UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
CARLSON SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
MKTG 6082: Brand Management
Term: Spring Semester 2014
Classroom: CSOM 1-135
Professor: Deborah Roedder John
Office Hours: T,Th by Appt. (3-175)
Email: djohn@umn.edu
Course Objectives
Firms are now realizing that brands are one of the most valuable assets they possess. Brand
Management is an advanced MBA elective that addresses many of the strategic areas of brand asset
management in business entities. The objectives of this class are:
1. To increase awareness and understanding of major issues in building and managing
brand assets
2. To communicate effective frameworks for understanding brand strategy decisions,
along with important streams of empirical evidence
3. To enhance analytical skills in evaluating brands, thereby gaining skills in
understanding a brand’s strengths, weaknesses, and challenges
4. To provide resources and skills helpful for learning more about brand management
Course Materials
Course materials include a set of readings and cases:
1. Text: Instead of a traditional textbook, I am making a small book I have written on brand
management available for free on Moodle. The book covers the basic topics we will cover
this term in a concise format, and will sync with the power points for class lectures.
2. Readings: Readings consist of academic and practitioner journal articles. A complete list of
readings is included at the end of the syllabus. All articles, except those from Harvard
Business Review, are available for free download or printing from my Moodle page (Go to
Library ResourcesAccess Library Readings). You can print copies or download to your
hard drive or other storage device—instead of paying over $200 for a printed packet from
the bookstore. Articles from HBR are available in the course packet you will order from
Harvard Business Publishing (see below).
3. Cases: A course packet is available for purchase directly from Harvard Business Publishing
for Educators website. You will need to register on the website, if you haven’t already, and
pay with a credit card. You have the option of downloading the material to your computer,
or for an extra charge, ordering a print copy of the materials. Access the packet here:
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/access/23773874
Course Requirements and Performance Assessment
Performance will be evaluated on the following basis:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Brand Audit Project:
a. Written Report - Part I
b. Written Report - Part II
c. In-class Presentation
Written Cases
Class Participation
Final Exam
20%
25%
5%
10%
20%
20%
Brand Audit Project
Students will form brand audit teams, composed of 4-6 members, to work on this project. Your
assignment is to select a brand and conduct a brand audit. Each team must study a different brand
and brands are assigned on a “first come, first serve” basis.
Brand audits will be conducted in two parts: (1) brand definition and (2) brand inventory. Brand
definition involves defining the brand image in the consumer’s mind. In doing so, the audit should
provide management with a clear picture of how consumers think about the brand and what the
greatest sources of equity are for the brand. The major deliverable should be a “mental map” of the
brand. A variety of sources of information can be used to assemble this profile. Students are
encouraged to consult trade magazines and business publications, conduct their own survey or
interviews, and consult with company sources if available.
The second part of the brand audit is a comprehensive summary and evaluation of the firm’s
branding program. How has the brand been built—advertising, new products, retail experiences? How
is the brand being leveraged—brand extensions or co-branding? Are there any opportunities being
overlooked? To answer these questions, students need to inventory the firm’s branding efforts (using
the BLIP model: building, leveraging, identifying, protecting), critically analyze those efforts, and make
suggestions for new branding programs.
Teams will summarize findings from their brand audits in two written reports and one in-class
presentation. Each written report is limited to 12 pages of double-spaced 12-point text plus 10 pages
of supporting exhibits and/or tables. You should submit two paper copies of each report. In-class
presentations are limited to 15 minutes; date and order of presentation will be determined by lottery.
The following due dates apply:
Part I: Draft of Survey
Part I: Data Collection Plans
Part I: Report Outline
Part I: Written Report
February 4
February 11
March 4
March 13
Part II: Report Outline
Part II: Presentation
Part II: Written Report
April 22
May 6 & May 8
May 6
Class Participation
Class meetings will include lectures, in-class activities, cases, and discussions. For cases, students
will be given a grade for each discussion depending on the quality and quantity of their contributions.
Valuable contributions are those that enhance the understanding of the issues in the case, including
raising new issues, providing new analyses that support or undermine particular courses of action,
and raising questions about the points or analyses offered by other students. Simply providing an
opinion, without reference to case facts, marketing concepts, or branding concepts does not
constitute a quality contribution.
For other discussions, including brand insights and journal articles, student will receive credit for
quality participation. For discussions of journal articles, students will be given an opportunity to
summarize the key objectives and findings from each article as we begin our discussion. Students
will also be asked to respond to questions about the connections between articles as well as
managerial implications of these articles.
Written Cases
Students are required to submit a written report for two of the assigned cases. You may select any
two cases, but at least one written case must be submitted prior to Spring Break.
Each written report is limited to 3 pages of double-spaced 12-point text. If you wish, you may use a
bullet format (with single-spaced bullets). You may attach one additional page of any type of analysis
you have prepared—tables, graphs, numerical analysis, etc. A hard copy of the written report is due
prior to the beginning of our class discussion. I suggest that you print out two copies of your written
case—one to hand into me at the beginning of class and one you can refer to during our case
discussion.
Final Exam
The final exam will consist of two mini-cases, which will ask you to identify branding concepts and
journal article readings that would be useful in addressing specific case issues. All reading material,
except cases, will be included on the exam.
A Note on Journal Article Reading
We will be reading a set of articles on branding topics from management and academic journals.
Because branding is an emerging topic, students need to develop skills in reading from these sources
that capture the newest issues and empirical findings in the area. In general, source material from
journal articles takes 3-10 years to be translated into textbook content.
You will be expected to read articles to understand the key issues being addressed and the major
findings. You are not responsible for knowing specific details regarding experimental design,
statistical procedures, or background readings not assigned as part of this class.
Many students find the following method to be very efficient: (1) read the introduction to identify the
key issues and objectives; (2) skim the method section and results; (3) read the discussion section to
identify the key findings and their importance. Writing a brief summary of each article, with key issues
and results in bullet points, can be very useful for the final exam.
Course Structure and Weekly Assignments
Week
Date
Topic
Assignments
I. COURSE INTRODUCTION
1
1/21
Brand Management Trends
Brand Management BLIP Model
Readings: Lodish & Mela 2007;
Aaker 2012
1/23
BRAND AUDIT WORKSHOP:
Lecture: Preparing a Brand Audit
Readings: Brand Audit Briefing;
Brand Audit Reports (Parts I & II)
Briefing: Wilson Business Library
DUE: Audit Team Preferences
II. IDENTIFYING & MEASURING BRANDS
2
3
4
1/28
Defining Brand Identity
Elements of Brand Identity
Text: pp. 4-5
Case Discussion
Case: Van’s
1/30
Brand Image Measures
Text: pp. 24-28
Readings: Zaltman & Coulter 1995;
John et al. 2006; Aaker 1997 (skim)
2/4
BRAND AUDIT WORKSHOP:
Lecture: Brand Image Surveys
Brand Audit Team Meetings
DUE: Draft of Brand Survey
(Hand in end of class)
2/6
Brand Value Measures
Text: pp. 28-32
Readings: Interbrand Best Global Brands
(access at www.interbrand.com)
Branding Insights Discussion
Branding Insights #1:
Analyzing Consumer Brand Data
BRAND AUDIT WORKSHOP:
Team Meetings w/ Prof. John
DUE: Final Data Collection Plans
(1-page summary + Final Survey)
2/11
III. BUILDING BRANDS
2/13
Case Discussion (Q.1 & Q.2)
Case: Security Capital Pacific Trust
Establishing Brand Identity:
Points of Parity & Differentiation
Brand Identity Structure
Text: pp. 4-7
Readings: Keller 2000; Keller et al. 2002
5
6
7
8
2/18
Case Discussion (Q.3 & Q.4)
Case: Security Capital Pacific Trust
2/20
Communicating Brand Identity:
Product, Promotion, Price, Place
Social Media Strategy
Text: pp. 7-11
Readings: Mitchell 2002; Mangold &
Faulds 2009; Fournier & Avery 2011;
Weinberg & Pehlivan 2011
Branding Insights Discussion
(Note: Bring Your Laptop)
Branding Insights #2:
Analyzing Brand Communications
2/25
Case Discussion
Case: BMW Z3 Roadster
2/27
Guest Speaker: TBA
3/4
BRAND AUDIT WORKSHOP:
Team Meetings w/ Prof. John
DUE: 1-Page Report Outline
(Section headings and sub-headings)
3/6
Developing Brand Architecture
Brand Portfolio Considerations
Text: pp. 11-13
Readings: Aaker & Joachimsthaler 2000;
Aaker 2004
Branding Insights Discussion
Branding Insights #3:
Analyzing Brand Architecture
3/11
Case Discussion
Case: Computer Power Group
3/13
Guest Speaker: TBA
DUE: Brand Audit Part I
3/18-3/20 Spring Break
IV. LEVERAGING BRANDS
9
10
3/25
Line Extensions
Brand Extensions
Text: pp.13-24
Readings: Aaker & Keller 1990;
Lane 2000; Volckner & Sattler 2006;
Monga & John 2007
3/27
Case Discussion
Case: McDonald’s Hotels
4/1
Brand Alliances:
Co-Branding
Ingredient Branding
Readings: Rao & Ruekert 1994: Ghosh
& John 2009; Simonin & Ruth 1998;
Votolato & Unnava 2006
Case Discussion
Case: Inside Intel Inside
4/3
BRAND AUDIT WORKSHOP:
Briefing: Brand Audit Part II
Brand Audit Team Meetings
Readings: Brand Audit Briefing
V. PROTECTING BRANDS
11
12
13
14
4/8
Sources of Brand Dilution
Brand Protection Strategies
Text: pp. 32-39
Readings: Loken & John 2010;
Tybout & Roehm 2009
Branding Insights Discussion
Branding Insights #4:
Domino’s in Trouble
4/10
Trademark Law
Guest Speaker: TBA
4/15
Branding Insights Discussion
Branding Insights #5:
Brand Extensions Gone Wild
Brand Extension Dilution
When Does Dilution Occur?
Readings: John, Loken, & Joiner 1998
Swaminathan, Fox, & Reddy 2001;
Milberg, Park, & McCarthy 1997
4/17
Case Discussion
Case: Mountain Man Brewing
4/22
BRAND AUDIT WORKSHOP:
Team Meetings w/Prof. John
DUE: 1-Page Report Outline
4/24
Revitalizing Diluted Brands
Readings: Keller 1999
Case Discussion
Case: Burberry
4/29
BRAND AUDIT WORKSHOP:
Brand Audit Team Meetings
5/1
Protecting Brands in Crisis
Guest Speaker: TBA
VI. BRAND AUDIT INSIGHTS
15
5/6
Brand Audit Presentations
5/8
Brand Audit Presentations
FINAL EXAM Week May 12-17
DUE: Brand Audit Part II
Branding Insights Information
Branding Insight #1: Analyzing Consumer Brand Data
This is an in-class exercise. You do not need to prepare anything in advance.
1. Your group will be given a set of consumer surveys and collages for a brand. The data
contains information about their perceptions of the brand.
2. Your job is to figure out the core brand identity from these data. Your group should come
up with the top 5 brand associations for this brand to share for class discussion.
Branding Insight #2: Analyzing Brand Communications
This is an in-class exercise. You do not need to prepare anything in advance.
1. Each group will be given a brand to research online. For example, you can access the
company’s website, facebook page, and youtube videos.
2. Your job is to identify what the brand is trying to communicate—what is the brand saying
to consumers? And, how clearly do you believe they are communicating?
Branding Insight #3: Analyzing Brand Architecture
This is an in-class exercise. You do not need to prepare anything in advance.
1. Each group will be given a set of marketing materials showing the family of products and
services marketed under different brands.
2. Your job is to identify what type of brand architecture is being used for each brand: Is it a
house of brands, branded house, subbrand, endorsed brand, or a combination? Use the
Aaker & Joachmimstaler (2000) reading as a reference.
Branding Insight #4: Domino’s in Trouble
Read the brief Domino’s case. Be prepared to discuss the following questions.
1. How would you rate the Domino’s video as a brand crisis? What factors suggest that it is
worthy of management attention? Use the Tybout & Roehm (2009) article as a reference.
2. How would you rate Domino’s response to the crisis? What did they do right and what did
they do wrong? Use the Tybout & Roehm (2009) article as reference.
Branding Insight #5: Brand Extensions Gone Wild
Prepare for class discussion:
1. Identify a brand extension that you feel is totally inappropriate or ineffective. Why?
2. Bring a picture or advertisement or the item to class if possible.
3. The class will cast votes for the worst brand extension presented. The winner will be
announced at the next class—and, the winner will receive a gift certificate.
Detailed Course Material Information: Cases and Readings
Cases
The following materials are included in the course packet:
1. Vans: Skating on Air
2. Security Capital Pacific Trust
3. Launching the BMW Z3 Roadster
4. Computer Power Group
5. McDonald’s and the Hotel Industry
6. Inside Intel Inside
7. Domino’s Pizza
8. Mountain Man Brewing Company
9. Burberry
10. PLUS: Harvard Business Review articles
List of Readings:
1. TEXT. Deborah Roedder John, Strategic Brand Management: A Primer for Building and
Managing Brands.
2. Leonard M. Lodish and Carl F. Mela, “If Brands are Built Over Years, Why Are They Managed
Over Quarters?” Harvard Business Review, July-August 2007, pp. 104-112.
3. David A. Aaker, “Win the Brand Relevance Battle and Then Build Competitor Barriers,”
California Management Review, Winter 2012, Vol. 54 (#2), pp. 43-57.
4. Gerald Zaltman and Robin Higie Coulter, “Seeing the Voice of the Customer: Metaphor-Based
Advertising Research,” Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 35, No. 4, 1995, pp. 35-51.
5. Deborah Roedder John, Barbara Loken, Kyeong-Heui Kim, and Alokparna Basu Monga,
“Brand Concept Maps: A Methodology to Identify Brand Association Networks,” Journal of
Marketing Research, Vol. 43, No. 4, November 2006, pp. 549-563.
6. Jennifer Aaker, “Dimensions of Brand Personality,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 34,
No. 8, 1997, pp. 347-356.
7. Interbrand, “Best Global Brands 2013. (Go to www.interbrand.com and access the Top 100
Global Brands report. Skim the listing of the Top 100 Global Brands and read the
methodology description.)
8. Kevin Lane Keller, “The Brand Report Card,” Harvard Business Review, January-February
2000, pp. 147-157.
9. Kevin Lane Keller, Brian Sternthal, and Alice M. Tybout, “Three Questions You Need to Ask
About Your Brand,” Harvard Business Review, September 2002, pp. 80-86.
10. Colin Mitchell, “Selling the Brand Inside,” Harvard Business Review, January 2002, pp. 5-11.
11. W. Glynn Mangold and David J. Faulds, “Social Media: The New Hybrid Element of the
Promotion Mix,” Business Horizons, 2009, vol. 52, pp. 357-365.
12. Susan Fournier and Jill Avery, “The Uninvited Brand,” Business Horizons, 2011, vol. 54, pp.
193-207.
13. Bruce D. Weinberg and Ekin Pehlivan, “Social Spending: Managing the Social Media Mix,”
Business Horizons, 2011, Vol. 54, 275-282.
14. David A. Aaker and Erich Joachimsthaler, “The Brand Relationship Spectrum: The Key to the
Brand Architecture Challenge,” California Management Review, Vol. 42, Summer 2000, 8-22.
15. David A. Aaker, “Leveraging the Corporate Brand,” California Management Review, Vol. 46,
Spring 2004, pp. 6-18.
16. David A. Aaker and Kevin Lane Keller, “Consumer Evaluations of Brand Extensions,” Journal
of Marketing, Vol. 54, No. 1, January 1990, 27-41.
17. F. Volckner and H. Sattler, “Drivers of Brand Extension Success,” Journal of Marketing, Vol.
70, No. 2, 2006, pp. 18-34.
18. Vicki R. Lane, “The Impact of Ad Repetition and Ad Content on Consumer Perceptions of
Incongruent Extensions,” Journal of Marketing, April 2000, pp. 80-91.
19. Alokparna Basu Monga and Deborah Roedder John, “Cultural Differences in Brand Extension
Evaluation: The Influence of Analytic vs. Heuristic Thinking,” in Journal of Consumer
Research, Vol. 33, March 2007, 529-536.
20. Akshay R. Rao and Robert W. Ruekert, “Brand Alliances as Signals of Product Quality,” MIT
Sloan Management Review, Fall 1994, pp. 87-97.
21. Bernard L. Simonin and Julie A. Ruth, “Is a Company Known by the Company it Keeps?
Assessing the Spillover Effects of Brand Alliances on Consumer Brand Attitudes,” Journal of
Marketing Research, Vol. 35, No. 2, February, 1998, pp. 30-42.
22. Nicole Votolato and H. Rao Unnava, “Spillover of Negative Information on Brand Alliances,”
Journal of Consumer Psychology, Vo. 16, 2006, pp. 196-202.
23. Mrinal Ghosh and George John, “When Should Original Equipment Manufacturers Use
Branded Component Contracts with Suppliers,” Journal of Marketing Research, October 2009,
pp. 597-611.
24. Barbara Loken and Deborah Roedder John, “Understanding Sources of Brand Dilution:
Insights from Twenty-Five Years of Research in Marketing,” Working paper, University of
Minnesota, 2010.
25. Alice M. Tybout and Michelle Roehm, “Let the Response Fit the Scandal,” Harvard Business
Review, December 2009.
26. Deborah Roedder John, Barbara Loken, and Christopher Joiner, “The Negative Impact of
Extensions: Can Flagship Products Be Diluted?” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 62, No. 1, January
1998, pp. 19-32.
27. Vanitha Swaminathan, Richard J. Fox, and Srinivas K. Reddy, “The Impact of Brand
Extension Introduction on Choice,” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 65, October 2001, pp. 1-15.
28. Sandra J. Milberg, C. Whan Park, and Michael S. McCarthy, “Managing Negative Feedback
Effects Associated with Brand Extension: The Impact of Alternative Branding Strategies,”
Journal of Consumer Psychology, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1997, pp. 199-140.
29. Kevin Lane Keller, “Managing Brands for the Long Run: Brand Reinforcement and
Revitalization Strategies,” California Management Review, Vol. 41, No. 3, Spring 1999.