve into brand image measurement, web scraping, sentiment analysis, social network analysis, and customer journey mapping gaining insights into consumer perceptions and online brand presence. Experimental approaches like A/B testing and conjoint analysis are also central, providing tools to understand consumer decision making, e.g., brand purchases, that can be quantified into monetary brand value. These techniques form a comprehensive toolkit for students to measure and manage brand equity efficiently and effectively and lay the foundation for marketing accountability.

Furthermore, the course also prepares students for emerging trends in digital marketing, including the integration of artificial intelligence, equipping them to adeptly face the future challenges and opportunities in the realm of brand analytics and management.

The minor consists of the examinations listed below. The learning objectives and the regulations of the individual examinations are prescribed in the online course catalogue. Direct links to the individual examinations are inserted in the table below.

 Minor coordinator

Richard Jones

Professor (MSO) in Marketing

rj.marktg@cbs.dk

Study Board

The minor in Strategic Procurement is offered by the Study Board for the Master of Science Programme in Economics and Business Administration.

How to sign up

If you want to sign up for the Minor in Marketing and innovation, you have to select CCMVM2402G Minor in Excellence in Brand Strategy and Analytics, when you sign up for electives.You will then subsequently be signed up for all three courses.You do not have to select all three courses individually.