Building Strong Brands

Building strong brands is a challenging task. The complexity of branding decisions calls for a systematic approach to brand management—which is the hallmark of this popular program. In a series of structured lectures and interactive case discussions, Kellogg marketing experts will share with you a value-based brand-building framework that will help you build strong brands that create market value.

Brands are one of a company's most valuable assets—for many companies, the brand's value is greater than the value of the tangible assets themselves. In the current era of rapidly commoditizing products and services, brands have become the new frontier of competitive differentiation.

In this fast-paced, collaborative program, Kellogg faculty members—acknowledged thought leaders in branding—discuss cutting-edge theories and their practical application. You'll learn how branding can help you build a solid and enduring business, plus you'll gain new insights into the importance and value of a strongly differentiated brand. You'll come away with knowledge and skills you can apply immediately to leverage your brand for increased customer loyalty, competitive advantage, and profitability.

You'll experience this program through our unique blended learning approach. Combining self-study with on-campus participation, you'll receive compelling video lectures and book chapters in advance to prepare you for in-class discussion. This approach helps facilitate learning by enabling you to study at your own pace prior to visiting the Kellogg campus. Once you arrive on campus, you'll participate in engaging and thoughtful discussions with your faculty and colleagues.

Building Strong Brands Learn the unique role of brands as a marketing tool. It delineates the differences between product and brand management, examines the ways in which brands create market value, and presents the concepts of brand equity and brand power.

Designing the Brand Understand key brand attributes and core principles in designing the brand, including: defining the brand name, designing the brand logo and soundmark, creating the brand motto and character, and crafting the product design and packaging.

Communicating the Brand Explore key principles in developing a successful brand communication campaign, including: brand-building focus, visionary approach, authentic message, impactful design, and ethical implementation.

Crafting the Brand Architecture Unpack the concept of brand architecture and addressed the issues involved in designing and managing brand portfolios and cobranding. Specific topics include: managing brand and product portfolios, defining the brand hierarchy, cobranding as a tool for creating market value, developing a viable cobranding strategy, and managing private label brand architecture.

Managing Brand Dynamics Discover how to best manage brands over time, including: the essence of brand extensions, vertical and horizontal brand extensions, brand repositioning, brand realignment, and brand licensing.

Strategic Brand Management The brand is a marketing tool that managers use to create a meaningful image of the company and its offerings in people’s minds. By doing so, brands create value for customers and influence their market behavior, which in turn creates value for the company. In this session, we will provide an overview of brand management as a core business function and will outline the key principles for building strong brands.

Building Lifestyle Brands Brands are means of self-expression. We will discuss the reasons for the proliferation of lifestyle brands and why many companies are considering repositioning their offerings from focusing on functional benefits to emphasizing self-expressive, identity-relevant positioning. We will also address the key drawbacks of lifestyle branding and discuss scenarios in which lifestyle branding can be beneficial to companies.

Growing the Brand The challenge for brand leaders is finding ways to grow. This involves thinking broadly about potential growth avenues – from new product ideas to brand building initiatives. This session will use a case study about Pedigree dog food to explore the challenge and consider strategic options and trade-offs.

Building Brands in Business Markets Through an interactive case study, discover how the Miele brand successfully tackles challenges in building and managing a global luxury brand in a B2B context.

Defending Your Brand Any strong brand will face competitive threats, and the better your brand the more likely you will have to deal with new entrants. In these sessions, we will review why defense is so important, how to evaluate competitive threats and ways brands can respond. Defensive strategy is a somewhat hidden side of branding; this module will bring it to life.

Building Luxury Brands The focus of this module is to understand how to manage luxury brands. Luxury is about creating a meaningful brand image in people’s minds that will result in, among other things, greater willingness to allocate part of their discretionary income to acquire these brands.

Rejuvenating the Brand Once a brand reaches maturity it often faces an existential challenge: how to continue to grow. In this module, we will discuss alternative strategies for rejuvenating mature brands. The discussion is centered on the Harley-Davidson case and the challenges the CMO faces in attracting younger riders to reverse the decline in its market share.

Branding at the Bottom of the Pyramid In this module, we will discuss the challenges facing companies targeting low-income consumers and will outline strategies for growth in this segment. The discussion is centered on the Beleza Natural case, which highlights the importance of understanding customer needs and role of brands as a means of creating market value while fulfilling the company’s social mission.