CLAUDIA MARIAN 

 

 

CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES TO BRANDING

 

Purpose of the course 

 

Contemporary Approaches to Branding aimed to introduce me to different branding theories/models and their use in practice, in order to be able to analyze brand's challenges and decisions and come up with relevant strategies supported by strong arugmentation. 

 

Content

 

The content of the course was based on significant theoretical and practical notions into branding, such as: brand anaylsis & brand strategies, brand management, brand identity with special focus on the Kapferer's identity prism and VCI Model, evidence-based branding, brand touch-point wheel & strategy and international/global branding supported by various case-studies. The branding theory was taught by the use of relevant books, like: 

 

•  Brand Management, Research, Theory and Practice by Tilde Heding, Charlotte  F.  Knudtzen & Mogens Bjerre

•  How Brands Grow – what marketers don’t know by Byron Sharp;

•  The New Strategic Brand Management – Advanced Insights & Strategic  Thinking    by J.N. Kapferer, 5th edition

•  Building Strong Brands by David Aaker

•  Strategic Brand Management – Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand  Equity  by Kevin Keller

 

Reflection 

 

I consider that Contemporary Approaches to Branding was of great value and effectivness as it helped me understand the theoretical notions through case-studies presenting various companies and their branding strategies to achieve their objectives and play effectively against the competitors. 

 

This course motivated me in reading different authors and get an insight into multiple branding perspectives and use them in order be more critical towards how brands (eg. Louis Vuitton, Hyundai, Best Buy) activate in the market and learn from their success or failure models. Also, topics such as the anti-laws of marketing used in the luxurious branding strategies, the true effect of the loyality programes, dual branding & internalization, the real effect of price promotions highly enriched my knowledge and helped me develop a more complex way of thinking. 

 

For this course the final task was a written assignment based on the Elie Saab Case Study. In order to fulfil the task, I worked in group and performed analysis of the case study with focus on Elie Saab's core business and product view, product life cycle, SWOT analysis, entry market strategies and made recommandations for ES branding strategies by considering the anti-laws of marketing.

 

I really enjoyed working on this written assignment as it combined two fields that I am interested in: fashion & business.  The extended knowledge from my previous AP education in Fashion Design and Fashion Industry helped me in considering how the brand should act in order to preserve its vision, identity and culture, whereas the theories and models learned throughout the Contemporary Approaches to Branding course gave me direction and the proper way of expressing (through specialized terminology) and thinking (through relevant strategies) in order to be able to solve the Elie Saab's Case as professional as possible.