STANFORD BUSINESS SCHOOL | FALL 2009 MKTG 552 : COURSE SYLLABUS INSTRUCTOR SUPPORT THE BASICS Jennifer Aaker Barbara McCarthy (Professor Aaker’s assistant)
Mondays and Fridays @ S151
Section 1 | 8:00 – 9:45 am Section 2 | 10:00 – 11:45 am None. <Applaud now> CLASS MEETINGS REQUIRED READING aaker@gsb.stanford.edu mccarthy@gsb.stanford.edu
Note: Attendance on the first day of class is mandatory for all registered/ waitlisted students But here is a good design thinking reading list : http://twurl.nl/qif1z8 PART 1 : THE SCOOP : COURSE CALENDAR MONDAY FRIDAY October 30 Course Introduction : Re‐thinking Brand 
November 2 Brand + Design : How to ‘do’ design thinking 
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Guests: Laura Jones (Visa), Corey Ford (Stanford d.school) Due : Email me group names and brand by 5pm November 9 Brand + Global : How to deeply empathize 
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November 6 Brand + Entrepreneurship : How to create a brand 
Case : Harley Davidson Prep : Case reading Due : Email me your individual 1‐pager by 5 pm Live Case : Bonobos (Andy Dunn) November 13 Brand + Community : How to foster community Live Case : Intel (Genevieve Bell) 
Prep : Bring in a question about your extreme deep dive (ideally already done, so you can pose questions on how to go deeper) November 16 Harley Davidson + Brand Tools Prep : Bring show & tell. Be ready to get into groups (visit t: drive to find others with similar interests). Live Case : IDEO (Dana Cho) November 20 Brand Strategy + Design : How to wield design skills to serve competitive/brand strategy intent 
Live Case : IDEO (Chris Flink) November 30 December 4 Brand + Happiness : Integration and Looking Forward Final Presentations Optional Storytelling Lab on TUE DEC 1, 5 – 8 pm. Your team schedule 15 min slot with JD Schramm, Justine and Oren Jacob (Pixar) 
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Prep : 5‐minute in‐class presentation Due : Email me 1‐page audit and presentation by 5 pm THU DEC 3 PART 2 : COURSE OVERVIEW Which brands do you love? Apple? IDEO? Timbuktu? What draws you into these brands? How do companies create compelling brand experiences? How could you cultivate a well‐loved brand? These are the questions we will explore in Building Innovative Brands. The focus of the project‐based class is to explore how to build innovative brands, where brand is defined as “a sensibility” or a “reputation” ‐ departing from traditional perspectives of brand. The reality is that most brands could be making a much stronger impact than they are today – in terms of deeper purpose, social value, and greater inspiration for employees as well as customers. This class will dive into this potential by analyzing brands that excel at incorporating a strong design element into the brand – which can infect the company internally and customers externally. The class will encompass an ecosystem of contributors. Leaders from the world of brand and design will be incorporated into the class to offer first‐hand perspectives about the challenges and lessons along their varied paths to success. This approach is intended to make the walls between the classroom and the world outside more porous. The class will integrate methods from the d.school, marketing courses and psychology courses – including a focus on Ideation Labs, to encourage rapid prototyping, and real‐time feedback. It is created for individuals interested in building your own brands and/or immersing yourself in the enhancement of a brand of your choosing. The goal is to work on a brand that is or could be well‐loved (e.g., a brand that transcends practicality and makes a consumer feel gleefully satisfied, over‐the‐top excited, or incredibly peaceful). Your primary deliverable will be a one page mini‐brand audit and a 5‐minute visual presentation. The intent of that presentation (video, sliderocket, even ppt1) that should lead you to a powerful outcome: one that would ideally change the world—at least in a small way. Broadly, the course is divided into four parts 1. Understanding Consumer and Brand 2. Crafting Brand 3. Measuring Brand 4. Managing Brand However, the course is fundamentally biased toward action. Thus, although we will briefly touch on the four parts, the focus in the class will be on learning, empathizing, prototyping, iterating. Upon completion of this course, students should have:  A framework about how to evaluate existing brands and conceive of new ones  Insight on how to use the design thinking process to generate consumer and brand insights 1 If your group decides to use powerpoint for the 5 minute presentation, make sure it cannot be construed as a normal powerpoint presentation in any way, shape or form. The litmus test: when you ask others watch it, they won’t view it as anything typical, but would describe it – more likely as critically insightful, deeply engaging and inspiring. Further, keep in mind that you will likely end up being posting your project on YouTube (or Vimeo etc) or Slideshare – so as to have a broader impact than just the class. PART 3 : WHAT I EXPECT FROM YOU COMPONENT % DESCRIPTION EVALUATION Class Participation 45% I purposefully do not load you with a lot of reading. Come to all class prepared, awake, ready to add value. If you are not a morning person, bring caffeine, RedBull, etc. Remember, quality over quantity. Also, send me at least one email this quarter after class with the stickiest insights from the session. I will evaluate your participation along with five of your randomly chosen classmates via the GSB online peer evaluation tool. Lateness and absences will be duly noted and will negatively impact your participation grade. Individual Assignment 10% Choose one of three individual assignment opportunities to turn in. (1) Extreme User Deep Dive (2) Brand Voice Guideline (3) Image‐Identity Gaps Measurement What : A 1‐page write‐up, done individually Deadline : Email to me by 5 pm on November 16 I will grade on the quality of the content and communication (check plus, check, check minus). It is fine to turn in your assignment late – I will simply lower it automatically by one grade level. Your individual write‐up should be individually (thus the name), but can be (in fact, should be) shared with team after it is graded 45% Form a five person team to perform a mini brand audit on a brand of your choosing. What : (1) A one‐page mini‐brand audit (2) A five‐minute visual presentation Deadline : Email to me by 5 pm December 3 Presentation in class on December 4 Both the teaching team and your classmates will evaluate your contribution. Peer evaluation : Your pod‐mates will allocate 100 points between five members (e.g. 20‐20‐20‐20‐20 for equal effort, 40‐
40‐5‐1‐5‐ for an imbalanced team). Teaching team evaluation : You will be evaluated on two things. (1) Content : Quality of the presentation and results of the project. (2) Communication : Storytelling ability, outrageous creativity, and elegant simplicity. More details below Final Brand Project More details below Like all classes at the GSB, this course is graded on a curve. Personally, I would prefer not to force a curve and I hope that learning rather than grades will be your measure of success. Your scores from the individual papers and the team project will be submitted to my administrative assistant along with your attendance and participation records. The cumulative score will be translated into a grade. I will not see your final grade—as stated, I care only about your learning. Furthermore, I hope that regardless of your grade, you have a unique and positive experience in the class and will seek me out as an advisor and friend in the future. INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT Choose one of three individual assignments to turn in. You do not need to hand in all three. Just one. What A one‐page write‐up Deadline By email to me by 5 pm on Monday, November 16 You may choose to do this assignment on any brand of your choosing, including the brand you are working on for the group brand audit project. Although these assignments are to be completed individually, we suggest you confer with your team so as to optimize the chance that your efforts will benefit the final project. You may choose to integrate your insights into your final brand project. As such, I would encourage each member of the group to choose a different assignment to do; after your individual assignment is graded, you may share your work. Choice 1 Extreme User Deep Dive Best done before NOV 9: “Brand + Global” class so that you could bring to class questions about struggles you faced or surprising insights revealed from this exercise. Choice 2 Brand Voice Guideline Do an in‐depth in‐context observation with an extreme user of your brand and create a profile for them. There are three goals to this ‘empathy’ assignment: (1) To understand the extreme user deeply (to truly know this person is different from knowing about this person), (2) To understand the nature (potential or existing) of the relationship with the brand, and finally (3) To hone your ability to distinguish between words and actions, and understand the implications of that discrepancy for your consumer and brand. When choosing an extreme user of your brand, go for the extremes. The key is finding people who are passionate and are excited to talk about the brand. On one end, you might find a user who is so passionate about the brand that they would happily tattoo the name of the brand on their forearm. One the other end, you might find a user who hates the brand so much that they have set up an internet smear campaign. This is an in­context qualitative data gathering mission. Ask your interviewee politely if you can visit them in their habitat (home, work etc.) where you can observe them in action. When on site, pay particular attention to what they say vs. what they do, and how they act. Do not be afraid to ask them to show you what they do. Prepare a one‐page summary describing the most surprising insight you discovered, and the implications you drew from your in‐depth interview. Make the implications as concrete as possible. (Note if you select a start‐up brand, you can do this exercise with a competitive brand ‐ which can also reveal significant insights for your new brand). Very few companies have a brand whose look, tone and sensibility is consistent across consumer touch points (e.g., websites, customer interactions, packaging, advertising, etc.). One reason is that there is no common document which outlines the name, logo, slogan, brand personality and visual style for the brand, along with the rationale for each (and if it exists, it is not always distributed to every individual in the company). Design a one‐page Brand Voice Guideline for a brand of your choosing. The Intel Voice Guidelines : The Written Expression of the Brand document is a good reference but much longer than what you need here. Focus your effort on clarifying the brand qualities conveyed by the name, logo, slogan, brand personality and visual style. Also consult the Crafting Brand notes in the appendix of this syllabus, especially if you are creating a new start‐up brand. Choice 3 Image­Identity Gap Measurement To manage a brand effectively, you must be constantly in touch with what the consumer thinks about your brand and what you think of your brand. It helps to have some language to pull these constructs apart: 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 company would like to have of its brand. Perform an image‐identity gap analysis by measuring your brands’ associations from the two perspectives (company and consumer). Start with a survey (using Surveymonkey, Qualtrics, etc) to collect quantitative data from at least 5‐10 employees internally and 5‐
10 consumers externally. Consider first simply asking the qualitative question: “What are the top five words that come to mind when you think of brand X?” Next, include quantitative measures by providing a list of brand traits to your subjects, and asking them “to what degree do the following traits describe brand X”(1 = not at all descriptive, 7 = very descriptive). (You may ultimately decide to use the scale in the Brand Personality Scale in this syllabus appendix. Please also measure brand preference (“How much do you like brand X” 1 = not at all; 7 = very much) and brand usage (“Do you use this brand X” 1 = never; 7 = frequently) for both groups. These additional data points can be used to reveal deeper insights if you so choose (e.g., possible regressions). Note this assignment sounds more challenging than the above, but it is not. Further, it is consistently revealing. In one page, visually describe your results (e.g., mental map), report the results of the analysis you ran, and generate one management recommendation based on the results of your analysis. GROUP ASSIGNMENT : BRAND AUDIT Form a five person team to perform a mini brand audit on a brand of your choosing (4­6 persons is fine). What : (1) A one‐page mini‐brand audit (2) A five‐minute visual presentation Deadlines : Email both documents to me before 5 pm December 3 Presentation in class on December 4 Unsolicited advice to set yourself up to succeed . . .  Team: Take some time to put together a team that will work well together in terms of schedules, workplaces and different skills. Ideally you will (a) all share a passionate interest in the brand, and (b) have one member of the team with access to the brand so that you can get a briefing on the firm’s situation from someone in a position of responsibility (and perhaps access to their data).  Brand: Choose a company with a brand that (a) your team is excited (or at minimum happy) about and (b) you can get information on ‐ through external or internal sources (since the deeper you get into the company, the more insightful and meaningful your results will be). A startup that has not yet introduced a product is also fine, so long as the product definition is sufficiently developed to allow for the design of the brand audit. Feel free to pick a product (e.g. non‐profit or profit), service (e.g. consumer, technology) or person (e.g. CEO, celebrity). Part 1 Mini Brand Audit This mini brand audit will concisely capture your collective recommendations for the brand you have chosen. The goal is not to be comprehensive2, but rather to encourage teams to focus on linking your insights to actionable ideas. You could think of it as an one‐page Executive Brief. One page. That is it. Part 2 5­minute visual presentation Each team will have 5 minutes and no more to present a visual depiction of your story and your call to action – an implicit request made to the audience. Think about how you will be able to leverage this presentation– making not only the content sticky, but the manner and mode in which it is presented persistent and spreadable. Thus, two tips: On Story: Focus on taking the results of your mini‐brand audit, your insights and your recommendations and communicating them in the form of a compelling story to drive your audience to act. You may choose to present your qualitative / quantitative data, but it is more likely to take a backstage because your focus will be on the story and your intended reaction/call to action. On Call to Action: Because you will likely post this presentation somewhere (e.g., YouTube, Vimeo, Slideshare), pay attention to what your final “call to action” is – what do you want the audience (e.g., CEO of your favorite company, a potential boss, your friends, family – the world) to think, feel or do after they watch it. TED Talks3 provides some solid guidelines to follow as your create your presentation. 
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Thou Shalt Not Simply Trot Out thy Usual S Thou Shalt Not Simply Trot Out thy Usual Shtick. Thou Shalt Reveal thy Curiosity and Thy Passion. Thou Shalt Tell a Story. Thou Shalt Not Flaunt Thine Ego. Be Thou Vulnerable. Speak of thy Failure as well as thy Success. Thou Shalt Remember all the while: Laughter is Good. Thou Shalt Not Read thy Speech. Thou Shalt Not Steal the Time of Them that Follow Thee (5 minutes!). Honing Your Presentation : Optional Storytelling Lab (Tues, December 1 from 5­8 pm) To hone your presentation, we are offering an optional “Storytelling Lab”, conducted by JD Schramm (GSB) and Justine and Oren Jacob (Pixar). Your group is allocated 15 minutes with these advisors to use in any way you want (e.g., craft your story, refine your story, last minute tweaks). Since this should be treated as a rehearsal before your Dec 4 presentation, bring something to the table (e.g., storyboards, even on the backs of napkins) to show. Best case is sharing with them your final 5‐minute presentation to get early and specific feedback so you can iterate before you share it in class on Dec 4. 2 As background, a full brand audit has three parts: (1) Brand inventory : A summary of a firm’s marketing program allowing you to assess its sources of brand equity. (2) Brand exploratory : Results of empirical research that reveal insights on how to improve and leverage the brand’s equity. Conduct a minimum of two one‐on‐one interviews, or one 6‐8 person focus group, or one survey. This section must include one piece of empirical work, ideally two – complementing qualitative work with quantitative work. Identify brand associations, brand relationships, sources of equity, etc. How is this brand perceived to your informants? Results should be presented creatively. (3) Recommendations. A set of recommendations that you would suggest for the brand, one of which you should adopt and use as the basis of your 5‐minute brand presentation. 3 http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2009/05/making‐presentations‐in‐the‐ted‐style.html
APPENDIX A : CRAFTING BRAND PRACTICAL STEPS TO NAMING AND BRANDING Brainstorming names 
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Use a wordle.net to help get all associated thoughts, terms, ideas on paper Look at brands in related spaces to get an idea of the types of names that seem to work and don’t Play with non‐English words that translate the same meaning Look for cools names on signs, billboards, cafes and restaurants Play with words by cutting, rearranging, morphing them Imagine your product and service with branded with your name and see if it fits your vision Speak to lots of people to get input and feedback and narrow down to 2 or 3 Finding a logo Hiring a designer can be expensive and yield limited designs. Alternatively, there are a many design forums on‐line that allow you to get logos at a fraction of the cost. Two sites that have good reputations are logotournament.com and www.99designs.com. These sites allow you to post prize money for winning logo with multiple designers competing to win the design. You submit a design brief and can provide real time feedback on all the designs submitted. Choose your favorite 5 – 10 and get as much feedback as possible. Run a web survey using Survey Monkey, Qualtrics etc.Take all the feedback on board and select your logo. Remember some people’s feedback is more relevant than others. Speak to as many people in your target segment as possible. Guidelines for Naming, Slogans and Logo Selection  Memorable: Distinct, easy recognized, easily recalled  Meaningful: Descriptive, persuasive  Appealing: Fun and interesting, rich visual & verbal imagery, aesthetic  Protectable: Legally, competitively  Adaptable: Flexible, updateable  Transferable: Within and across product categories, across geographic and cultural boundaries APPENDIX B : MEASURING BRAND SUBJECT INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE BRAND PERSONALITY SCALE (Aaker, 1997, JMR) To what degree do the following traits describe brand X (1 = not at all descriptive, 7 = very descriptive)? Sincerity Sophistication
down‐to‐earth upper class family‐oriented glamorous small‐town good looking honest charming sincere feminine real smooth wholesome original Ruggedness cheerful outdoorsy sentimental masculine friendly western tough Excitement rugged daring trendy Competence exciting reliable hard working spirited secure cool intelligent young technical imaginative corporate unique successful up to date leader independent confident contemporary Brand Personality
Sincerity
- Down to earth
- Honest
- Wholesome
- Cheerful
Excitement
- Daring
- Spirtied
- Imaginative
- Up to date
Competence
- Reliable
- Intelligent
- Successful
Sophistication
- Upper class
- Charming
Ruggedness
- Outdoorsy
- Tough