• Unit 1: The Principles of Strategic Brand Management

    Effective brand management is critical to maintaining the long-term profitability of products and services. In this unit, we will deconstruct the elements that combine to create a strong brand. The elements might not create a unique point of competitive advantage individually, but when combined, they build brand equity and architecture. Brands are among the most valuable assets of a company. A strong brand can significantly influence consumer purchasing decisions by communicating the value of and providing differentiation for products and services.

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 4 hours.

    • Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

      • evaluate how struggling brands can recover from declining competitive positioning;
      • create the blueprint for a multi-brand company's strategic plan;
      • analyze an iconic brand from the perspective of its commitment to ethical practices;
      • evaluate the basis of a multi-level consumer brand's strategic growth; and
      • analyze how a mature brand can grow consumer sales.

      • 1.1: Brand Management Strategic Models

        Becoming familiar with the relevant theories and models of branding can help managers make better branding decisions. There are growing challenges as well as opportunities in the process of branding with the arrival of many interactive communication tools that give consumers more control.

        • Branding and the Brand Building Process Page

          Review the 15 factors that create the brand experience which, when assembled, build the essence of successful brands. Create a checklist in your key terms glossary, and select the brands that achieve all 15 elements from your own consumer purchasing behavior. To really get the crux of how to apply the concepts to real scenarios in brand management, you will need to complete the exercises in the boxes. Use your notebook to create 2-3 sentence answers to the challenge questions. You must refer back to key concepts in the resource and charts when included.

      • 1.2: Multi-brand Company's Strategic Plan Goal Setting

        A brand strategy is an essential element in the strategic marketing plan. For brand managers, the most successful brand strategy achievements can be measured in metrics like brand growth and dominant market share, which drive consumer loyalty. This section will provide an overview of the importance of strategic planning.

        • Strategy and Context Book

          Strategic theories found in every brand manager's toolkit are listed in this chapter. As you read, add the ten key terms to your key terms glossary and organize them by strategy, execution, or collateral. Then look at the Brand Pyramid Template, start this analysis with the Brand Essence, then choose a brand you are loyal to and examine how each engages you in the loyalty loop. Next, choose a close competitor to your brand, and run the same examination. The Brand Pyramid Template strategy is often used for evaluating brand initiatives that align with the commitment to ethical practices. Use the work you started in the activity above and choose a brand that has been certified for its commitment to societal business practices (https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/find-a-b-corp). Again, look at the Brand Pyramid Template, and examine how the B Corp brand compares with a similar competitive B Corp brand. You can search the category to find the competitive brand. Use your notebook to create 2-3 sentence answers to the challenge questions for both exercises. This time, in this exercise, substitute the B Corp brand and focus on which ethical practices create the best strategic competitive advantage.

      • 1.3: Modeling Long-Term Brand Strategy

        While branding is both an art and a science, certain patterns and predictability of branding activities greatly increase the odds of success. In this unit, we will discuss models of strategic brand management, goal setting, and long-term strategies.

        • Common Branding Strategies Page

          A multi-tiered family of brands often follows different branding strategies to achieve growth among target consumers. Review the ten branding strategies detailed in this resource and choose one of these multi-tiered companies to match their brand holdings by applying one or more common brand strategies: Colgate-Palmolive, Unilever, and Kraft. After completing this exercise, look at the common branding strategies. These ten branding strategies align with stages that can be used to examine how a mature brand sustains its dominant market position and market share. Research Disney, a very mature brand at 100 years old, and apply each of the branding strategies to explain how Disney successfully maintains iconic status within the leisure sector.

      • Unit 1 Study Resources

        This review video is an excellent way to review what you've learned so far and is presented by one of the professors who created the course.

      • Unit 1 Assessment

        • Unit 1 Assessment Quiz
          Receive a grade

          Take this assessment to see how well you understood this unit.

          • This assessment does not count towards your grade. It is just for practice!
          • You will see the correct answers when you submit your answers. Use this to help you study for the final exam!
          • You can take this assessment as many times as you want, whenever you want.